The Kitchen was booming, but the generality of people had in their enthusiasm so far failed to observe that the quality of the soup had sadly deteriorated.  It had been degenerating day by day.  Condiments were no longer available; mealie meal was withheld, and the soup had thus become thinner and less seasoned.  But the trade had been established, and business continued brisk.  There was no competition (unfortunately), and our newspaper kept assuring us with unnecessary gush that horseflesh was excluded from the Kitchen, and that accidents were impossible.  The meat used was strictly orthodox.  The Press dilated speciously on the economy practised under the system and on its general advantageousness.  Universal confidence was reposed in the Soup Directorate.

But, alas and alack! one fatal day an evil-minded fellow got a lump of something solid in his jug, and instead of holding his peace he held a post-mortem examination and essayed to prove by some Darwinian process of reasoning that the opaque thing was more apish than orthodox!  Prior to the date of this inquest, however, people had grown so habituated to the soup that they could not give it up if they would.  They went on dutifully consuming it—­just as everybody still does his beer, the recent poisoning revelations notwithstanding.  They ate all they could get of it; it was in truth an indispensable necessity.  The Kitchen was a blessing—­in disguise, the wits said—­and the most aesthetic, though not without misgivings, in the end gave the broth the benefit of the doubt.  Only a small band of martyrs elected to bleed at the shrine of principle; they declined to stultify their stomachs with “horse soup.”  This was a reckless assumption, indicative of a shocking disbelief in human nature; an inexpedient conclusion.  They were all honourable men on the Kitchen Committee.  What! all? the reader may exclaim.  Well, all but one, perhaps—­who told an interviewer in London that “horseflesh made excellent soup!” But that was long afterwards; and, moreover, proved nothing.  The gentleman in question no doubt acted discreetly, before unbosoming himself, in placing six thousand miles of sea between him and the Kitchen.  For that matter greater iniquities than his have been condoned to give prejudice a fall.

The Italian and American Consuls had protested on behalf of their respective governments against the recent indiscriminate assault upon non-combatants.  We were pleased to hope that the protests were not unavailing.  They were in conformity with the spirit, if not with the letter, of International Law; and it was stated that the Boers desired to stand well with any and every nation that might possibly make real their Utopian dream of European intervention.  Of course, they were doing well alone; it is conceivable that they now felt less the need of extraneous assistance.  Their energy and enterprise betokened self-reliance; the will with which they used their picks and shovels