Later in the day an express rider made his way through the Boer lines.  The most interesting news he was able to impart was summed up in the Proclamation he carried in his pocket.  It bore reference to the prohibition by the Governor of the sale of arms and ammunition throughout the Cape Colony.  It was feared that the Africanders might buy the goods and throw them across the border; it had been done.  But information in disproof of this was forthcoming when the story reached us that a number of the Cape Dutch had risen in rebellion and needed the weapons for themselves!  Kimberley’s voice at once favoured the extreme penalty—­death for high treason!  Even moderate men, who allowed for racial sympathies, held that neutrality was in the circumstances the proper attitude to assume.  But the local extremist—­and he was the man of the hour—­argued that the object of the rebels was to sweep the English into the sea, and to make Africa the exclusive privilege of the Africander.  In the evening, a terrific explosion was heard; a dynamite magazine had been blown up at Dronfield.  It was stated that some people went up along with it; but that part of the story has yet to be verified.

All this made Wednesday an interesting day, but the gallant Colonel had yet to crown it with his quota.  Having previously omitted to fix a charge for meal and flour, he now brought back to their normal modesty the prices of the two commodities.  The two hardly provided sufficient material for a proclamation, but with some stretching they were made to do so.  It was easy to discover a disparity in the relative quantities of the two foodstuffs in Kimberley; we had a great deal of the one, and comparatively little of the other.  Thus when Kekewich in his wisdom deemed it prudent to take precautions, the populace did not object.  We knew in our wisdom that precautions were superfluous, but we approved, in a general way, the principle of prudence.  The proclamation accordingly ordained that every loaf baked in future should be three parts meal and one part flour.  The bakers were given the recipe gratis, with instructions to sell it (the bread, not the recipe) cheaply, namely, at three pence per loaf.  Theoretically, the new loaf was to prove a palatable change; practically, the wry expression of countenance it evoked in the process of mastication demonstrated the contrary.  The bread was light “khaki” in colour, and only in this respect was it fashionable;—­not too fashionable, because “Boer meal” was its chief ingredient, and racial prejudice was strong.  The sweetness of the old-fashioned white loaf was wanting, and we soon clamoured for its restoration.  But the brazen baker would talk of colour-blindness, and insist that yellow was white.  And when we hit upon the plan of demanding brown bread, the fellow would argue that yellow was brown!  When black was asked for—­well, we did not ask for that.  But there was no option in the matter; the Colonel’s prescription had to be accepted.  The sensible