Besides the prophets of evil there was a set of cynics who sneered at all things, the incapacity of the Town Guard, its Officers, etc.  For a long time the favourite boast of these gentlemen was that they had refused commissions in the Town Guard.  It was true; and it is worth recalling why.  At the beginning of the Siege little coteries were formed, “rings” were established, private meetings held—­at which gatherings it was settled who was to be Captain of this Section, who Lieutenant of that, and so forth.  All these matters were amicably fixed up, to the satisfaction of all concerned—­including the vintner.  It was assumed that the scale of pay would, as in the Regular Army, be in accordance with rank.  The consideration was of course a minor one; but still the disgust of the coteries was profound when it was announced that the Imperial allowances to Town Guards were to be uniform; that a Captain was to receive for his services no more and no less than a Private.  It was a disconcerting sequel to some skilful wire-pulling, and the martial ardour of the wire-pullers dropped in a trice to zero.  Their dignity demanded their resignations, and their dignity’s ruling was bowed to.  These injured people would not be led into action by a raw volunteer; and they confided to every ear that would hear that the citizen soldiers could be trusted in a crisis—­to shoot each other!  But imagine the discomfiture of these veterans when at a later stage an army order, retrospective in its operation, was issued which cancelled the original monetary conditions of service for Officers and non-commissioned Officers, and increased the rates of pay to which their respective ranks entitled them.  This order was only less effective than a bombshell in crushing a dignity already injured; and the gusto with which the Colonel and the Civil Commissioner were relegated to Connaught was excusable.

A good deal of rumbling was heard on Friday; it might have been thunder, or perchance artillery.  Some said it was nature; others that it was guns’ work.  But nobody seemed to think that it mattered a great deal.  We had grown tired of noise, nothing but noise.  The whistle of the armoured train, which kept patrolling the line (the bit that was left of it) was more interesting, sometimes an innocent soul would allow his fancy to beguile him into hoping that the whistle portended the approach of a Cape Town train, with food and mail-bags, and he would march off to the station on desperate speculation to meet it.

In pursuance of an idea which had long occupied his thoughts the Colonel despatched a mounted force to cross the border into Free State territory—­at which we could look across with the naked eye.  What good purpose the visit was to serve was not obvious; but it was attributed to a desire on the Colonel’s part to win the distinction of being the first to invade the enemy’s territory.  At any rate, the distinction was won.  The men