Towards sunset Vellum appeared with a note from Sergeant Matthews.  It ran as follows: 

“The armoured train captured; its fifteen occupants all killed.[25] Boers opened fire on the train with field artillery.”

In our isolation these words sank into our souls like lead, and were intensified by the fact that we had that very morning been so near the scene of the tragedy—­“reverse” I would not allow it to be called, for fifteen men had tried conclusions with 400 Boers, and had been merely hopelessly outnumbered.  The latter had, however, scored an initial success, and the intelligence cast a gloom, even where all was blackest night.  Vellum brought a few more verbal details, to the effect that Sergeant Matthews had actually succeeded in stopping the armoured train after pursuing it on horseback for some way, expecting every moment to be taken for a Boer and fired on.  He asked to speak to the officer in charge, and a young man put his head over the truck.  Matthews then told him that several hundred Boers were awaiting the train, strongly entrenched, and that the metals were up for about three-quarters of a mile.  “Is that all?” was the answer; then, turning to the engine-driver, “Go straight ahead.”  Here was a conspicuous instance of English foolhardy pluck.

The evening was a lovely one.  I took a walk along the road by which we had come in the morning, and was soothed by the peaceful serenity of the surrounding country.

It seemed to be impossible that men were killing each other only a few short miles away.  The herd of cattle we had passed came into view, and caught sight of the water in the dam.  It was curious to see the whole herd, some five or six hundred beasts, break into a clumsy canter, and, with a bellowing noise, dash helter-skelter to the water—­big oxen with huge branching horns, meek-eyed cows, young bullocks, and tiny calves, all joining in the rush for a welcome drink after a long hot day on the veldt.

The last news that came in that evening was that all the wires were cut north and south of Mafeking, and the telegraphists fled, as their lives had been threatened.

FOOTNOTES: 

[15] Captain Gordon Wilson, Royal Horse Guards, now Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, M.V.O.

[16] Now Major-General Sir Herbert Plumer, K.C.B.

[17] Now Marquis of Winchester.

[18] Now Marchioness of Ripon.

[19] Now Lady de Bathe.

[20] Died in Africa, 1909.

[21] Now Sir Hamilton Gould Adams, Governor of the Orange River Colony.

[22] Dutch for a peculiar kind of cheap brandy very popular with the Boers.

[23] This return was given me by Major Gould Adams.

[24] African wild-turkeys.

[25] This was incorrect.  The officer in charge and two others were severely wounded, the driver and stoker killed by the explosion of the boiler.