[Illustration:  REV.  A.V.C.  HORDERN.

(From a photograph by Knight, Newport, I.W.)]

The Presbyterians had one chaplain, viz., the Rev. Thomas Murray, of the
Free Church of Scotland, and one acting chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Thompson.

The Wesleyan Methodists had one acting chaplain, the Rev. Owen Spencer Watkins, who had but a short time before returned from the Soudan, where he had accompanied the troops to Omdurman.  There were also in the town the Rev. S. Barrett Cawood, the local Wesleyan missionary, and the Rev. S.H.  Hardy, of Johannesburg, who happened to be on a visit to the town, and who, though without official position, rendered yeoman service throughout the siege.

In addition to these chaplains there were two or three Army Scripture
Readers.

=Every Man Hit except the Chaplain.=

Most of these chaplains had already received their baptism of fire.  At Reitfontein Messrs. Macpherson and Hordern had found themselves in a particularly warm corner.  Some fifteen men of the Gloucesters, with an officer, were in a donga which provided hardly any cover, and the two chaplains going out to the Field Hospital had perforce to share with their comrades the dangers of the terrible position.  The Boers were firing at them with awful precision, and when the Liverpools—­all unconscious that a handful of English were seeking cover in the donga—­commenced to fire at the Boers, it made retreat for the dauntless fifteen impossible.  They had unwillingly to remain where they were until the Boers were put out of action by the Liverpools.  When at last the firing ceased, it was found that nearly every man of that unlucky fifteen was hit, with the exception of the chaplains, who came out unscathed.

This was an experience that perhaps would have been enough for most men, but chaplains, like private soldiers, have to get used to bullets flying around them.  It is no use preaching religion to the men, if the chaplain is not able to show by his own coolness in the hour of danger that he is fit for something else than preaching, that he is ready to share the men’s dangers and privations, and that he too can set an example of courage.

Mr. Watkins had received his baptism of fire in the Soudan, and, like the rest, did not fear the sharp ping, followed by the dull thud, of the Mauser, or the deeper swish of the Martini.  No one got used to shells.  They ever continued a terror, and when the whistle sounded, giving warning that the wisp of smoke had been seen coming from one of the Boer Long Toms, and intimating that in some twenty-eight seconds the dreaded shell would burst above them, it was astonishing how fast and how far even the oldest and the stoutest could travel in search of cover.

=Personal Dangers Met by Chaplains on Duty in the Field.=