to be playfully satirical in a way which is suggestive of the intellectual nimbleness of a humorous elephant.  Their inquiries after Sir Redvers Buller have already been mentioned.  As to the ostentatious friendliness of our enemies for British soldiers, with whom a temporary truce brings them in contact, some amusing stories are told.  One day a field officer of Hussars was in command of cavalry on outpost, when a Boer travelling-cart, flying the white flag, came rapidly up to the examining picket, and its only occupant made a cool request that he should be allowed to enter our camp, in virtue of the Red Cross badge on his arm, as he wanted an ambulance sent out for some of our wounded, who had fallen into the enemy’s hands.  The Boer emissary was detained at the outposts until his message could be sent to headquarters and an answer brought back.  “As I must wait here an hour,” said he blandly, “won’t you dismount and take a seat beside me under the shade of the awning?” Military regulations having made no provision for a refusal in such cases, the Englishman accepted, and the two were presently carrying on an animated conversation about many subjects not connected with the siege of Ladysmith.  Now, the major has a remarkably youthful appearance, and when he chooses to assume the devil-may-care manner of a light-hearted subaltern, it fits him easily.  Moreover, his shoulder-chains bore no distinctive badge of rank.  There was nothing, in fact, to show that he was anything more than a cavalry lieutenant, whom no sense of responsibility oppressed.  So the Boer felt his way quickly to subjects in which one who serves under the Geneva Convention has no right to be interested.  Answers were given glibly enough, and at the end of that hour, with profuse assurances of amicable consideration, he departed, probably laying the flattering unction to his soul that much valuable information had been unconsciously imparted to him.  He did not know that the free-and-easy young cavalry soldier who talked with such apparent frankness had learned a staff officer’s duties as aide-decamp to one of our most astutely cautious Generals.  This is the story as it was told to me at second hand, and if only well invented it is too good to be lost.

Still better is Major King’s own narrative, of the adventures that befell him when, as the bearer of a flag of truce without credentials, he found himself practically a prisoner among the Boers.  He had gone out to the Boer outposts to make inquiries about another staff affair—­the bearer of a flag of truce whose prolonged absence was causing some uneasiness, as the message taken by him to General Schalk-Burger did not demand any answer.  Major King had no intention of going inside the Boer lines, and therefore took with him no letter or written authority for his mission, but simply rode towards the enemy’s piquets unarmed and carrying a white flag, to show that for once he was not playing the part of a combatant, though wearing a staff officer’s undress uniform.