Chapter I: Preface

The proprietors of the _Manchester Guardian_ have kindly allowed me to make use of their copyright in the letters written by me to that newspaper during the first half of the year. The substance of the letters has been reproduced in the hope that home-staying folk may find in them something of the atmosphere that surrounds the collision of armed forces. It is a strange and rude atmosphere; yet it pleases me at this moment to remember not so much the strangeness and rudeness as the kindness and good-fellowship that made a dreadful business tolerable and the memory of it pleasant. Many friends of these brave days I may not see again, but if their eyes should ever light on this page I would have them know that it contains a greeting.

FILSON YOUNG

LONDON, _July 31st, 1900_

CONTENTS

PART I.

ENGLAND IN TIME OF WAR
PAGE

I. How the Reserves came up 3

II. How the Army left England 12

III. How the Wounded came Home 40

PART II.

IN THE WAKE OF THE ARMY

IV. The Long Sea Road 51

V. Scenes at Cape Town 61

VI. In the Eddies of a Great Whirl 72

VII. Magersfontein and Kimberley 85

VIII. Paardeberg 97

PART III.

LORD ROBERTS'S ADVANCE TO BLOEMFONTEIN

IX. The Boer Panic at Osfontein 105

X. The March on Dreifontein 115

XI. The Battle of Dreifontein and the March on Bloemfontein 123

XII. Retracing the Steps of the Army 132

PART IV.

AN EXPEDITION WITH LORD METHUEN

XIII. In the Field again 147

XIV. The Capture of Boers at Tweefontein 156

XV. An Elusive Enemy 164

XVI. A Surprise on the March 179

XVII. Under the Red Cross Flag 188