All England was ablaze with joy. The people of London were literally wild, so rejoiced were they, but when next day they learned that the wily De Wet had departed and taken their two guns with him, and several prisoners, a heavy gloom seemed to settle over that city. I will, for a change, go into the details, to a small extent, to show the difference between the British and the Boer officers. De Wet had his laager among some small kopjes where he put up a dozen or so tents. The English could just see the tops of the tents and knew that the dangerous De Wet was in one of them. They completely surrounded those tents and at daylight the following morning they were to make a determined attack and take not only those tents but all their occupants. General De Wet saw the English and determined they might have the tents, but that they would not get the occupants. When night came, he left his tents standing, made a sly march and passed between the English commands. When daylight came he was in their rear, patiently watching for them to attack his abandoned tents. He was not disappointed, for they opened up all their cannon on those poor, unoffending tents, and kept up a merciless fire for hours before they resolved to go and accept General De Wet's surrender. When the cannon ceased to roar, all the English lines advanced and when they were well away General De Wet made a rear attack on the cannon. The English were at once convinced that General De Wet was in front of them and that some strong Boer commando was in the rear of them, and possibly that terrible man, General George Brand, was in command of them. They became utterly demoralized, hustled to escape and did escape, but De Wet captured two of their guns and rode off, satisfied with losing a few old empty tents. With all their thousands the English were always outwitted by General De Wet who generally enjoyed a signal success. In anticipation, the English people would become overjoyed by the glowing reports of the English generals describing the little pen into which they had driven and confined General De Wet and his men and from which it was impossible for him to escape. But when the following day they learned that General De Wet had not only escaped but taken some prisoners with him, they would sneak home, remain quiet and anxiously await more glowing reports from the English generals. Isn't this a sure sign of degeneracy? Well I think so.