The feelings described by Sir Owen were openly echoed by all sensible men who knew anything of the country: they were certain that it was not within the power of Boer comprehension to understand "magnanimity" in an opponent. To the Boer, as to many an Englishman, this long-sounding word seemed more neatly to be interpreted by the more ugly but concise term "funk." Sir Bartle Frere, writing of Sir George Colley in a letter to a friend, expressed his opinion roundly:-- "_March 31, 1881._ "Let no one ever say that England lost prestige through Sir George Colley. I do not like the word so much as 'character' or 'conduct' which create it. But no country ever lost real prestige through defeat. Nelson, wounded and repulsed at Teneriffe; Grenvil, overpowered and dying on the deck of the _Revenge_, did as much for England's prestige as Marlborough at Blenheim or Wellington at Waterloo. Sir George Colley miscalculated his own and his enemy's strength, but he had nothing to do with disgraceful surrender, and I am sure had rather be where he now rests than sign a disgraceful peace, which is the only thing that can injure England's prestige." Mr. R. W. Murray, of the _Cape Times_, writing to Sir Bartle Frere, thought bitterly indeed. "Ask your English statesmen," he wrote, "if, in the history of the world, there was ever such a cruel desertion of a dependency by the parent State. How can England hope for loyalty from South Africans? The moral of the Gladstone lesson is, that you may be anything in South Africa but loyal Englishmen." These letters, taken haphazard from volumes of correspondence on the melancholy event of the time, serve better than the words of an outsider to show the terrible position in which the "magnanimity" of the British Ministers had placed their countrymen. One more extract and we must pass on. [Illustration: COLOUR-SERGEANT and PRIVATE, THE SCOTS GUARDS. Photo by Gregory & Co. London.] Colonel Lanyon, writing again to Sir Bartle Frere, said:-- "_April 26, 1881._ "The Boers are practically dictators, and have been ruling the country in a manner which is simply humiliating to Englishmen. Active persecution is going on everywhere, and consequently all that can are leaving the country. Thirty families have left Pretoria alone; B---- and M---- have left, having been frequently threatened because of their having been members of the Executive, and those two poor fellows J---- and H---- are completely ostracised for the same reason. They are both ruined men, practically speaking, and all because they trusted to England's assurances and good faith....