[9] Captain the Hon. Raymond Harvey Lodge Joseph de Montmorency, 21st Empress of India's Lancers, and commanding De Montmorency's Scouts in South Africa, was the eldest son of Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency, K.C.B. He was born on February 5, 1867, joined the army on September 14, 1887, as second lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Regiment, and was promoted to a lieutenancy in the 21st Lancers, November 6, 1889. In this rank he served in the campaign in the Soudan in 1898, and was present at the battle of Khartoum, and was awarded the Victoria Cross for the following service:--"At the battle of Khartoum on September 2, 1898, Lieutenant de Montmorency, after the charge of the 21st Lancers, returned to assist Second Lieutenant R. G. Grenfell, who was lying surrounded by a large body of Dervishes. Lieutenant de Montmorency drove the Dervishes off, and finding Lieutenant Grenfell dead, put the body on his horse, which then broke away. Captain Kenna and Corporal Swarbrich then came to his assistance, and enabled him to rejoin the regiment, which had begun to open a heavy fire on the enemy." Lieutenant de Montmorency, in addition to being mentioned in despatches and receiving the V.C., had also the British medal and Khedive's medal with clasp. He was promoted to captain August 2, 1899, having in the previous October been despatched on special service to South Africa, when he raised and commanded the special body of scouts whose gallant services have under him been so frequently referred to in connection with the operations in the neighbourhood of Stormberg and Dordrecht. [10] Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant F. H. Hoskier was a well-known Volunteer officer, who had brought the force which he commanded to a high state of military efficiency. He held a certificate for proficiency in several subjects, and had obtained special mention in examinations in tactics, besides having qualified as an interpreter. CHAPTER VII BLOEMFONTEIN UNDER BRITISH RULE The pastoral little town of brick and tin in the vast expanse of toasted grass had now become a centre of civilisation, one may almost say a fashionable rendezvous. There regiments multitudinous were congregated, and these helped to convert the sleepy, dozing capital into a miniature sphere of many dialects born of a common tongue. Human beings, the conquered and the conquerors, brushed shoulders in friendliness, bought and sold, listened to the bands playing the well-worn British airs in the market-place, and discoursed, under the ægis of the Union Jack, which fluttered from pinnacle and spire, of trade and prospects as though such things as big guns had never acted in place of handshakes, and such men as Steyn had never staked their all on the possibilities of a mirage.