Paul Sanford, Lord Methuen, was born in 1845, and entered the Scots Guards in 1864. He was sent on special service to the Gold Coast in 1873, and in the following year became Brigade-Major at Ashanti and for the Home District. Two years later he was appointed Assistant Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland. From 1877 to 1881 he was Military Attaché to the British Embassy at Berlin. He commanded Methuen's Horse and the Field Force during the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884-5, and was Deputy-Adjutant-General in South Africa in 1888. From 1892 to 1897 he commanded the Home District, and at the beginning of the war with the Transvaal he was given the command of the First Division of the Army Corps. He arrived in Capetown to take over this command on November 10, 1899.] [Sidenote: The dead and wounded left.] [Sidenote: [DEC. 10, 1899.] It has been said that British soldiers are better at an advance than a retreat. In retreat the very best troops, especially if galled by artillery to which they can make no reply, are apt to break and run. But the soldiers of the Northumberland Fusiliers and Royal Irish Rifles in this hour displayed a steadiness above all praise--a stubbornness and endurance which proved their splendid quality, and showed them equal to any work when well led. They ground their teeth, indeed, as they saw the dead and wounded left behind unaided and untended. They flung themselves down when the great 40-pounder shells came hissing amongst them, and then, when the explosion had come and gone, leapt up to shake their fists at the Boers. But they did not quicken their pace. The officers set a splendid example. General Gatacre was in the most exposed position: wherever the enemy's fire was hottest there he was certain to be found. The company officers appealed to the men and helped them in their weary progress. The men in turn aided those of the wounded who could walk. Lieutenant Stevens of the Irish Rifles, shot through both lungs, was carried by four gallant privates, who forgot their own fears and their own weariness in their soldier-like devotion. He himself made light of his terrible wound, and laughed at the odd pertinacity of a black policeman, who had used the opportunity of the action to lay hands upon certain stampeded Boer horses, thus turning even battle and defeat to personal profit. [Illustration: THE RETURN FROM STORMBERG: LIEUTENANT STEVENS CARRIED BY FOUR PRIVATES.] [Sidenote: Narrow escape of the armoured train.]