No one will expect from a chaplain a technical and critical account of the complicated military operations he witnessed at the seat of war. For that he has no qualifications. Nor, on the other hand, would it be quite satisfactory if he wrote only of what the chaplains and other Christian workers were themselves privileged to do in connection with the war. That would necessitate great sameness, if not great tameness. These pages are rather intended to set forth the many-sided life of our soldiers on active service, their privations and perils, their failings and their heroisms, their rare endurance, and in some cases their unfeigned piety; that all may see what manner of men they were who in so many instances laid down their lives in the defence of the empire; and amid what stupendous difficulties they endeavoured to do their duty. We owe it to the fact that these men have volunteered in such numbers for military service that Britain alone of all European nations has thus far escaped the curse of the conscription. In that sense, therefore, they are the saviours and substitutes of the entire manhood of our nation. If they had not consented of their own accord to step into the breach, every able Englishman now at his desk, behind his counter, or toiling at his bench, must have run the risk of having had so to do. We owe to these men more than we have ever realised. It is but right, therefore, that more than ever they should henceforth live in an atmosphere of grateful kindliness, of Christian sympathy and effort. "God bless you, Tommy Atkins, _Here's your country's love to you!_" My authorities for the statements made in the introductory chapter are Fitzpatrick's "Pretoria from Within," and Martineau's "Life of Sir Bartle Frere." For the verifying or correcting of my own facts and figures, given later on, I have consulted Conan Doyle's "The Great Boer War," Stott's "The Invasion of Natal," and almost all other available literature relating to the subject. EDWARD P. LOWRY. PRETORIA, _March 1902_. CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER Page THE ULTIMATUM AND WHAT LED TO IT 1 Two Notable Dreamers--A Bankrupt Republic--The Man who Schemed as well as Dreamed--The Gold Plague--Hated Johannesburg --Boer preparations for War--Coming events cast their shadows before--The Ultimatum--The Rallying of the Clans--The Rousing of the Colonies. CHAPTER I ON THE WAY TO BLOEMFONTEIN, AND IN IT! 14 A capital little Capital--Famished Men and Famine Prices-- Republican Commandeering--A Touching Story--The Price of Milk. CHAPTER II A LONG HALT 24