He had evidently never liked the service into which he had been decoyed by the press-gang, and had probably been somewhat of a _mauvais sujet_, for he told me the authorities were glad enough to give him his discharge when the regiment returned to England.

He had married and settled in the Transvaal, making a moderate fortune, only to be ruined by a lawsuit being given against him, entirely, he naively admitted, because the Judge was a friend of the other side.

In spite of this he remained a most warm partisan of the corrupt Boer Government, and at sixty-seven he had gladly turned out to fight the country whose uniform he had once worn.

Whenever I found we were approaching dangerous ground, I used quickly to change the conversation, which perhaps was wise, as I was but one in a mighty host.
FOOTNOTES: [32] Two thousand Englishmen dead.
[33] Not to be confounded with General Louis Botha..