I don't know what other answer Joubert could have given.

It was a mistake to ask the favour at all.

But the General advised the town to accept the proposal.

At a strange and unorganised public meeting on the steps of the Ionic Public Hall, now a hospital, the people indignantly rejected the terms.

Leave our women and children at Intombi's Spruit--the bushy spot fixed upon, five miles away--with Boers creeping round them, perhaps using them as a screen for attack! Britons never, never will! The Mayor hesitated, the Archdeacon was eloquent, the Scotch proved the metaphysical impossibility of the scheme.