I knew nothing of the white flag, and
the bullets had made me savage. I reached down for my Mauser
pistol. I had left it in the cab of the engine. Between me and the
horseman there was a wire fence. Should I continue to fly? The
idea of another shot at such a short range decided me. Death stood
before me, grim and sullen; Death without his light-hearted
companion, Chance. So I held up my hand, and like Mr. Jorrock's
foxes, cried 'Capivy!' Then I was herded with the other prisoners in
a miserable group, and about the same time I noticed that my hand
was bleeding, and it began to pour with rain.
"Two days before I had written to an officer at home: 'There has
been a great deal too much surrendering in this war, and I hope
people who do so will not be encouraged.'"
With other officers, Churchill was imprisoned in the State Model
Schools, situated in the heart of Pretoria. It was distinctly
characteristic that on the very day of his arrival he began to plan to
escape.
Toward this end his first step was to lose his campaign hat, which
he recognized was too obviously the hat of an English officer. The
burgher to whom he gave money to purchase him another
innocently brought him a Boer sombrero.
Before his chance to escape came a month elapsed, and the
opportunity that then offered was less an opportunity to escape
than to get himself shot.
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