Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-13
A BoER HEROINE.
General De La Keys Wife "in the
 Field" for Eiphteen Months.

General De La Keys Wife ''in the
 Field" for Eighteen Months.
 The party of Boers who have come to England with the generals include many who have had exciting experi- ences during the war;. In talking to them you realize that it has been quite as much a woman's war as a mans on the side of the Boers. Per haps, indeed, the most permanent fact that will survive in history will be the part that has been played by the wom- en. Take the case of Mrs De La Key. She has been actually in the field' for eighteen months. She does not look like it. She just looks a kindly mid dle-aged mother of a family who has lived quiet all of her life
 It all arose in this way. Tn the course of a guerilla" war General De La Key would occasionally come and visit his wife in a manner that per- plexed and annoyed General Methuen perhaps more than anything else hap pen1ng in the war. It certainly must have been annoying, but perhaps the best plan would have been to have grinned and bore it. Unhappily, this was not the rule of the British gen. eral when he found himself crossed by Boer women. It was intimated to Mrs De La Roy that she must pledge her. self not to. give lodgings to her hus- band. Now, Mrs De La Roy. is, plucky woman and a devoted wife She refused. "As long as I live," she replied, T shall give lodging to my husband when he comes to ,e.'' every well. then" Lord Methuen intimated,
 you must go into camp. But Mrs De La Key refused to go into camp
 Give me wagon" she said, "and Will go and shift for myself. So they gave her Q wagon, and they asked her where she was going. Unto the wide world" she said. and she went.
 That was at the end of the year 1900 and from that time until the end of the war Mrs De La Key wandered about the veldt, now sleeping in one place, now in another, always on the eve of being captured, sometimes escaping by the barest interval of time from the pursuing columns. She carried her children with her in her wagon, and cooking utensils sufficient to live a tol- erable life. The plucky lady occasion ally found house where she could spend a night or two; but for the most part she was perpetually on the move, and perpetually keeping her weather eye open for the pursuing columns. Every now and then General De La Key would visit her, and on one occa- sfon he came to her sick and she nursed him. But while he was lying sick In the rarm house the columns came upon them. General De La Key leaped out of bed, and, with the help of a small command of men with him, fought off the attack and succeeded in escaping. On another occasion Mrs De La Rev proved more clever than her husband. He was proposing to rest at night in a farm house, but she did not like the look of 1t. Her military eye seemed to see danger So she persuaded her hus- band to move. It was fortunste that she did, for the enemy came to that farm house, immediately when they had left. Mrs De La Key was wander ing In this manner when she heard that her husband had captured Lord Methuen. At first she would not be- lieve it, but when she found it was true | she made her way, to her husbands laager. She said she wanted to see Lord Methuen and have talk with him. Lord Methuen consented to see her, and was obliged to tell her that he had destroyed her house. Mrs De La Key must have got some Christian consolation after presenting him with the fowl and helping to nurse him.
 Then came the question what De La Key should do with his prisoner The young Boers were all against giving 1 him up because he had treated Mrs De La Rev in a manner they did not approve of. But General De La Key and his wife took larger view. | What can~we do with him?' they ask ed. eff he goes with us he will prob ably die in one of our treks, and then his blood will be put to our charge. Better be generous and hand him back. The general had some difficult ty with his men, but at last persuaded | them. And so General and Mrs De La Key performed an act of high gener- osity which has probably the strong est influence in bringing the war to an end. But 1t seems to us that the gen. erosity of Mrs De La Key was even greater than that of the general. Ger l tainly in her eighteen months cam paign she showed quite as much strat- egy as any of the Boer generals in es- caping. What pity it is-that this tale of woman's heroism cannot be fully told, and that we cannot place 1t in history as pendant to the wander iuGs of DeWet.-The London Daily