The answer was of course a curt refusal.
To this he replied that if we were so inhuman as to prevent him from burying his dead there was nothing for him save surrender.

An answer was given that a messenger with power to treat should be sent out, but in the interval Cronje had changed his mind, and disappeared with a snarl of contempt into his burrows.

It had become known that women and children were in the laager, and a message was sent offering them a place of safety, but even to this a refusal was given.

The reasons for this last decision are inconceivable.
Lord Roberts's dispositions were simple, efficacious, and above all bloodless.

Smith-Dorrien's brigade, who were winning in the Western army something of the reputation which Hart's Irishmen had won in Natal, were placed astride of the river to the west, with orders to push gradually up, as occasion served, using trenches for their approach.