And the How Winston Churchill spent three of the handful of days that he was on the run from

the Boers after his escape would be a minor form of hell for most people.

There is no doubt about it.

As we all know, Churchill had previously been wandering the Veld

after his initial escape from prison,

trying to figure out how to get to Portuguese East Africa.

Now, he was completely alone, kind of, 200 feet below the surface of the belt and it was pitch black at least for the first

of those three days for after that first day down in the bowels of the earth, as Churchill described it himself,

he learned very quickly how important it was to light the candle that he was given down there.

And what taught him this very valuable lesson of lighting his candle?

Well, it's that creature that even Indiana Jones himself couldn't stomach.

Churchill, while he was hiding in this pitch-black maze, 200 feet below the veld, in the

boughs of the earth, as we said.

He was surrounded at all times by rats.

And not just your typical gray rat that you're picturing right now in your head, but albino rats, all white with red eyes.

How many there were down there, he couldn't tell, but he would later find out that they were in fact everywhere.

Author Candice Millard says that there were quote, swarms of them, end quote.

The first night the Churchill was down there before he knew about the rats.

In the twilight of his sleep, he could feel little tugs on his pillow as he lay there.

He was then fully awakened by the feeling of something jumping on him and then

crawling across his body. Again, what that something was he didn't yet know. He tried to light the candle at that point, but it was gone.

He found out later that the rats had eaten it while he was asleep, alongside all the food that he had with him.

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