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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ladysmith, by H. W. Nevinson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ladysmith
+       The Diary of a Siege
+
+Author: H. W. Nevinson
+
+Release Date: August 27, 2005 [EBook #16603]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LADYSMITH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Taavi Kalju and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: H.W. NEVINSON]
+
+
+LADYSMITH
+
+THE DIARY OF A SIEGE
+
+
+BY
+
+
+H.W. NEVINSON
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE THIRTY DAYS' WAR"
+
+
+METHUEN & CO.
+36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
+LONDON
+1900
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ CHAPTER                                   PAGE
+
+    I.  ON THE EDGE                           1
+
+   II.  AT THE BRITISH FRONT                  9
+
+  III.  THE FIRST WEEK'S WAR                 20
+
+   IV.  BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE              30
+
+    V.  BATTLE OF TINTA INYONI               41
+
+   VI.  THE REVERSE AT NICHOLSON'S NEK       51
+
+  VII.  HEMMED IN                            61
+
+ VIII.  TRAGEDY AND COMEDY                   72
+
+   IX.  INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND REALITIES  83
+
+    X.  ENNUI ENLIVENED BY SUDDEN DEATH     100
+
+   XI.  FLASHES FROM BULLER                 129
+
+  XII.  THE NIGHT SURPRISE ON GUN HILL      138
+
+ XIII.  THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL        156
+
+  XIV.  THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL    176
+
+   XV.  SICKNESS, DEATH, AND A NEW YEAR     194
+
+  XVI.  THE GREAT ATTACK                    211
+
+ XVII.  A PAUSE AND A RENEWAL               231
+
+XVIII.  "WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE"        250
+
+  XIX.  HOPE DEFERRED                       265
+
+   XX.  SUN AND FEVER                       279
+
+  XXI.  RELIEVED AT LAST                    291
+
+        APPENDIX                            299
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR                                 _Frontispiece_
+
+MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD                                 12
+
+GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B., G.C.S.I. 18
+
+PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE                                32
+
+LOMBARD'S KOP                                                      56
+
+IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS                                      77
+
+THE DRIFT AND WATERING-PLACE                                       80
+
+BULWAN                                                            105
+
+HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL                               127
+
+BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL                                        148
+
+A PICTURESQUE RUIN                                                183
+
+HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL                                  186
+
+EFFECT OF 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE                          201
+
+SPECIMEN OF BOER SHELLS                                           252
+
+INDIAN BAKERY                                                     268
+
+GENERAL RT. HON. SIR R.H. BULLER, V.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.B.
+  (_photograph by KNIGHT, Aldershot_)                             291
+
+SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH AND WEST OF LADYSMITH                306
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+This book has been reprinted, by kind permission of the Proprietors of
+the _Daily Chronicle_, from the full text of the Letters sent to the
+paper.
+
+
+
+
+LADYSMITH
+
+THE DIARY OF A SIEGE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ON THE EDGE
+
+
+     NEWCASTLE, NATAL, _Thursday, October 5, 1899_.
+
+Late last Sunday night I found myself slowly crawling towards the front
+from Pretoria in a commandeered train crammed full of armed Boers and
+their horses. I had rushed from the Cape to quiet little Bloemfontein,
+the centre of one of the best administered States in the world, where
+the heads of the nation in the intervals of discussing war proudly
+showed me their pianos, their little gardens, little libraries of
+English books, little museums of African beasts and Greek coins, and all
+their other evidences of advancing culture. Then on to Pretoria, the
+same kind of a town on a larger and richer scale--trim bungalow houses,
+for the most part, spread out among gardens full of roses, honeysuckle,
+and syringa. But at the station all day and night the scene was not
+idyllic. Every hour train after train moved away--stores and firewood in
+front, horses next, and luggage vans for the men behind. The partings
+from lovers and wives and children must be imagined. They are bad enough
+to witness when our own soldiers go to the front. But these men are not
+soldiers at all. Each of them came direct from his home in the town or
+on some isolated farm. They rode up, dressed just in their ordinary
+clothes, but for the slung Mauser and the full cartridge belt over the
+shoulder or round the waist. Except for a few gunners, there is no
+uniform in the Boer Army. Even the officers can hardly be distinguished
+from ordinary farmers. The only thing that could be called uniform is
+the broad-brimmed soft hat of grey or brown. But all Boers wear it. It
+is generally very stained and dirty, and invariably a rusty crape band
+is wound about the crown. For the Boer, like the English poorer classes,
+has large quantities of relations, and one of them is always dying.
+
+By the courtesy of the Pretorian Government I had secured room in the
+guard's van for myself and a companion, who was equally anxious to
+cross the Natal frontier before the firing began, and that was expected
+at any moment. In the van with us were a score of farmers from
+Middleburg way, their contingent occupying four trains with about 800
+men and horses. For the most part they were fine tall men with shaggy
+light beards, reminding one of Yorkshire farmers, but rougher and not so
+well dressed. Most of them could speak some English, and many had Scotch
+or English relatives. They lay on the floor or sat on the edge of the
+van, talking quietly and smoking enormous pipes. All deeply regretted
+the war, regretted the farm left behind just when spring and rain are
+coming, and they were full of foreboding for the women and children left
+at the mercy of Kaffirs. There was no excitement or shouting or bravado
+of any kind. So we travelled into the night, the monotony only broken by
+one violent collision which shook us all flat on the floor, while arms
+and stores fell crashing upon us. In the silent pause which followed,
+whilst we wondered if we were dead, I could hear the Kaffirs chattering
+in their mud huts close by, and in the distance a cornet was playing
+"Home, Sweet Home," with variations.
+
+It must have been the next evening, as we were waiting three or four
+hours, as usual, for the line to clear, that General Joubert came up in
+a special train. A few young men and boys in ordinary clothes formed his
+"staff." The General himself wore the usual brown slouch hat with crape
+band, and a blue frock coat, not luxuriously new. His beard was quite
+white, but his long straight hair was still more black than grey. The
+brown sallow face was deeply wrinkled and marked, but the dark brown
+eyes were still bright, and looked out upon the world with a kind of
+simplicity mingled with shrewdness, or perhaps some subtler quality. He
+spoke English with a piquant lack of grammar and misuse of words. When I
+travelled with him next day, almost the first thing he said to me was,
+"The heart of my soul is bloody with sorrow." His moderating influence
+on the Kruger Government is well known, and he described to me how he
+had done his utmost for peace. But he also described how bit by bit
+England had pushed the Boers out of their inheritance, and taken
+advantage of them in every conference and native war. He was
+particularly hurt that the Queen had taken no notice of the long letter
+or pamphlet he wrote to her on the situation. And, by the way, I often
+observed what regard most Boers appear to feel for the Queen personally.
+They constantly couple her name with Gladstone's when they wish to say
+anything nice about English politics. As to the General's views on the
+crisis, there would be little new to say. Till the present war his hope
+had been for a South African Confederacy under English protection--the
+Cape, Natal, Free State, and Transvaal all having equal rights and local
+self-government. He knows well enough the inner causes of the present
+evils. "But now," he said, "we can only leave it to God. If it is His
+will that the Transvaal perish, we can only do our best."
+
+At Zandspruit, the scene of the old Sand River Convention, the whole
+Boer camp crowded to the station to greet the national hero, and he was
+at once surrounded by a herd of farmers, shaking his hands and patting
+him warmly on the back. It was a respectful but democratic greeting. The
+Boer Army--if for a moment we may give that name to an unorganised
+collection of volunteers--is entirely democratic. The men are nominally
+under field cornets, commanders, and the General. But they openly boast
+that on the field the authority and direction of officers do not count
+for much, and they go pretty much as they please. The camp, though not
+in the least disorderly, was confused and irregular--stores, firewood,
+horses, cattle, and tents strewn about the enormous veldt, almost
+haphazard, though the districts were kept fairly well separate.
+Provisions were plenty, but the cooking was bad. It took three days to
+get bread made, and some detachments had to eat their meat raw. I think
+there were not more than 10,000 or less than 7,000 men in the camp at
+that time, but the commandeered trains crawled up every two or three
+hours with their new loads.
+
+By a piece of good fortune we succeeded in crossing the frontier in an
+open coal-truck. The border-line runs about six miles north of Majuba
+and Laing's Nek, the last Boer village being Volksrust, and Charlestown
+the first English. The scenery changes rapidly; the high, bare veldt of
+the Southern Transvaal is at once left behind, and we enter the broad
+valley of Natal, sloping steadily down to the sea and becoming richer
+and more tropical as it descends. All regular traffic had stopped three
+days before, but now and then a refugee train came up to the frontier
+and transhipped its miserable crowd. Fugitives of every nation have been
+hurrying to the railway in hopes of escape. The stations far down into
+Natal are constantly surrounded with patient groups, waiting, waiting
+for an empty truck. Hindoos from Bombay and Madras with their golden
+nose-rings and brilliant silks sit day and night waiting side by side
+with coal-black Kaffirs in their blankets, or "blue-blooded" Zulus who
+refuse to hide much of their deep chocolate skin, showing a kind of
+purple bloom like a plum. The patient indifference with which these
+savages will sit unmoved through any fortune and let time run over them,
+is almost like the solemn calm of nature's own laws. The whites are
+restless and probably suffer more. Many were in extreme misery. Three or
+four young children died on the journey. One poor woman became a mother
+in the train just after the frontier, and died, leaving the baby alive.
+At the border I found many English and Scotch families, who had driven
+across the veldt from Ermelo, surrendering all their possessions. All
+spoke of the good treatment the Boers had shown them on the journey,
+even when the waggon had outspanned for the night close to the Boer
+camp. I came down to Newcastle with a Caithness stonemason and his
+family. They had lost house, home, and livelihood. They had even
+abandoned their horses and waggon on the veldt. The woman regretted her
+piano, but what really touched her most was that she had to wash her
+baby in cold water at the lavatory basin, and he had always been
+accustomed to warm. So we stand on the perilous edge and suffer
+variously.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AT THE BRITISH FRONT
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, NATAL, _Wednesday, October 11, 1899_.
+
+Ladysmith breathes freely to-day, but a week ago she seemed likely to
+become another Lucknow. Of line battalions only the Liverpools were
+here, besides two batteries of field artillery, some of the 18th
+Hussars, and the 5th Lancers. If Kruger or Joubert had then allowed the
+Boers encamped on the Free State border to have their own way, no one
+can say what might have happened. Our force would have been outnumbered
+at least four to one, and probably more. In event of disaster the Boers
+would have seized an immense quantity of military stores accumulated in
+the camp, and at the railway station. What is worse, they would have
+isolated the still smaller force lately thrown forward to Dundee, so as
+to break the strong defensive position of the Biggarsberg, which cuts
+off the north of Natal, and can only be traversed by three difficult
+passes. Dundee was just as much threatened from the east frontier beyond
+the Buffalo River, where the Transvaal Boers of the Utrecht and Vryheid
+district have been mustered in strong force for nearly a fortnight now.
+With our two advanced posts "lapped up" (the phrase is a little musty
+here), our stores lost, and our reputation among the Dutch and native
+populations entirely ruined, the campaign would have begun badly.
+
+For the Boers it was a fine strategic opportunity, and they were
+perfectly aware of that. But "the Old Man," as they affectionately call
+the President, had his own prudent reasons for refusing it. "Let the
+enemy fire first," he says, like the famous Frenchman, and so far he has
+been able to hold the most ardent of the encamped burghers in check. "If
+he should not be able!" we kept saying. We still say it morning and
+evening, but the pinch of the danger is passed. Last Thursday night the
+1st Devons and the 19th Hussars began to arrive and the crisis ended.
+Yesterday before daybreak half the Gordons came. We have now a mountain
+battery and three batteries of field artillery, the 19th Hussars (the
+18th having gone forward to Dundee), besides the 5th Lancers (the "Irish
+Lancers"), who are in faultless condition, and a considerable mixed
+force of the Natal Volunteers. Of these last, the Carbineers are perhaps
+the best, and generally serve as scouts towards the Free State frontier.
+But all have good repute as horsemen, marksmen, and guides, and at
+present they are the force which the Boers fear most. They are split up
+into several detachments--the Border Mounted Rifles, the Natal Mounted
+Rifles (from Durban), the Imperial Light Horse, the Natal Police, and
+the Umvoti Mounted Rifles, who are chiefly Dutch. Then of infantry there
+are the Natal Royal Rifles (only about 150 strong), the Durban Light
+Infantry, and the Natal Field Artillery. As far as I can estimate, the
+total Natal Volunteer force will not exceed 2,000, but they are well
+armed, are accustomed to the Boer method of warfare, and will be watched
+with interest. Unhappily, many of them here are already suffering from
+the change of life and food in camp. That is inevitable when volunteers
+first take the field.
+
+But Ladysmith has an evil reputation besides. Last year the troops here
+were prostrated with enteric. There is a little fever and a good deal
+of dysentery even now among the regulars. The stream by the camp is
+condemned, and all water is supplied in tiny rations from pumps. The
+main permanent camp is built of corrugated iron, practically the sole
+building material in South Africa, and quite universal for roofs, so
+that the country has few "architectural features" to boast of. The
+cavalry are quartered in the tin huts, but the Liverpools, Devons,
+Gordons, and Volunteers have pitched their own tents, and a terrible
+time they are having of it. Dust is the curse of the place. We remember
+the Long Valley as an Arcadian dell. Veterans of the Soudan recall the
+black sand-storms with regretful sighs. The thin, red dust comes
+everywhere, and never stops. It blinds your eyes, it stops your nose, it
+scorches your throat till the invariable shilling for a little glass of
+any liquid seems cheap as dirt. It turns the whitest shirt brown in half
+an hour, it creeps into the works of your watch and your bowels. It lies
+in a layer mixed with flies on the top of your rations. The white ants
+eat away the flaps of the tents, and the men wake up covered with dust,
+like children in a hayfield. Even mules die of it in convulsions. It was
+in this land that the ostrich developed its world-renowned digestive
+powers; and no wonder.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD]
+
+The camp stands on a barren plain, nearly two miles north-west of the
+town--if we may so call the one straight road of stores and tin-roofed
+bungalows. Low, flat-topped hills surround it, bare and rocky. But to
+understand the country it is best to climb into the mountains of the
+long Drakensberg, which forms the Free State frontier in a series of
+strangely jagged and precipitous peaks, and at one place, by the
+junction with Basutoland, runs up to 11,000 feet. Last Sunday I went
+into the Free State through Van Reenen's Pass, over which a little
+railway has been carried by zigzag "reverses." The summit is 5,500 feet
+above the sea, or nearly 2,000 feet above Ladysmith. From the steep
+slopes, in places almost as green as the Lowlands or Yorkshire fells, I
+looked south-east far over Natal--a parched, brown land like the desert
+beyond the Dead Sea, dusty bits of plain broken up by line upon line of
+bare red mountain. It seemed a poor country to make a fuss about, yet as
+South Africa goes, it is rich and even fertile in its way. Indeed, on
+the reddest granite mountain one never fails to find multitudes of
+flowering plants and pasturage for thinnish sheep. Across the main
+range, Van Reenen's is the largest and best known pass. The old farmer
+who gave it the name is living there still and bitterly laments the
+chance of war. But there are other passes too, any of which may suddenly
+become famous now--Olivier's Hoek, near the gigantic Mont aux Sources,
+Bezuidenhaut, Netherby, Tintwa, and (north of Van Reenen's) De Beer's
+Pass, Cundycleugh, Muller's, and Botha's, beyond which the range ends
+with the frontier at Majuba. Three or four of these passes are crossed
+by waggon roads, but Van Reenen's has the only railway. The frontier,
+marked by a barbed wire fence across the summit of the pass, must be
+nearly forty miles from Ladysmith, but from the cliffs above it, the
+little British camp can be seen like a toy through this clear African
+air, and Boer sentries watch it all day, ready to signal the least
+movement of its troops, betrayed by the dust. Their own main force is
+distributed in camps along the hills well beyond the nine-miles' limit
+ordained by the Convention. The largest camp is said to be further north
+at Nelson's Kop, but all the camps are very well hidden, though in one
+place I saw about 500 of the horses trying to graze. The rains are late,
+and the grass on the high plateau of the Free State is not so good as
+on the Natal slopes of the pass. The Boer commandoes suffer much from
+want of it. When all your army consists of mounted infantry, forage
+counts next to food.
+
+At present the Van Reenen Railway ends at Harrismith, an arid but
+cheerful little town at the foot of the great cliffs of the Plaatburg.
+It boasts its racecourse, golf-links, musical society, and some
+acquaintance with the German poets. The Scotch made it their own, though
+a few Dutch, English, and other foreigners were allowed to remain on
+sufferance. Now unhappily the place is almost deserted, and Burns
+himself would hardly find a welcome there. In the Free State every
+resident may be commandeered, and I believe forty-eight hours counts as
+"residence." You see the advantage of an extended franchise. The penalty
+for escape is confiscation of property, and five years' imprisonment or
+£500 fine, if caught. The few British who remained have had all their
+horses, carts, and supplies taken. Some are set to serve the ambulance;
+a few will be sent to watch Basutoland; but most of them have abandoned
+their property and risked the escape to Natal, slipping down the railway
+under bales or built up in the luggage vans like nuns in a brick wall.
+In one case the Boers commandeered three wool trucks on the frontier.
+Those trucks were shunted on to a siding for the night, and in the
+morning the wool looked strangely shrunk somehow. Yet it was not wool
+that had been taken out and smuggled through by the next train. For Scot
+helps Scot, and it is Scots who work the railway. It pays to be a Scot
+out here. I have only met one Irishman, and he was unhappy.
+
+But for the grotesque side of refugee unhappiness one should see the
+native train which comes down every night from Newcastle way, and
+disappears towards Maritzburg and safety. Native workers of every
+kind--servants, labourers, miners--are throwing up their places and
+rushing towards the sea. The few who can speak English say, "Too plenty
+bom-bom!" as sufficient explanation of their panic. The Government has
+now fitted the open trucks with cross-seats and side-bars for their
+convenience, and so, hardly visible in the darkness, the black crowd
+rolls up to the platform. Instantly black hands with pinkish palms are
+thrust through all the bars, as in a monkey-house. Black heads jabber
+and click with excitement. White teeth suddenly appear from nowhere. It
+is for bread and tin-meats they clamour, and they are willing to pay.
+But a loaf costs a shilling. Everything costs a shilling here, unless it
+costs half-a-crown; and Natal grows fat on war. A shilling for a bit of
+bread! What is the good of Christianity? So the dusky hands are
+withdrawn, and the poor Zulu with untutored maw goes starving on. But if
+any still doubt our primitive ancestry, let them hear that Zulu's
+outcries of pain, or watch the fortunate man who has really got a loaf,
+and gripping it with both hands, gnaws it in his corner, turning his
+suspicious eyes to right and left with fear.
+
+The air is full of wild rumours. A boy riding over Laing's Nek saw 1,000
+armed Boers feeding their horses on Manning's farm. The Boers have been
+seen at a Dutch settlement this side Van Reenen's. Yesterday a section
+of the Gordons on their arrival were sent up to look at them in an
+armoured train. It is thought that war will be proclaimed to-day. That
+has been thought every day for a fortnight past, and the land buzzes
+with lies which may at any moment be true.
+
+Half the Manchesters have just marched in to trumpet and drum. When I
+think of those ragged camps of peasants just over the border the pomp
+and circumstance seem all on one side.
+
+
+     _Friday, October 13, 1899._
+
+So it has begun at last, for good or evil. Here we think it began
+yesterday, just at the very moment when Sir George White arrived. Late
+at night scouts brought news of masses of Boers crossing the Tintwa
+Pass, and going into laager with their waggons only fifteen miles away
+to the west. The men stood to their arms, and long before light we were
+marching steadily forward along the Van Reenen road. First came the
+Liverpools, then the three batteries of Field Artillery with a mountain
+battery, then the Devons and the Gordons. The Manchesters acted as
+rear-guard, and the Dublin Fusiliers, who were hurried down from Dundee
+by train, came late, and then were hurried back again. The column took
+all its stores and forage for five days in a train of waggons (horses,
+mules, and oxen) about two miles long. When day broke we saw the great
+mountains on the Basuto border, gleaming with snow like the Alps. Far in
+front the cavalry--the 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars with the Natal
+Volunteers--were sweeping over the patches of plain and struggling up
+the hills in search of that reported laager. But not a Boer of it was to
+be seen. At nine o'clock, having advanced eight or nine miles, the
+whole column took up a strong position, with all its baggage and train
+in faultless order, and went to sleep. About one we began to return, and
+now just as the mail goes, we are all back again in camp for tea. And so
+ends the first day of active hostilities.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B.,
+G.C.S.I.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE FIRST WEEK'S WAR
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _Thursday, October 19, 1899_.
+
+It is a week to-day since the Boers of the Transvaal and Free State
+began their combined invasion of Natal. So far all action has been on
+their side. They have crept down the passes with their waggons and
+half-organised bands of mounted infantry, and have now advanced within a
+short day's march of the two main British positions which protect the
+whole colony. It will be seen on a map that North Natal forms a fairly
+regular isoceles triangle, having Charlestown, Majuba, and Laing's Nek
+at the apex, the Drakensberg range separating it from the Free State on
+the one side, and the Buffalo River with its lower hills separating it
+from the Transvaal on the other. A base may be drawn a few miles below
+Ladysmith--say, from Oliver's Hoek Pass in the Drakensberg to the union
+of the Tugela River with the Buffalo. Newcastle will then lie about
+thirty miles from the apex of the triangle, nearly equi-distant from
+both sides. Dundee is about twelve miles from the middle point of the
+right side, and Ladysmith about the same distance from the middle point
+of the base. Evidently a "tight place" for a comparatively small force
+when the frontiers to right and left are openly hostile and can pour
+large bodies of men through all the passes in the sides and apex at
+will. That is exactly what the Boers have spent the week in doing, and
+they have shown considerable skill in the process. They have occupied
+Charlestown, Newcastle, and all the north of Natal almost to within
+reach of the guns at Dundee on the west and Ladysmith on the east and
+centre. Yet as far as I can judge they have hardly lost a man, whereas
+they have gained an immense amount of stores, food and forage, which
+were exactly the things they wanted. "Slim Piet" is the universal
+nickname for old Joubert among friends and enemies alike, and so far he
+has well deserved it. For the Dutch "slim" stands half way between the
+German "schlimm" and our description of young girls, and it means
+exactly what the Cockney means by "artful." Artful Piet has managed
+well. He has given the Boers an appearance of triumph. Their flag waves
+where the English flag waved before. The effect on the native mind, and
+on the spirits of his men is greater than people in England probably
+think. Before the war the young Boers said they would be in Durban in a
+month, and the Kaffirs half believed it. Well, they have got nearly a
+third of the way in a week.
+
+But to-day they are brought within touch of British arms, and the
+question is whether they will get any further. So far they have been
+unopposed. Their triumphs have been the bloodless capture of a passenger
+train, the capture of a few police, and the driving in of patrols who
+had strict orders to retire. So far we have sought only to draw them on.
+But here and at Dundee we must make a stand, and all yesterday and this
+morning we have thought only of one question: Will they venture to come
+on? They have numbers on their side--an advantage certainly of three to
+one, possibly more. The rough country with its rocky flat-topped lines
+of hill is just suited for their method of warfare--to lie behind stones
+and take careful shots at any one in range. Besides, if they are to do
+anything, they know they must be quick. The Basutos are chanting their
+war-song on the Free State frontier. The British reinforcements are
+coming, and all irregulars have a tendency to melt away if you keep them
+waiting. But on the other hand it is against Boer tradition to attack,
+especially entrenched positions. Their artillery is probably far
+inferior to ours in training and skill, and they don't like artillery in
+any case. Nor do they like the thought of Lancers and Hussars sweeping
+down upon their flanks wherever a little bit of plain has to be crossed.
+So the chances of attack seem about equally balanced, and only the days
+can answer that one question of ours: Will they come on?
+
+Yesterday it seemed as though they were coming. The advance of two main
+columns from the passes in the north-west had been fairly steady; and
+last night our outposts of the Natal Carbineers were engaged, as the 5th
+Lancers had been the night before. Heavy firing was reported at any
+distance short of fifteen miles. There was no panic. The few ladies who
+remain went riding or cycling along the dusty, blazing road which makes
+the town. The Zulu women in blankets and beads walked in single file
+with the little black heads of babies peering out between their
+shoulder-blades, and roasting in the sun. Huge waggon-loads of
+stores--compressed forage, compressed beef, jam, water-proof sheets,
+ammunition, oil, blankets, sardines, and all the other necessaries of a
+soldier's existence--came lumbering up from the station behind the long
+files of oxen urged slowly forward by savage outcries and lashes of
+hide. Orderlies were galloping in the joy of their hearts. The band of
+the Gloucesters were practising scales in unison to slow time. Suddenly
+a kind of feeling came into the air that something was happening. I
+noticed the waggon stopped; the oxen at once lay down in the dust; the
+music ceased and was packed away. I met the Gordons coming into town and
+asking for their ground. Riding up the mile or two to camp, I found the
+whole dusty plateau astir. Tents were melting away like snow. Kits lay
+all naked and revealed upon the earth. The men were falling in. The
+waggons were going the wrong way round. The very headquarters and staff
+were being cleared out. The whole camp was, in fact, in motion. It was
+coming down into the town. In a few hours the familiar place was bare
+and deserted. I went up this morning and stood on Signal Hill where the
+heliograph was working yesterday, just above the camp. The whole plain
+was a wilderness. Straw and paper possessed it merely, except that here
+and there a destitute Kaffir groped among the _débris_ in hopes of
+finding a shiny tin pot for his furniture or some rag of old uniform to
+harmonise with his savage dress. In one corner of the empty iron huts a
+few of the cavalry were still trying to carry off some remnants of
+forage. It was a pitiful sight, and yet the rapidity of the change was
+impressive. If the Boers came in, they would find those tin huts very
+luxurious after their accustomed bivouacs. Is it possible that tin huts
+might be their Capua?
+
+The camp was thought incapable of defence. Artillery could command it
+from half a dozen hills. Whoever placed it there was neither strategist
+nor humanitarian. It is like the bottom of a frying-pan with a low rim.
+The fire is hot, and sand is frying. But, indeed, the whole of Ladysmith
+is like that. The flat-topped hills stand round it reflecting the heat,
+and in the middle we are now all frying together, with sand for
+seasoning. The main ambulance is on the cricket ground. The battalion
+tents are pitched among the rocks or by the river side, where Kaffirs
+bathe more often and completely than you would otherwise suppose. The
+river water, by the way, is a muddy yellow now and leaves a deep deposit
+of Afric's golden sand in your glass or basin. The headquarters staff
+has seized upon two empty houses, and can dine in peace. The street is
+one yelling chaos of oxen in waggons and oxen loose, galloping horses,
+sheep, ammunition mules, savages, cycles, and the British soldier. He,
+be sure, preserves his wonted calm, adapts himself to oxen as naturally
+as to camels, puts in a little football when he can, practises
+alliteration's artful aid upon the name of the Boers, and trusts to his
+orders to pull him through. His orders are likely to be all right now,
+for Colonel Ward has just been put in command of the whole town, and
+already I notice a method in the oxen, to say nothing of the mules. What
+is it all but a huge military tournament to be pulled together, and got
+up to time?
+
+This morning most people expected the attack would begin. I rode five
+miles out before breakfast to see what might be seen, but there were
+only a few Lancers pricking about by threes, and never a Boer or any
+such thing. So we have waited all day, and nothing has happened till
+this afternoon the rumour comes with authority that a train has been
+captured at Elands Laagte, about sixteen miles on the way to Dundee. The
+railway stopped running trains beyond there yesterday, and had better
+have stopped altogether. Anyhow, the line of communication between us
+and the splendid little brigade at Dundee is broken now. Dundee is
+pretty nearly fifty miles N.N.E. of this. The camp is happily on a
+stronger position than ours, and not mixed up with the town. But at
+present it is practically besieged, and no one can say how long the
+siege of Ladysmith also will be delayed. For the moment, it seems just
+possible that the great force, which we vaguely hear is coming out from
+England (all English news is hopelessly vague), will have to send the
+bulk of its troops to fight up Natal for our relief. But the south of
+Natal having few rocks is not suited for Boer warfare. When the Boers
+boasted they were coming to Durban, a wit replied: "Then you will have
+to bring the stones with you." For a Boer much prefers to have a
+comforting stone in front of him in the day of battle. In these
+districts every hill is for him a natural fortress. His hope is that we
+shall venture into the mountains; ours that he will venture down to the
+plains. So far hope's flattery has kept us fairly well apart. The day
+after to-morrow is now fixed by popular judgment for battle and attack.
+But only one thing is certain: we can stand still if we choose, and the
+Boers cannot.
+
+To be under martial law, as we now are, does not make much difference to
+the ordinary man, but to the ordinary criminal it appears slightly
+advantageous. For his case is very likely to be overlooked in the press
+of military offences, and it is doubtful if any civil suits can be
+brought. At all events, a legal quarrel I had with a farmer about some
+horses has vanished into thin air; and so, indeed, have the horses. The
+worst offenders now are possible spies. A few Dutch have been arrested,
+but the commonest cases are out-of-work Kaffirs, who are wandering in
+swarms over the country, coming down from Johannesburg and the
+collieries, and naturally finding it rather hard to give account of
+themselves. The peculiarity of the trials which I have attended has been
+that if a Kaffir could give the name of his father it was taken as a
+sufficient guarantee of respectability With one miserable Bushman, for
+instance--a child's caricature of man--it was really going hard till at
+last he managed to explain that his father's name was Nicodemus Africa,
+and then every one looked satisfied, and he left the court without a
+stain upon his character.
+
+So we live from day to day. The air is full of rumours. One can see them
+grow along the street. One traces them down. Perhaps one finds an atom
+of truth somewhere at the root of them. One puts that atom into a
+telegram. The military censor cuts it out with unfailing politeness, and
+a good day's work is done. Heat, dust, and a weekly deluge with
+stupendous thunder complete the scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _October 22, 1899_.
+
+It was a fair morning yesterday, cool after rain, the thin clouds
+sometimes letting the sun look through. At half-past ten I was some six
+or seven miles out along the Newcastle road--a road in these parts being
+merely a worn track over the open veldt, distinguishable only by the
+ruts and mud. Close on the left were high and shapely hills, like Welsh
+mountains, but on the right the country was more open. A Mr. Malcolm's
+farm stood in the middle of a waving plain, with a few fields, aloe
+hedges, and poplars. The kraal of his Kaffir labourers was near it, and
+about a mile away the plain ended in a low ridge of rocky "kopjes,"
+which ran to join the mountainous ground on the left at a kind of "nek"
+or low pass over which the railway runs. Beyond that low ridge lay
+Elands Laagte, an important railway station with a few collieries close
+by, a store, a hotel, and some houses.
+
+The Boers had occupied it two days before, had captured a train there,
+and torn up the rail in two places, making a number of prisoners and
+seizing 100 head of cattle and quantities of other private stores and
+the luggage going to Dundee. Early in the morning we had gone out with
+four companies of the Manchesters in an armoured train with an ordinary
+train behind it, a battery of Natal Field Artillery, and the Imperial
+Light Horse under Colonel Scott Chisholme, to reconnoitre with a view to
+repairing the line. They seized the station and released a number of
+prisoners, but were compelled to withdraw by three heavy Nordenfeldt
+guns, which the Boers had posted on a hill about 2,500 yards beyond the
+station. At half-past ten they had reached the point I describe, and
+were very slowly coming back towards Ladysmith, the trains moving
+backwards, and the cavalry walking on each side the line. The point is
+called Modder's Spruit, from some early Dutchman, and there is a little
+station there, the first out from Ladysmith town. At that moment
+another train was seen coming up with the 1st Devons, and within an hour
+a fourth arrived with five companies of the Gordons. The 42nd Field
+Battery then came, and the 21st later; the 5th Lancers with a few 5th
+Dragoon Guards, and a large contingent of Natal mounted volunteers. That
+was our force. It took up a strong and fairly concealed position behind
+a rise in the road to the left of the railway and waited. Meantime the
+Boer scouts crept along that rocky ridge on our right front and down
+into the plain, firing into us at long range, quite without effect.
+
+At half-past one General French, who had taken command, sent out a few
+Lancers to watch our left, and a large force of mixed cavalry to the
+right. By a long circuit these swept up the whole length of the ridge
+and cleared out the Boer sharpshooters, who could be seen galloping away
+over the top. The infantry then detrained and advanced across the plain
+and up the ridge in extended order, half a battery meantime driving out
+a small Boer party, which was firing upon our Lancers on our left.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE]
+
+When we reached the top of that long ridge, we found it broad as well as
+long, and we were moving rapidly across it when, with the usual whirr
+and crash and scream, one of the enemy's big shells fell in the midst of
+our right centre, killing two horses at a gun. It was at once followed
+by another, and a dozen or two more. They had our range exactly, and the
+art of knowing what was going on behind the hill, but though the shells
+burst all right and hot fragments or bullets went shrieking through the
+midst of us, I did not see anything but horses actually struck. I think
+six or seven horses were killed at that place, and later on I heard of a
+bugler having his head cut off, and two or three others killed by shell,
+but otherwise I believe the artillery did us no damage, though to most
+men it is more terrifying than rifle fire. When we reached the edge of
+the ridge we looked across a broad low valley, with one small wave in
+it, to the enemy's main position on some rocky hills nearly 4,000 yards
+away. The place was very strong and well chosen.
+
+Opposite our right ran a long high ridge covered with rocks and leading
+up to a rocky plateau. In their centre was a pointed hill, at the foot
+of which stood their camp, with tents and waggons. Opposite our left was
+a small detached kopje, and beyond that a fairly flat plain, with a
+river running through it, and the railway beyond Elands Laagte Station.
+Their three guns stood on the rocky ridge to our right of their
+camp--two together half-way down, one a little higher up.
+Flash--flash--they went, and then came the whirr, the crash, and the
+screaming fragments.
+
+Suddenly our guns opened in answer from our right centre, and we could
+watch the shrapnel bursting right over their gunners' heads. They say
+the gunners were German. At all events, they were brave fellows, and
+worked the guns with extraordinary skill and courage. The official
+account admits that they returned several times to their posts after
+being driven out by our shell. The afternoon was passing, and if we were
+to take the place before dark we could not spare time to shake it with
+our artillery much longer. At about half-past four the infantry were
+ordered to advance, the Gordons and Manchesters on the right, the Devons
+on the left. They went down the long slope and across the valley with
+perfect intervals and line, much better than they go in the hollows of
+the old Fox Hills.
+
+In the advance the Gordons and Manchesters gradually changed direction
+half right and crept up towards that plateau on the right of the ridge,
+so as to take the enemy in flank. The Devons went straight forward,
+coming into infantry fire as they crossed that low wave of ground in the
+middle of the valley. On the further slope they were ordered to lie down
+and wait till the flanking movement was developed. Happily the slope, as
+is usual in South Africa, was thickly spotted over with great ant-hills,
+beneath which the ant-eater digs his den. Ant-heaps, hardened almost to
+brick, make excellent cover, and we lay down behind them on any bit of
+rock we could find, the fire being very hot, and the Mauser bullets
+making their unpleasant whiffle as they passed. I think the first man
+hit was a private, who got a ball through his head by the ear. He was
+carried away, but died before he got off the field. A young officer was
+struck soon afterwards, and then the bearers began to be busy. There
+were far too few of them, and no one could find the ambulance carts. As
+a matter of fact they had not left Ladysmith--twelve miles at least
+away. Most of the wounded tried to creep back out of fire. Some lay
+quite still. I heard only two or three call out for help. Meantime the
+rest were keeping up a steady fire, not by volleys, but as each could
+sight a Boer among the rocks, and my own belief is that very few Boers
+were hit that way.
+
+Climbing up a heap of loose stones a little to the right of the Devons,
+I could now see the Boers at the top of their position in the centre,
+moving about rapidly, taking cover, resting their rifles on the stones,
+and firing both at us and at the men who were pushing up the slope
+threatening their flank. Meantime the artillery pumped iron and lead
+upon them without mercy. Their own guns were quite silenced about this
+time, being unable to stand the combined shell and rifle fire. But the
+ordinary Boers--the armed and mounted peasants--still clung to their
+rocks as though nothing could drive them out.
+
+One big man in black I watched for what seemed a very long time. He was
+standing right against the sky line, sometimes waving his arm,
+apparently to give directions. Shells burst over his head, and bullets
+must have been thick round him. Once or twice he fell, as though
+slipping on the rocks, for the rain had begun again. But he always
+reappeared, till at last shrapnel exploded right in his face, and he
+sank together like a dropped rag. Just after that the Manchesters and
+Gordons began to force their way along the top of the ridge on the
+Boers' left. They had the dismounted Imperial Light Horse with them, and
+it was there that the loss was most terrible. Sometimes the advance
+hardly seemed to move, sometimes it rushed forward, and then appeared to
+swing back again. It was six o'clock, rain was falling in torrents, and
+it was getting dark. Perhaps the Gordons suffered most. Fourteen
+officers were killed and wounded there, and next day the killed men lay
+thick among the rocks. The Boer prisoners say the Gordon kilts made them
+easy marks. But the Light Horse lost, too--lost their Colonel, Scott
+Chisholme, who had been so eager for their success. Still the Boers kept
+up their terrible fire, and the attack crept forward, rock by rock. At
+the same time the Devons were called on to advance, and, getting up from
+the ant-hills without a moment's pause, they strode forward to the foot
+of the hill, keeping up an incessant fire as they went. Then we heard
+the bugler sounding the charge high up on our right, and we could just
+see the flank attack rushing forward and cheering. The Boers were
+galloping away or running from the top. The Devons also sounded the
+charge and rushed up the front of the position, but from that isolated
+hill on our left they met so obstinate a fire that the order for
+magazine firing was given, and for a few minutes the rifles rattled
+without a second's pause, in a long roar of fire. Then, with a wild
+cheer, the Devons cleared the position. It is due to them to say that
+they were first at the guns. Meantime, the "Cease Fire!" had sounded
+several times on the summit, but the firing did not cease. I don't know
+why it was. Perhaps the Boers were still resisting in parts. Certainly
+many of our men were drunk with excitement. "Wipe out Majuba!" was a
+constant cry. But the Boers had gone.
+
+The remnants of them were struggling to get away in the twilight over a
+bit of rocky plain on our left. There the Dragoon Guards got them, and
+three times went through. A Dragoon Guards corporal who was there tells
+me the Boers fell off their horses and rolled among the rocks, hiding
+their heads in their arms and calling for mercy--calling to be shot,
+anything to escape the stab of those terrible lances. But not many
+escaped. "We just gave them a good dig as they lay," were the corporal's
+words. Next day most of the lances were bloody.
+
+The victory was ours. We had gained a stony and muddy little hill
+strewn with the bodies of dead and wounded peasants, clerks, lawyers,
+and other kinds of men. Most were from Johannesburg. Nearly all spoke
+English like their native language. In one corner on the slope of the
+hill towards their little camp and waggons I counted fourteen dead
+together. In one of the tents were three dead men, all killed by the
+same shell, apparently whilst asleep. Yet I do not think there were more
+than thirty actually killed among the rocks in all. It is true that
+darkness fell rapidly, and the rain was blinding; but I was nearly two
+hours on the ground moving about. The wounded lay very thick, groaning
+and appealing for help. In coming down I nearly trod on the upturned
+white face of an old white-bearded man. He was lying quite silent, with
+a kind of dignity. We asked who he was. He said: "I am Kock, the father
+of Judge Kock. No, I am not the commandant. _He_ is the commandant." But
+the old man was wrong. He himself had been in command, though instead of
+fighting he had read the Bible and prayed. One bullet had passed through
+his shoulder, another through his groin. So he lay still and read no
+more. Near him was a boy with a hand just a mixture of shreds and bones
+and blood. But he too was very quiet, and only asked for a handkerchief
+to bind it together. Others were gradually dying. Many were not found
+till daylight. The dead of both sides lay unburied till Monday.
+
+In the mud and stones just above the captured guns, General French stood
+giving directions for the bivouac, and dictating a message to Sir George
+White praising the troops, especially the infantry who had been
+commanded by Colonel Ian Hamilton. The assemble kept sounding over the
+hill, and Gordons tried to sift themselves from Manchesters, and Light
+Horse from Devons. All were shouting and questioning and calling to each
+other in the dark. Soon they settled down; the Boers had left scores of
+saddles, coats, and Kaffir blankets, provisions, too, water-bottles,
+chickens, and in one case a flask of carbolic disinfectant, which a
+British soldier analysed as "furrin wine." So, on the whole, the fellows
+made themselves fairly comfortable in spite of the cold and wet. Then I
+felt my way down over the rocks, taking care, if possible, not to tread
+on anything human, and then sought out the difficult twelve-mile track
+to Ladysmith over the veldt and hills, lighted towards midnight by a
+waning and clouded moon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BATTLE OF TINTA INYONI
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _October 27, 1899_.
+
+If you want to "experience a shock," as the doctors say, be with the
+head of a column advancing leisurely along a familiar road only six
+miles from camp, and have a shell flung almost at your feet from a
+neighbouring mountain top. That was my fortune about the breakfast time
+of peaceable citizens last Tuesday morning. A squadron of Lancers and
+some of the Natal Carbineers were in front. Just behind me a battery was
+rumbling along. A little knot of the staff was close by, and we were all
+just preparing to halt. We stood on the Newcastle road, north of the
+town, not far from our first position at the Elands Laagte battle of the
+Saturday before. The road is close to the railway there, and I was
+watching an engine and truck going down with a white-flag flying,
+bringing back poor Colonel Chisholme's body for burial. Suddenly on the
+left from the top of a mountain side beyond a long rocky ridge I saw the
+orange flash of a big gun. The next moment came the familiar buzz and
+scream of a great shell, the crash, the squealing fragments, the dust
+splashing up all round us as they fell. I have never seen men and horses
+gallop faster than in our rapid right-wheel over the open ground towards
+a Kaffir kraal. I think only one horse was badly hurt, but at no
+military tournament have I seen artillery move in such excellent style.
+It was all over in a minute. The Boers must have measured the range to a
+yard, and just have kept that gun loaded and waiting.
+
+But in tactics jokes may be mistakes. That shot revealed the enemy's
+position. Within ten minutes our gunners had snipt the barbed wire
+fences along the railway, had dashed their guns across, and were
+dragging them up that low rocky ridge--say, 300ft. to 400ft. high--which
+had now so suddenly become our front and fighting position. Three field
+batteries went up, and close behind them came the Gloucesters on the
+right, a few companies of the second 60th (K.R.R.) the Liverpools and
+the Devons in order on the centre and left. On our right we had some of
+the 19th Hussars and 5th Lancers; on our left a large mixed force of the
+mounted Natal Volunteers, who were soon strongly engaged in a small
+valley at the end of the ridge, and suffered a good deal all day. But
+the chief work and credit lay with our guns. Till they got into
+position, found the range and began to fire, the enemy's shells kept
+dropping over the ridge and plumping into the ground. None were so
+successful as the first, and only few of them burst, but shells are very
+unpleasant, and it was a relief when at the second or third shot from
+our batteries we found the enemy's shells had ceased to arrive. We had
+destroyed the limber, if not the gun, and after that the shells were all
+on one side. Some say the Boers had two guns, but I only saw one myself,
+and I watched it as a mouse watches a cat. One does.
+
+The Boers, however, had many cats to watch. Climbing up the ridge
+towards its left end, I sat among the rocks with the Liverpools and
+Devons beside one of the batteries, and got a good view of the Boer
+position. They were in irregular lines and patches among the rocks of
+some low hills across a little valley in our front, and were stationed
+in groups upon the two higher mountains (as one may call them) upon our
+right and left. Both of these points looked down upon our position, and
+it was only by keeping close among the stones under the edge of our
+ridge that we got any cover, and that indifferent. But, happily, the
+range was long, and for hour after hour those two hills were simply
+swept by our shrapnel. On our right the long mountain edge, where the
+enemy's gun had been, is called Mattowan's Hoek. The great dome-like
+hill (really the end of a flat-topped mountain in perspective), on our
+left, was Tinta Inyoni.
+
+Our infantry lay along the ridge, keeping up a pretty constant fire, and
+sometimes volleying by sections, whenever they could get sight of their
+almost invisible enemy. Sometimes they advanced a little way down
+towards the valley. On the right the Gloucesters about eleven o'clock
+came over the ridge on to a flat little piece of grass land in front. I
+suppose they expected to get a better range or clearer view, but within
+a few minutes that patch of grass was spotted with lumps of khaki. Two
+officers--one their colonel--and six men were killed outright, and the
+official list of wounded runs to over fifty. When they had withdrawn
+again to the ridge the doctors and privates went out to bring the
+wounded back. Behind the cover of the rocks the dhoolies were waiting
+with their green-covered stretchers. In the sheltered corner on the flat
+ground below stood the ambulance waggons ready. All the ambulance
+service was admirably worked that day, but I think perhaps the highest
+credit remains with the mild Hindoos.
+
+By twelve o'clock the low hills in our front were burning from our
+shells, and the smoke of the grass helped still more to conceal this
+baffling enemy of ours. It was all very well for the gunners, with their
+excellent glasses, but the ordinary private could hardly see anything to
+aim at, and yet he was more or less under fire all the time. As to
+smoke, of course the smokeless powder gives the Boers an immense
+advantage in their method of fighting. It is hardly ever possible to
+tell exactly where the shots come from. But I noticed one man near the
+top of Tinta, who evidently had an old Martini which he valued much more
+than new-fangled things. Whenever he fired a little puff of grey smoke
+followed, and I always thought I heard the growl of his bullet
+particularly close, as though he steadily aimed at some officer near
+by. He sat under a bush, and had built himself a little wall of rocks in
+front. Shell after shell was showered upon that rocky hillside, for it
+concealed many other sharpshooters besides. But at each flash he must
+have thrown himself behind the stones, and when the shower of lead was
+over up he got, and again I saw the little puff of grey smoke and heard
+the growl of a bullet close by.
+
+The firing ceased about three. There was no apparent reason why it
+should. The Boers had killed a few of us. Probably we had killed more of
+them. But mere loss of life does not make victory or defeat, and to all
+appearance we were both on much the same ground as at first, except that
+the Boers had lost a gun, and were not at all comfortable on the
+positions they had held. Our withdrawal, however, was due to deeper
+reasons. A messenger had brought news of the column which had unhappily
+been driven from Dundee--whether by the Boers' 40-pounder, "Long Tom,"
+or by failing ammunition I will not try to decide. Anyhow, the messenger
+brought the news that the column was safe and returning unmolested on
+Ladysmith by the roundabout road eastward, near Helpmakaar. We had held
+back the enemy from intercepting them on their march. Our long and
+harassing fight, then, had been worth the sacrifice. It was a victory in
+strategy. Sir George White gave the order for the infantry to withdraw
+from the ridge by battalions and return to Ladysmith. By evening we were
+all in the town again.
+
+Next day I determined to meet the Dundee force on its way. They were
+reported to have halted about twenty-five miles off the night before,
+near Sunday's river, which, like all the rivers and spruits just here,
+runs southward through mountains into the Tugela and Buffalo. About six
+miles out we had a small force ready to give them assistance if they
+were pursued. Passing through that column halted by a stream, I went on
+into more open country, where there was an occasional farm with the
+invariable tin roof and weeping willows of South Africa. For many miles
+I saw small parties of our Lancers and Carbineers scouring the country
+on both sides of the track.
+
+Then soon after I had crossed a wide watershed I came down into broken
+and rocky country again, well suited for Boers, and there the outposts
+ended. I had a wide view of distant mountains, far away to the Zulu
+border on the east, and northwards to the Biggarsberg and Dundee, a
+terrible country to cross with a retiring column, harassed by three
+days' fighting. The few white farmers had gone, of course, but, happily,
+I came upon a Kaffir kraal, and a Kaffir chief himself came out to look
+at me. The Cape boy who was with me asked if he had seen any English
+troops that way. "Yes, there were many, many, many, hardly an hour's
+ride further on. But he was hungry, hungry--he, the chief--and so were
+his wives--four of them--all of them." He spoke the pretty Zulu
+language--it is something like Italian.
+
+We went on. The track went steep down hill to a spruit where the water
+lay in pools. And there on the opposite hill was that gallant little
+British Army, halted in a position of extreme danger, absolutely
+commanded on all sides but one, and preparing for tea as unconcernedly
+as if they were in a Lockhart's shop in Goswell Road. Almost as
+unconcernedly--for, indeed, some of the officers showed signs of their
+long anxiety and sleeplessness. When I came among them, some mounted men
+suddenly showed themselves in the distance. They took them for Boers. I
+could hardly persuade them they were only our own Carbineers--the
+outposts through whom I had just ridden. Three of our own scouts
+appeared across a valley, and never were Boers in greater peril of
+being shot. I think I may put their lives down to my credit.
+
+The British private was even here imperturbable as usual. He sat on the
+rocks singing the latest he knew from the music-halls. He lighted his
+fires and made his tea, and took an intelligent interest in the
+slaughter of the oxen, for all the world as if he were at manoeuvres on
+Salisbury Plain. He is really a wonderful person. Filthy from head to
+foot, drenched with rain, baked with sun, unshorn and unwashed for five
+days, his eyes bloodshot for want of sleep, hungry and footsore, fresh
+from terrible fighting, and the loss of many friends, he was still the
+same unmistakable British soldier, that queer mixture of humour and
+blasphemy, cheerfulness and grumbling, never losing that
+imperturbability which has no mixture of any other quality at all. The
+camping ground was arranged almost as though they were going to stay
+there for ever. Here were the guns in order, there the relics of the
+18th Hussars; there the Leicesters, the 60th, the Dublins, the Royal
+Irish Fusiliers, and the rest. The guards were set and sentries posted.
+But only two hours later the whole moved off again for three miles'
+further advance to get them well out of the mountains. Why, on that
+perilous march through unknown and difficult country, the Dutch did not
+spring upon them in some pass and blot them out is one of the many
+mysteries of this strange campaign.
+
+Among them I greeted many friends whom I had come to know at Dundee ten
+days before. But General Symons and Colonel Gunning, whom I had chosen
+out as the models of what officers should be, were not there. Nor was
+the young officer who had been my host--young Hannah of the
+Leicesters--who at his own cost came out in the ship with us rather than
+"miss the fun." A shell struck his head. I think he was the first killed
+in Friday's battle.
+
+I got back to Ladysmith late that night. Early next morning the column
+began to dribble in. They were received with relief. I cannot say there
+was much enthusiasm. The road by which I went to meet them is now
+swarming with Boers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE REVERSE AT NICHOLSON'S NEK
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _October 31, 1899_.
+
+On Sunday we were all astir for a big battle. But no village Sabbath in
+the Highlands could have been quieter, though it might have been more
+devotional. We rode about as usual, though our rides are very limited
+now, and the horse that took me forty miles last Wednesday is pining
+because the Boers have cut off his exercise. We sweated and swore, and
+suffered unfathomable thirst, but still there was no more battle than
+the evening hymn. Next day we knew it would be different. At night I
+heard the guns go out eastward along the Helpmakaar road to take up a
+position on our right. At three I was up in the morning darkness, and
+riding slowly northward with the brigade that was to form our centre,
+up the familiar Newcastle road. We had not far to go. The Boers save us
+a lot of exertion. A mile and a half--certainly less than two
+miles--from the outside of the town was our limit. But as we went the
+line of yellow behind our two nearest mountains, Lombard's Kop and
+Bulwan (Mbulwani, Isamabulwan--you may spell it almost as you like), was
+suddenly shot with red, and the grey night clouds showed crimson on all
+their hanging edges. The crimson caught the vultures soaring wide
+through the air, and then the sun himself came up with that blaze of
+heat which was to torture us all day long.
+
+The central rendezvous beside the Newcastle road was well protected by a
+high rocky hill, which one can only call a kopje now. There were the 5th
+Dragoon Guards, the Manchesters, the Devons, the Gordons, with their
+ambulance and baggage, some of the Natal Volunteers, and when the train
+from Maritzburg arrived about six the Rifle Brigade marched straight out
+of it to join us. I climbed the kopje in front of them, and from there
+could get a fine view of the whole position except the extreme flanks.
+
+At 5.10 the first gun sounded from a battery on the right of our
+centre--a battery that was to do magnificent work through the day. The
+enemy's reply was an enormous puff of smoke from a flat-topped hill
+straight in front of me. A huge shell shrieked through the air, and,
+passing high above my head, burst slap in the middle of the town behind
+me. Again and again it came. The second shot fell close to the central
+hospital; the third in a private garden, where the native servants have
+been busy digging for fragments ever since, as in a gold mine, not
+considering how cheap such treasure is now likely to become. The range
+was something over four miles. One of the shells passed so near the
+balloon that the officer in the car felt it like a gust of wind. (I
+ought to have told you about that balloon, by the way. We sent it up
+first on Sunday morning, our Zulu savages opening their mouths at it,
+beating their lips, and patting their stomachs with peculiar cries.)
+
+"Long Tom" had come. "Long Tom," the hero of Dundee, able to hurl his
+vast iron cylinder a clean six miles as often as you will. I saw him and
+his brother gun on trucks at Sand River Camp on the Transvaal border
+just before the war began. They say he is French--a Creusot
+gun--throwing, some say 40lbs., some 95lbs., each shot. Anyhow, the
+shell is quite big enough, whatever its weight, and it bangs into
+shops, chapels, ladies' bedrooms without any nice distinctions. I could
+see "Tom's" ugly muzzle tilted up above a great earthwork which the
+Boers had heaped near a tree on the edge of that flat-topped hill, which
+we may call Pepworth, from a little farm hard by.
+
+Our battery was at once turned on to him, and though short at first, it
+got the range, and poured the deadly shrapnel over that hill for hour
+after hour. But other guns were there--perhaps as many as six--and they
+replied to our battery, whilst "Tom" reserved his attention for the
+town. Often we thought him silenced, but always he began again, just
+when we were forgetting him, sometimes after over an hour's pause. The
+Boer gunners, whoever they may be, are not wanting in courage. So the
+artillery battle went on, hour after hour. I sat on the rocks and
+watched. At my side the Gordons on picket duty were playing with two
+little white kids. On the plain in front no one was to be seen but one
+lone and dirty soldier, who was steadily marching in across it, no one
+knew from where. He must have lost his way in the night, and now was
+making for the nearest British lines, hanging his rifle unconcernedly
+over his shoulder, butt behind.
+
+So we watched and waited. At one moment Dr. Jameson came up to get a
+look at his old enemy. Then we heard heavy rifle fire far away on our
+left, where the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers had been sent out
+the night before, and were now on the verge of that terrible disaster
+which has kept us all anxious and uncertain to-day. The rumour goes that
+both battalions have disappeared, and what survives of them will next be
+found in Pretoria. At eight o'clock I saw a new force of Boers coming
+down a gully in a great mountain behind Pepworth Hill. But for my glass,
+I should have taken them for a black stream marked with white rocks. But
+they were horses and men, and the white rocks were horses too. Heavy
+firing began far away on our right. At nine the Manchesters were called
+off to reinforce. At half-past nine the Gordons followed, and I went
+with them. About a mile and a half from the centre we were halted again
+on the top of another rocky kopje covered with low bush and trees, out
+of which we frightened several little brown deer and some strange birds.
+
+From the top I could see the whole position of the right flank fairly
+well, but it puzzled me at first. The guns shelling Pepworth
+Hill--there were two batteries of them now--were still at their work,
+just in front of our left now and about half a mile away. Away to our
+right and further advanced, but quite exposed in the open, were two
+other batteries, shelling some distant kopjes on our right at the foot
+of the great mountain lump of Lombard's Kop. I heard afterwards they
+were shelling an empty and deserted kopje for hours, but I know that
+only from hearsay. Between the batteries and far away to the right the
+infantry was lying down or advancing in line, chiefly across the open,
+against the enemy's position. But what was that position? Take Ladysmith
+as centre and a radius of five miles, the Boers' position extended round
+a semicircle or more, from Lombard's Kop on the east to Walker's Hoek on
+the west, with Pepworth Hill as the centre of the arc on the north. I
+believe myself that the position was not a mile less than fifteen miles
+long, and for the most part it was just what Boers like--rocky kopjes
+and ridges, high and low, always giving cover and opportunity for
+surprise and ambuscade.
+
+[Illustration: LOMBARD'S KOP]
+
+It was against the left flank of that position that our right was now
+hurling itself. The idea, I suppose, was to roll their left back upon
+their centre and take Pepworth Hill and "Long Tom" in the confusion
+of retreat. That may or may not have been the General's plan, but from
+my post with the Gordons I soon saw something was happening to prevent
+it. On a flat piece of green in front of the rocky kopjes, where the
+enemy evidently was, I could see men, not running, but walking about in
+different directions. They were not crowded, but they seemed to be
+moving about like black ants, only in a purposeless kind of way. "They
+are Boers, and we've got them between our men and our battery," said a
+Gordon officer. But I knew his hope was a vain one. Very slowly they
+were coming towards us--turning and firing and advancing a little, one
+by one--but still coming towards us, till at last they began to dribble
+through the intervals in our batteries. Then we knew it was British
+infantry retiring--a terrible sight, no matter how small the loss or how
+wise the order given. Chiefly they were the 60th (K.R.R.) and the
+Leicesters. I believe the Dublins were there too. Behind them the enemy
+kept up the incessant crackle of their rifles.
+
+They came back slowly, tired and disheartened and sick with useless
+losses, but entirely refusing to hurry or crowd. With bullet and shell
+the enemy followed them hard. Our batteries did what they could to
+protect them, and Colonel Coxhead, in command of the guns, received the
+General's praise afterwards. The Natal Volunteers and Gordons, and at
+least part of the Manchesters were there to cover the retreat, but
+nothing could restore the position again. Battalions and ranks had got
+hopelessly mingled, and as soon as they were out of range the men
+wandered away in groups to the town, sick and angry, but longing above
+all things for water and sleep. The enemy's shells followed hard on
+their trail nearly into the town, plumping down in the midst whenever
+any body of men or horses showed themselves among the ridges of the
+kopjes. Seeing what was happening on the right the centre began to
+withdraw as well, and as their baggage train climbed back into the town
+up the Newcastle road a shell from "Long Tom" fell among them at a
+corner of the hill, blowing a poor ambulance and stretcher to pieces,
+and killing one of the Naval Brigade just arrived from the _Powerful_.
+
+It was the Naval Brigade that saved the day, though, to be sure, a
+retirement like that is in itself a check, though no disaster. Captain
+Lambton had placed two of his Elswick wire guns on the road to the town,
+and sent shot after shot straight upon "Long Tom's" position four miles
+away. Only twelve-pounders, I believe, they were, but of fine range and
+precision, and at each successful shot the populace and Zulus standing
+on the rocks clapped their hands and laughed as at a music-hall. For a
+time, but only for a time, "Long Tom" held his tongue, and gradually the
+noise of battle ceased--the bang and squeal of the shells, the crackle
+of the rifle, the terrifying hammer-hammer of the enemy's two Krupp
+automatic guns. It was about half-past two and blazing hot. The rest of
+the day was quiet, but for rumours of the lamentable disaster of which
+one can hardly speak at present. The Gloucesters and Royal Irish
+prisoners--1,100 at least after all losses! They say two Boers were
+brought in blindfold last night to tell the General. This morning an
+ambulance party has gone out to bring in the wounded, and whilst they
+are gone with their flag of truce we have peace.
+
+I take the opportunity to write, hurriedly and without correction, for
+the opportunity is short. "Long Tom" sent two shells into us this
+morning as we were dressing (I should have said washing, only the water
+supply is cut), and at any moment he may begin again.
+
+
+     _November 1, 1899._
+
+I may add that the retirement of the battalions of the 60th, with the
+Leicesters, is the theme of every one's praise to-day. Its success was
+chiefly due to General Hunter, and the dogged courage of the men
+themselves.
+
+But the second part of the despatch is after all the main point of
+interest. Such a disaster has, I suppose, seldom befallen two famous and
+distinguished battalions. After heavy loss they are prisoners. They are
+wiped out from the war. The Gloucesters and the Royal Irish
+Fusiliers--they join the squadron of the 18th Hussars in Pretoria gaols.
+Two Boers came in blindfolded to tell the news last night. All day long
+we have been fetching in the wounded. Their wounds are chiefly from
+Martini rifles, and very serious. I know the place of the disaster well,
+having often ridden there when the Boers were at a more respectful
+distance. It is an entangled and puzzling country, full of rocks and
+hills and hidden valleys. It was only some falling boulders that caused
+the ruin--a few casual shots--and the stampeding mules. That ammunition
+mule has always a good deal to bear, but now the burden put on him
+officially is almost too heavy for any four-legged thing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HEMMED IN
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _November 2, 1899_.
+
+"Long Tom" opened fire at a quarter-past six from Pepworth Hill, and was
+replied to by the Naval Brigade. Just as I walked up to their big 4.7
+in. gun on the kopje close to the Newcastle road, a shell came right
+through our battery's earthwork, without bursting. Lieutenant Egerton,
+R.N., was lying close under the barrel of our gun, and both his legs
+were shattered. The doctors amputated one at the thigh, the other at the
+shin. In the afternoon he was sitting up, drinking champagne and smoking
+cigarettes as cheery as possible, but he died in the night. "Tom" went
+on more or less all day. In the afternoon Natal correspondents dashed
+down to the Censor with telegrams that he had been put out of action.
+They had seen him lying on his side. I started to look for myself, and
+at the first 100 yards he threw a shell right into the off-side of the
+street, as though to save me the trouble of going further. Another
+rumour, quite as confidently believed by the soldiers, was that the
+Devons had captured him with the bayonet and rolled him down the hill. I
+heard one of them "chipping" a Gordon for not being present at the
+exploit. Now "Tom" is a 15-centimetre Creusot gun of superior quality.
+
+All morning I spent in the Manchesters' camp on the top of the long hill
+to the south-west, called Cæsar's Camp. There had been firing from a
+higher flat-topped mountain--Middle Hill--about 3,000 yards beyond,
+where the Boers have taken up one of their usual fine positions,
+overlooking Ladysmith on one side and Colenso on the other. At early
+morning a small column under General Hunter had attacked a Boer commando
+on the Colenso road unawares and gave them a bad time, till an order
+suddenly came to withdraw. Sir George White had heard Boer guns to the
+west of their right rear, and was afraid of another disaster such as
+befell the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers. The men came back sick
+with disappointment, and more shaken than by defeat.
+
+I found the Manchesters building small and almost circular sangars of
+stones and sandbags at intervals all along the ridge. The work was going
+listlessly, the men carrying up the smallest and easiest stones they
+could find, and spending most of the time in contemplating the scenery
+or discussing the situation, which they did not think hopeful. "We're
+surrounded--that's what we are," they kept saying. "Thought we was goin'
+to have Christmas puddin' in Pretoria. Not much Christmas puddin' we'll
+ever smell again!" A small mounted party rode past them, and the enemy
+instantly threw a shell over our heads from the front. Then the guns
+just set up on the long mountain of Bulwan, threw another plump into the
+rocks by the largest picket. "It's like that Bally Klarver," sighed a
+private, getting up and looking round with apprehension. "Cannon to
+right of 'em, cannon to left of 'em!" Then we went on building at the
+sangar, but without much spirit. They laughed when I told them how a
+shell from "Long Tom" fell into the Crown Hotel garden this morning, and
+all the black servants rushed out to pocket the fragments. But the only
+thing which really cheered them was the thought that they had only to
+"stick it out" till Buller's force went up to the Free State and drew
+the enemy off--that and a supply of cigarettes.
+
+Early in the afternoon I took my telegram to the Censor as usual, and
+after the customary wanderings and waste of time I found him--only to
+hear that the wires were bunched and the line destroyed. So telegrams
+are ended; mails neither come nor go. The guns fired lazily till
+evening, doing little harm on either side. A queer Boer ambulance, with
+little glass windows--something between a gipsy van and a penny
+peep-show--came in under a huge white flag, bringing some of our wounded
+to exchange for wounded Boers. The amenities of civilised slaughter are
+carefully observed. But one of the ambulance drivers was Mattey, "Long
+Tom's" skilled gunner, in disguise.
+
+
+     _November 3, 1900._
+
+The bombardment continued, guns on Bulwan throwing shells into various
+camps, especially the Natal Volunteers. Many people chose the river bed
+as the most comfortable place to spend a happy day. They hoped the high
+banks or perhaps the water would protect them. So there they sat on the
+stones and waited for night. I don't know how many shells pitched into
+the town to-day--say 150, not more. Little harm was done, but people of
+importance had one grand shock. Just as lunch was in full swing at the
+Royal, where officers, correspondents, and a nurse or two congregate for
+meals in hope of staying their intolerable thirst--bang came a shell
+from "Long Tom" straight for the dining-room window. Happily a little
+house which served as bedroom to Mr. Pearse, of the _Daily News_, just
+caught it on its way. Crash it came through the iron roof, the wooden
+ceiling, into the brick wall. There it burst, and the house was in the
+past. Happily Mr. Pearse was only on his way to his room, and had not
+reached it. Some of the lunchers got bricks in their backs, and one man
+took to his bed of a shocked stomach.
+
+At the time I was away on the Maritzburg road, which starts west from
+the town and gradually curves southward. The picket on the ridge called
+Range Post is a relic of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, now in the
+show-ground at Pretoria. Major Kincaid was there, only returned the
+night before from the Boer camp behind "Long Tom." He had been ill with
+fever and was exchanged. He spoke with praise of the Boer treatment of
+our wounded and prisoners. When our fellows were worn out, the Boers
+dismounted and let them ride. They brought them water and any food they
+had. Joubert came round the ambulance, commanding there should be no
+distinction between the wounded of either race. Major Kincaid had seen a
+good deal of the so-called Colonel Blake and his so-called Irish
+Brigade. He found that the very few who were not Americans were English.
+He had not a single real Irishman among them. Blake, an American, had
+come out for the adventure, just as he went to the Chili War.
+
+As we were talking, up galloped General Brocklehurst, Ian Hamilton, and
+the Staff, and I was called upon to give information about certain
+points in the country to our front--names and directions, the bits of
+plain where cavalry could act, and so on. The Intelligence Department
+had heard a large body of Free State Boers was moving westward from the
+south, as though retiring towards the passes. The information was false.
+The only true point about it was the presence of a large Boer force
+along a characteristic Boer position of low rocky hills about three
+miles to our front. There the General thought he would shell them out
+with a battery, and catch them as they retired by swinging cavalry
+round into the open length of plain behind the hills. So at 11 a.m. out
+trotted the 19th Hussars with the remains of the 18th. Then came a
+battery, with the 5th Dragoon Guards as escort In half an hour the guns
+were in full action against those low hills. The enemy's one gun there
+was silenced, but not before it had blown away half the head of a poor
+fellow among the Dragoon Guards. For an hour and a half we poured
+shrapnel over the rocks, till, except for casual rifle fire, there was
+no reply. Then another battery came up to protect the line to our rear,
+across which the Boers were throwing shells from positions on both
+sides, though without much effect. Soon after one, up cantered the
+Volunteers--Imperial Light Horse and Border Mounted Infantry--and they
+were sent forward, dismounted, to take the main position in front and
+occupy a steep hill on our left. To front and left they went gaily on,
+but they failed.
+
+At their approach the rocks we had so persistently shelled, crackled and
+hammered from end to end with rifle fire. The Boers had hidden behind
+the ridge, and now crept back again. Perhaps no infantry could have
+taken that position only from the front. I watched the Volunteers
+advance upon it in extended lines across a long green slope studded with
+ant-hills. I could see the puffs of dust where bullets fell thick round
+their feet. It was an impossible task. Some got behind a cactus hedge,
+some lay down and fired, some hid behind ant-hills or little banks.
+Suddenly that moment came when all is over but the running. The men
+began shifting uneasily about. A few turned round, then more. At first
+they walked and kept some sort of line. Then some began to run. Soon
+they were all running, isolated or in groups of two or three. And all
+the time those puffs of dust pursued their feet. Sometimes there was no
+puff of dust, and then a man would spring in the air, or spin round, or
+just lurch forward with arms outspread, a mere yellowish heap, hardly to
+be distinguished from an ant-hill. I could see many a poor fellow
+wandering hither and thither as though lost, as is common in all
+retreats. A man would walk sideways, then run back a little, look round,
+fall. Another came by. The first evidently called out and the other gave
+him a hand. Both stumbled on together, the puffs of dust splashing round
+them. Then down they fell and were quiet. A complacent correspondent
+told me afterwards, with the condescending smile of higher light, that
+only seven men were hit. I only know that before evening twenty-five of
+the Light Horse alone were brought in wounded, not counting the dead,
+and not counting the other mounted troops, all of whom suffered.
+
+It was all over by a quarter-past three. The Dragoon Guards, who had
+been trying to cover the retreat, galloped back, one or two horses
+galloping riderless. Under the Red Cross flag the dhoolies then began to
+go out to pick up the results of the battle. For an hour or so that work
+lasted, the dead and dying being found among the ant-hills where they
+fell. Then we all trailed back, the enemy shelling our line of retreat
+from three sides, and we in such a mood that we cared very little for
+shells or anything else.
+
+
+     _November 4, 1899._
+
+This morning Sir George White sent Joubert a letter by Major Bateson,
+asking leave for the non-combatants, women and children to go down to
+Maritzburg. The morning was quiet, most people packing up in hopes of
+going. But Joubert's answer put an end to that. The wounded, women,
+children, and other non-combatants might be collected in some place
+about four miles from the town, but could go no further. All who
+remained would be treated as combatants. 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. Amid shouts and cheers and waving parasols the people raised the
+National Anthem, and for once there was some dignity in that inferior
+tune. Everybody's life was in danger for "The Queen." The proposal to
+leave the town was flung back with defiance. Rather let our homes be
+flattened out!
+
+To-night my grey-haired Cape-boy and my Zulu came to me in silence and
+tears. They had hoped for escape. They longed for the peace of
+Maritzburg, and now, like myself, they were bottled up amid "pom-poms."
+Had I not promised never to bring them into danger--always to leave
+them snug in the rear? They were devoted to my service. Others ran. Them
+no thought of safety could induce to leave me. But one had a wife and
+descendants, the other had ancestors. It was pitiful. Better savages
+never loomed out of blackness. In sorrow I promised a pension for the
+widow if the old man was killed. "But how if you get pom-pom too, boss?"
+he plaintively asked. I pledged the _Chronicle_ to take over the
+obligation. The word "obligation" consoled him. The lady's name is Mrs.
+Louis Nicodemus, now of Maritzburg. For the Zulu's ancestry I promised
+no provision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TRAGEDY AND COMEDY
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 5, 1899._
+
+The armistice lasted all day, except that the enemy threw two shells at
+a waggon going up the Helpmakaar road and knocked it to pieces, and, I
+hear, killed a man or two--I don't know why. The townspeople were very
+busy building shelters for the bombardment. The ends of bridges and
+culverts were closed up with sandbags and stones. Circular forts were
+piled in the safest places among the rocks. The Army Service Corps
+constructed a magnificent work with mealy-bags and corn-beef cases--a
+perfect palace of security. But, as usual, the Kaffirs were wisest. They
+have crept up the river banks to a place where it flows between two
+steep hills of rock, and there is no access but by a narrow footpath.
+There they lie with their blankets and bits of things, indifferent to
+time and space. Some sort of Zulu missionary is up there, too, and I saw
+him nobly washing a cooking-pot for his family, dressed in little but
+his white clerical choker and a sort of undivided skirt. A few white
+families have gone to the same place, and I helped some of them to
+construct their new homes in the rocks amidst great merriment. The boys
+were as delighted as children with a spade and bucket by the sea, and
+many an impregnable redoubt was thrown up with a dozen stones. What
+those homes will be like at the end of a week I don't know. A picnic
+where love is may be endurable for one afternoon, when there are plenty
+of other people to cook and wash up. But a hungry and unclean picnic by
+day and night, beside a muddy river, with little to eat and no one to
+cook, nowhere to sleep but the rock, and nothing to do but dodge the
+shells, is another story. "I tell you what," said a serious Tory soldier
+to me, "if English people saw this sort of thing, they'd hang that
+Chamberlain." "They won't hang him, but perhaps they'll make him a
+Lord," I answered, and watched the women trying to keep the children
+decent while their husbands worked the pick.
+
+In the afternoon the trains went out, bearing the wounded to their new
+camp across the plain at Intombi's Spruit. The move was not well
+organised. From dawn the ambulance people had been at work shifting the
+hospital tents and all the surgical necessities, but at five in the
+afternoon a note came back from the officer in camp urging us not to
+send any more patients. "There is no water, no rations," it said; "not
+nearly enough tents are pitched. If more wounded come, they will have to
+spend the night on the open veldt." But the long train was already made
+up. The wounded were packed in it. It was equally impossible to leave
+them there or to take them back. So on they went. In all that crowd of
+suffering men I did not hear a single complaint. Administration is not
+the strong point of the British officer. "We are only sportsmen," said
+one of them with a sigh, as he crawled up the platform, torn with
+dysentery and fever.
+
+In front of the wounded were a lot of open trucks for such townspeople
+as chose to go. They had hustled a few rugs and lumps of bedding
+together, and, sitting on these, they made the best of war. But not many
+went, and most of those had relations among the Boers or were Boers
+themselves.
+
+When the trains had gone, Captain Lambton, of the _Powerful_, showed me
+the new protection which his men and the sappers had built round the
+great 4.7 in. gun, which is always kept trained on "Long Tom." The
+sailors call the gun "Lady Anne," in compliment to Captain Lambton's
+sister, but the soldiers have named it "Weary Willie"--I don't know why.
+The fellow gun on Cove Hill is called "Bloody Mary"--which is no
+compliment to anybody. The earthwork running round the "Lady Anne" is
+eighteen feet deep at the base. Had it been as deep the first day she
+came, Lieutenant Egerton would still be at her side.
+
+
+     _November 6, 1899._
+
+When the melodrama doesn't come off, an indignant Briton demands his
+money back. Our melodrama has not come off. We were quite ready to give
+it a favourable reception. The shops were shut, business abandoned. Many
+had taken secure places the night before, so as to be in plenty of time.
+Nearly all were seated expectant long before dawn. The rising sun was to
+ring the curtain up. It rose. The curtain never stirred. From whom shall
+we indignant Britons demand our money back?
+
+With the first glimmer of light between the stars over Bulwan, those few
+who had stayed the night under roofs began creeping away to the holes in
+the river bank or the rough, scrubby ground at the foot of the hills
+south-west of the town, where the Manchesters guard the ridge. Then we
+all waited, silent with expectation. The clouds turned crimson. At five
+the sun marched up in silence. Not a gun was heard. "They will begin at
+six," we said. Not a sound. "They are having a good breakfast," we
+thought. Eight came, and we began to move about uneasily. Two miserable
+shells whizzed over my head, obviously aimed only at the balloon which
+was just coming down. "Call that a performance?" we grumbled. We left
+our seats. We went on to the stage of the town. What was the matter? Was
+"Long Tom" ill? Had the Basutos overrun the Free State? Had Buller
+really advanced? Lieutenant Hooper, of the 5th Lancers, had walked
+through from Maritzburg, passing the Royal Irish sentries at 2 a.m. He
+brought news of a division coming to our rescue. Was that the reason of
+the day's failure? So speculation chattered. The one thing certain was
+that the performance did not come off, and there was no one to give us
+our money back.
+
+[Illustration: IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS]
+
+So we spent the day wandering round the outposts, washing ourselves and
+our rags in the yellow river, trying to get the horses to drink the
+water afterwards, contemplating the picturesque, and pretending to cook.
+Perhaps the greatest interest was the work upon a series of caves in the
+river-bank, behind the Intelligence Office. They are square-topped, with
+straight sides, cut clean into the hard, sandy cliff. The Light Horse
+have made them for themselves and their ammunition. On the opposite side
+the Archdeacon has hollowed out a noble, ecclesiastical burrow. On the
+hills the soldiers are still at work completing their shelter-trenches
+and walls. I think the Rifle Brigade on King's Post (the signal hill of
+a month ago) have built the finest series of defences, for they have
+made covered pits against shrapnel. But perhaps they are more exposed
+than all the others except the Devons, who lie along a low ridge beside
+the Helpmakaar road, open to shell from two points, and perhaps to
+rifle-fire also. The Irish Fusiliers, under Major Churchill, have a very
+ingenious series of walls and covers. The main Manchesters' defences are
+circular like forts; so are the Gordons' and the K.R.R.'s. All are
+provisioned for fourteen days.
+
+I spent the afternoon searching for a runner, a Kaffir the colour of
+night, who would steal through the Boer lines in the dark with a
+telegram. In my search I lost two hours through the conscientiousness of
+the 5th Lancers, who arrested me and sent me from pillar to post, just
+as if I was seeking information at the War Office. At last they took
+me--the Colonel himself, three privates with rifles and a mounted
+orderly with a lance--took me to the General Staff, and there the
+absurdity ended. But seriously, what is the good of having the very
+highest and most authoritative passes possible--one from the War Office
+and one from the head of the Intelligence Department here--if any
+conscientious colonel can refuse to acknowledge them, and drag a
+correspondent about amid the derision of Kaffirs and coolies, and of
+Dutchmen who are known perfectly well to send every scrap of
+intelligence to their friends outside? I lost two hours; probably I lost
+my chance of getting a runner through. I had complied with the
+regulations in every possible respect. My pass was in my hand; and what
+was the good of it?
+
+But after all we are in the midst of a tragedy. Let us not be too
+serious. Dishevelled women are peering out of their dens in the rocks
+and holes in the sand. They crawl into the evening light, shaking the
+dirt from their petticoats and the sand from their back hair. They rub
+the children's faces round with the tails of their gowns. They tempt
+scraps of flame to take the chill off the yellow water for the
+children's tea. After sundown a steady Scotch drizzle settles down upon
+us.
+
+
+     _November 7, 1899._
+
+To-day the melodrama has begun in earnest. "Long Tom" and four or five
+smaller guns from Bulwan, and a nearer battery to the north-west, began
+hurling percussion shell and shrapnel upon the Naval batteries at
+half-past seven. Our "Lady Anne" answered, but after flinging shells
+into the immense earthworks for an hour or two without much effect, both
+sides got tired of that game. But the Boer fire was not quite without
+effect, for one of the smaller shells burst right inside the "Lady
+Anne's" private chamber and carried away part of the protecting gear,
+not killing any men. Then "Long Tom" was deliberately turned upon the
+town, especially upon the Convent, which stands high on the ridge, and
+is used as a hospital. His shells went crashing among the houses, but
+happily land is cheap in South Africa still, and the houses, as a rule,
+are built on separate plots, so that as often as not the shells fall in
+a garden bush or among the clothes-lines. Only two Indian bearers were
+wounded and a few horses and cattle killed. Things went pretty quietly
+through the morning, except that there was a good deal of firing--shell
+and rifle--on the high ridge south-west, where the Manchesters are.
+About two o'clock I started for that position, and being fond of short
+cuts, thought I would ford the river at a break in its steep banks
+instead of going round by the iron bridge. Mr. Melton Prior was with me,
+for I had promised to show him a quiet place for sketching the whole
+view of the town in peace. As we came to the river a shell pitched near
+us, but we did not take much notice of it. In the middle of the ford we
+took the opportunity of letting the horses drink, and they stood
+drinking like the orphan lamb. Suddenly there was something more than
+the usual bang, crash, scream of a big shell, and the water was splashed
+with lumps and shreds of iron, my hat was knocked off and lay wrecked in
+the stream, and the horses were dashing this way and that with terror.
+"Are you killed?" shouted Mr. Prior. "I don't think so," I said. "Are
+you?" And then I had to lash my horse back to the place lest my hat
+should sail down-stream and adorn a Queen's enemy. There is nothing like
+shell-fire for giving lessons in horsemanship.
+
+[Illustration: THE DRIFT AND WATERING PLACE]
+
+The Manchesters had been having an uncomfortable time of it, and I found
+Sir George White and his staff up on their hill. As we walked about, the
+little puffs of dust kept rising at our feet. We were within rifle-fire,
+though at long range. Now and then a very peculiar little shell was
+thrown at us. One went straight through a tent, but we could not find it
+afterwards. It was a shell like a viper. I left the Manchesters putting
+up barbed-wire entanglements to increase their defence, and came back to
+try to find another runner. The shells were falling very thick in the
+town, and for the first time people were rather scared. As I write one
+bursts just over this little tin house. It is shrapnel, and the iron
+rain falls hammering on the roof, but it does not come through. Two
+windows only are broken. Probably it burst too high.
+
+
+     _November 8, 1899._
+
+Fairly quiet day. The great event was the appearance of a new "Long Tom"
+on the Bulwan. He is to be called "Puffing Billy," from the vast
+quantity of smoke he pours out. Nothing else of great importance
+happened. Major Grant, of the Intelligence, was slightly wounded while
+sketching on the Manchesters' ridge. Coolies wandered about the streets
+all day with tin boxes or Asiatic bundles on their heads. Joubert had
+sent them in as a present from Dundee. They were refugees from that
+unhappy town, and after a visit to Pretoria, they are now dumped down
+here to help devour our rations. Some Europeans have come, too--guards,
+signalmen and shopkeepers--who report immense reinforcements coming up
+for the Boers. Is there not something a little mediæval in sending a
+crowd of hungry non-combatants into an invested town?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND REALITIES
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _November 9, 1899_.[1]
+
+A day of furious and general attack. Just before five I was wakened by a
+shell blustering through the eucalyptus outside my window, and bursting
+in a gully beyond. "Lady Anne" answered at once, and soon all the Naval
+Brigade guns were in full cry. What should we have done without the
+Naval guns? We have nothing else but ordinary field artillery, quite
+unable to reply to the heavy guns which the Boers have now placed in
+position round the town. Yet they only came up at the last moment, and
+it was a mere piece of luck they got through at all. Standing behind
+them on the ridge above my tin house, I watched the firing till nine
+o'clock, dodging behind a loose wall to avoid the splinters which buzz
+through the air after each shot, and are sometimes strangely slow to
+fall. Once after "Long Tom" had fired I stood up, thinking all was over,
+when a big fragment hummed gently above my head, went through the roof
+and ceiling of a house a hundred yards behind, and settled on a
+shell-proof spring mattress in the best bedroom. One of the little boys
+running out from the family burrow in the rocks was delighted to find it
+there, and carried it off to add to his collection of moths and birds'
+eggs. The estimate of "Long Tom's" shell has risen from 40lbs. to 96lbs.
+and I believe that to be the true weight. One of them to-day dug a
+stupendous hole in the pavement just before one of the principal shops,
+and broke yards of shutter and plate glass to pieces. It was quite
+pleasant to see a shop open again.
+
+So the bombardment went on with violence all the morning. The
+troglodytes in their burrows alone thought themselves safe, but, in
+fact, only five men were killed, and not all of those by shell. One was
+a fine sergeant of the Liverpools, who held the base of the Helpmakaar
+road where it leaves the town eastward. Sergeant Macdonald was his name,
+a man full of zeal, and always tempted into danger by curiosity, as
+most people are. Instead of keeping under shelter of the sangar when the
+guns on Bulwan were shelling the position, he must needs go outside "to
+have a look." The contents of a shell took him full in front. Any of his
+nine wounds would have been fatal. His head and face seemed shattered to
+bits; yet he did not lose consciousness, but said to his captain, "I'd
+better have stopped inside, sir." He died on the way to hospital.
+
+A private of the Liverpools was killed too. About twenty-four in all
+were wounded, chiefly by rifle fire, Captain Lethbridge of the Rifle
+Brigade being severely injured in the spine. Lieutenant Fisher, of the
+Manchesters, had been shot through the shoulder earlier in the day, but
+did not even report himself as wounded until evening.
+
+After all, the rifle, as Napoleon said, is the only thing that counts,
+and to-day we had a great deal of it at various points in our long line
+of defence. That line is like a horseshoe, ten to twelve miles round.
+
+The chief attacks were directed against the Manchesters in Cæsar's Camp
+(we are very historic in South Africa) and against a mixed force on
+Observation Hill, two companies of the Rifle Brigade, two of the King's
+Royal Rifles, and the 5th Lancers dismounted. The Manchesters suffered
+most. Since the investment began the enemy has never left them in peace.
+They are exposed to shells from three positions, and to continual
+sniping from the opposite hill. It is more than a week since even the
+officers washed or took their clothes off, and now the men have been
+obliged to strike their tents because the shells and rifles were
+spoiling the stuff.
+
+The various companies get into their sangars at 3 a.m., and stay there
+till it is dark again. Two companies were to-day thrown out along the
+further edge of their hill in extended order as firing line, and soon
+after dawn the Boers began to creep down the opposite steep by two or
+three at a time into one of the many farms owned by Bester, a notorious
+traitor, now kept safe in Ladysmith. All morning the firing was very
+heavy, many of the bullets coming right over the hill and dropping near
+the town. Our men kept very still, only firing when they saw their mark.
+Three of them were killed, thirteen wounded. Before noon a field battery
+came up to support the battalion, and against that terrifying shrapnel
+of ours the Boers attempted no further advance. In the same way they
+came creeping up against Observation Hill (a barren rocky ridge on the
+north-west of the town), hiding by any tree or stone, but were
+completely checked by four companies of Rifles, with two guns and the
+dismounted Lancers. They say the Boer loss was very heavy at both
+places. It is hard to know.
+
+In the afternoon things were fairly quiet, but in walking along the low
+ridge held by the Liverpools and Devons, I was sniped at every time my
+head showed against the sky. At 4 p.m. there was a peculiar forward
+movement of our cavalry and guns along the Helpmakaar road, which came
+to nothing being founded on false information, such as comes in hourly.
+
+The great triumph of the day was certainly the Royal salute at noon in
+honour of the Prince of Wales. Twenty-one guns with shotted charge, and
+all fired slap upon "Long Tom"! It was the happiest moment in the Navy's
+life for many a year. One after another the shot flew. "Long Tom" was so
+bewildered he has not spoken since. The cheering in the camps was heard
+for miles. People thought the relief division was in sight. But we were
+only signifying that the Prince was a year older.
+
+[Footnote 1: Despatched by runner on November 20, but returned to the
+writer on December 23, and despatched again on January 1.]
+
+
+     _November 10, 1899._
+
+Another morning of unusual quiet. People sicken of the monotony when
+shells are not flying. We don't know any reason for the calm, except
+that the Dutch are burying their dead of yesterday. But the peace is
+welcome, and in riding round our positions I found nearly all the men
+lying asleep in the sun. The wildest stories flew: General French had
+been seen in the street; his brigade was almost in sight; Methuen was at
+Colenso with overwhelming force. The townspeople took heart. One man who
+had spent his days in a stinking culvert since the siege began now crept
+into the sun. "They are arrant cowards, these Boers," he cried, stamping
+the echoing ground; "why don't they come on and fight us like men?" So
+the day wears. At four o'clock comes an African thunderstorm with a
+deluge of rain, filling the water tanks and slaking the dust, grateful
+to all but the men of both armies uncovered on the rocks.
+
+
+     _November 11, 1899._
+
+A soaking early morning with minute rain, hiding all the circle of the
+hills, for which reason there is no bombardment yet, and I have spent a
+quiet hour with Colonel Stoneman, arranging rations for my men and
+beasts, and taking a lesson how to organise supplies and yet keep an
+unruffled mind. The rest of the morning I sat with a company of the 60th
+(K.R.R.) on the top of Cove Hill (another of the many Aldershot names).
+The men had been lining the exposed edge of Observation Hill all night,
+without any shelter, whilst the thick cold rain fell upon them. It was
+raining still, and they lay about among the rocks and thorny mimosa
+bushes in rather miserable condition.
+
+It would be a good thing if the Army could be marched through Regent
+Street as the men look this morning. It would teach people more about
+war than a hundred pictures of plumed horsemen and the dashing charge.
+The smudgy khaki uniforms soaked through and through, stained black and
+green and dingy red with wet and earth and grass; the draggled
+great-coats, heavy with rain and thick with mud; the heavy sopping
+boots, the blackened, battered helmets; the blackened, battered faces
+below them, unwashed and unshaved since the siege began; the eyes heavy
+and bloodshot with sun and rain and want of sleep; the peculiar
+smell--there is not much brass band and glory about us now.
+
+At noon the mist lifted, and just before one the Boer guns opened fire
+nearly all round the horseshoe, except that the Manchesters were left in
+peace. I think only one new gun had been placed in position, but another
+had been cleverly checked. As a rule, it has been our polite way to let
+the Boers settle their guns comfortably in their places, and then to try
+in vain to blow them out. Yesterday the enemy were fortifying a gun on
+Star Hill, when one of our artillery captains splashed a shell right
+into the new wall. We could see the Boer gunners running out on both
+sides, and the fort has not been continued.
+
+To-day "Long Tom's" shells were thrown pretty much at random about the
+town. One blew a mule's head off close to the bank, and disembowelled a
+second. One went into the "Scotch House" and cleared the shop. A third
+pitched close to the Anglican Church, and brought the Archdeacon out of
+burrow. But there was no real loss, except that one of the Naval Brigade
+got a splinter in the forehead. My little house had another dose of
+shrapnel, and on coming in I found a soldier digging up the bits in the
+garden; but the Scotch owner drove him away for "interfering with the
+mineral rights." At 3.30 the mist fell again, and there was very little
+firing after 4. Out on the flat beyond the racecourse our men were
+engaged in blowing up and burning some little farms and kraals which
+sheltered the Boer scouts. As I look towards the Bulwan I see the yellow
+blaze of their fires.
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 12, 1899._
+
+Amid all the estimable qualities of the Boer race there is none more
+laudable than their respect for the Sabbath day. It has been a calm and
+sunny day. Not a shot was fired--no sniping even. We feel like grouse on
+a pious Highland moor when Sunday comes, and even the laird dares not
+shoot. The cave dwellers left their holes and flaunted in the light of
+day. In the main street I saw a perambulator, stuffed with human young.
+Pickets and outposts stretched their limbs in the sun. Soldiers off duty
+scraped the clods off their boots and polished up their bayonets.
+Officers shaved and gloried over a leisurely breakfast. For myself, I
+washed my shirt and hung it on the line of fire to dry.
+
+In the morning one of the Irish Brigade rode in through the Liverpools'
+picket. He was "fed up" with the business, as the soldiers say. He
+reported that only about seventy of the Brigade were left. He also said
+the Boer commandants were holding a great meeting to-day--whether for
+psalms or strategy I don't know; probably both. We heard the usual
+rumours that the Boers were going or had gone. Climbing to the
+Manchesters' post for the view, I could see three Boer trains waiting at
+Modder's Spruit station, about six miles up the Newcastle line. Did they
+bring reinforcements, or were they waiting to take "Long Tom" home by
+return ticket? We shall know to-morrow. Over the valley where we
+repulsed Thursday's attack, the vultures flew as thick as swifts upon
+the Severn at twilight. Those were the only signs of war--those and the
+little forts which hid the guns. Otherwise the enormous landscape lay at
+peace. I have never seen it so clear--the precipitous barrier of the
+Basuto mountains, lined with cloud, and still touched with snow: the
+great sculptured mountains that mark the Free State border: and then the
+scenes which have become so familiar to us all--Elands Laagte, Tinta
+Inyoni, Pepworth Hill, Lombard's Kop, and the great Bulwan. Turning to
+the south we looked across to the nearer hills, beyond which lie
+Colenso, Estcourt, and the road to Maritzburg and the sea. It is from
+beyond those hills that our help is coming.
+
+The Boers have many estimable qualities. They are one of the few
+admirable races still surviving, and they conduct this siege with real
+consideration and gentlemanly feeling. They observe the Sabbath. They
+give us quiet nights. After a violent bombardment they generally give us
+at least one day to calm down. Their hours for slaughter are six to six,
+and they seldom overstep them. They knock off for meals--unfashionably
+early, it is true, but it would be petty to complain. Like good
+employers, they seldom expose our lives to danger for more than eight
+hours a day. They are a little capricious, perhaps, in the use of the
+white flag. At the beginning of the siege our "Lady Anne" killed or
+wounded some of "Long Tom's" gunners and damaged the gun. Whereupon the
+Boers hoisted the white flag over him till the place was cleared and he
+was put to rights again. Then they drew it down and went on firing. It
+was the sort of thing schoolboys might do. Captain Lambton complained
+that by the laws of war the gun was permanently out of action. But "Long
+Tom" goes on as before.
+
+I think the best story of the siege comes from a Kaffir who walked in a
+few days ago. In the Boer camp behind Pepworth Hill he had seen the men
+being taught bayonet exercise with our Lee-Metfords, captured at Dundee.
+The Boer has no bayonet or steel of his own, and for an assault on the
+town he will need it. Instruction was being given by a prisoner--a
+sergeant of the Royal Irish Fusiliers--with a rope round his neck!
+
+
+     _November 13, 1899._
+
+The Boer method of siege is quite inexplicable. Perhaps it comes of
+inexperience. Perhaps they have been studying the sieges of ancient
+history and think they are doing quite the proper thing in sitting down
+round a garrison, putting in a few shells and waiting. But they forget
+that, though the sieges of ancient history lasted ten years, nowadays we
+really can't afford the time. The Boers, we hope, have scarcely ten
+days, yet they loiter along as though eternity was theirs.
+
+To-day they began soon after five with the usual cannonade from "Long
+Tom," "Puffing Billy," and three or four smaller guns, commanding the
+Naval batteries. The answers of our "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" shook
+me awake, and, seated on the hill, I watched the big guns pounding at
+each other for about three hours, when there came an interval for
+breakfast. As far as I could make out, neither side did the other the
+least harm. It was simply an unlucrative exchange of so much broken iron
+between two sensible and prudent nations. The moment "Tom" or "Billy"
+flashed, "Anne" or "Mary" flashed too. Our shells do the distance about
+two and a-half seconds quicker than theirs, so that we can see the
+result of our shot just before one has to duck behind the stones for the
+crash and whiz of the enormous shells which started first. To-day most
+of "Tom's" shells passed over the batteries, and plunged down the hill
+into the town beyond. It is supposed that he must be wearing out. He has
+been firing here pretty steadily for over a fortnight, to say nothing of
+his work at Dundee. But I think his fire upon the town is quite
+deliberate. He might pound away at "Lady Anne" for ever, but there is
+always a chance that 96lbs. of iron exploding in a town may, at all
+events, kill a mule.
+
+So the bombardment went on cheerily through the early morning, till
+about 10.30 it slackened down in the inexplicable Boer fashion, and
+hardly one shot an hour was fired afterwards. The surmise goes that
+Joubert cannot get his men up to the attacking point. Their loss last
+Saturday was certainly heavy.
+
+Yesterday the Boers, with fine simplicity, sent to our ambulance camp
+for some chlorodyne because they had run short of it, and were troubled
+with dysentery like ourselves. Being at heart a kindly people, we gave
+them what they wanted and a little brandy besides. The British soldier
+thereupon invents the satire that Joubert asked for some forage because
+his horses were hungry, and Sir George White replied: "I would very
+gladly accede to your request, but have only enough forage myself to
+last three years."
+
+The day passed, and we did not lose a single man. Yet the enemy must
+have enjoyed one incident. I was riding up to spend an hour in the
+afternoon with Major Churcher and the 200 Royal Irish Fusiliers left at
+Range Post, when on an open space between me and their little camp I saw
+a squadron of the 18th Hussars circling and doubling about as though
+they were practising for the military tournament. Almost before I had
+time to think, bang came a huge shell from "Puffing Billy" just over my
+head, and pitched between me and them. Happily, it fell short, but it
+gave the Dutch gunners a wonderful display of our cavalry's excellence.
+Even before I could come up men and horses had vanished into air.
+
+All day strange rumours have been afloat about the Division supposed to
+be coming to our relief. It was expected to-morrow. Now it is put off
+till Thursday. It is even whispered it will sit quiet at Estcourt, and
+not come to our relief at all. To-night is bitterly cold, and the men
+are chilled to the stomach on the bare hillsides.
+
+
+     _November 14, 1899._
+
+The siege is becoming very tedious, and we are losing heart. Depression
+was to-day increased by one of those futile sorties which only end in
+retirement. In the early morning a large Boer convoy of waggons was seen
+moving along the road beyond Bluebank towards the north, about eight
+miles away. Ninety waggons were reported. One man counted twenty-five,
+another thirteen. I myself saw two. At all events, waggons were there,
+and we thought of capturing them. But it was past ten before even the
+nucleus of a force reached Range Post, and the waggons were already far
+away. Out trotted the 18th and 19th Hussars, three batteries, and the
+Imperial Light Horse on to the undulating plain leading up to the ridge
+of Bluebank, where the Boers have one gun and plenty of rocks to hide
+behind. That gun opened fire at once, and was supported by "Faith,"
+"Hope," and "Charity," three black-powder guns along Telegraph Hill,
+besides the two guns on Surprise Hill. In fact, all the Boer guns chimed
+in round the circle, and for two hours it was difficult to trace where
+each whizzing shell came from, familiar though we are with their
+peculiar notes.
+
+Meantime our batteries kept sprinkling shrapnel over Bluebank with their
+usual steadiness and perfection of aim. The enemy's gun was soon either
+silenced or withdrawn. The rifle fire died down. Not a Boer was to be
+seen upon the ridge, but three galloped away over the plains behind as
+though they had enough of it. The Light Horse dismounted and advanced to
+Star Point. All looked well. We expected to see infantry called up to
+advance upon the ridge, while our cavalry swept round upon the fugitives
+in the rear. But nothing of the kind happened.
+
+Suddenly the Light Horse walked back to their horses and retired. One by
+one the batteries retired at a walk. The cavalry followed. Before two
+o'clock the whole force was back again over Range Post. The enemy poured
+in all the shells and bullets they could, but our men just came back at
+a walk, and only four were wounded. I am told General Brocklehurst was
+under strict orders not to lose men.
+
+The shells did more damage than usual in the town. Three houses were
+wrecked, one "Long Tom" shell falling into Captain Valentine's
+dining-room, and disturbing the breakfast things. Another came through
+two bedrooms in the hotel, and spoilt the look of the smoking-room. But
+I think the only man killed was a Carbineer, who had his throat cut by a
+splinter as he lay asleep in his tent.
+
+Just after midnight a very unusual thing happened. Each of the Boer guns
+fired one shot. Apparently they were trained before sunset and fired at
+a given signal. The shells woke me up, whistling over the roof. Most of
+the townspeople rushed, lightly clad, to their holes and coverts. The
+troops stood to arms. But the rest of the night was quiet.' Apparently
+the Boers, contrary to their character, had only done it to annoy,
+because they knew it teased us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ENNUI ENLIVENED BY SUDDEN DEATH
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _November 15, 1899_.
+
+This drama is getting too long for the modern stage, and so far the
+Dutch have obeyed none of the dramatic rules. To-day was one monotony of
+rain, and may be blotted out from the memory of all but the men who lay
+hour after hour miserably soaking upon the edges of the hills. After the
+early morning not a shell was fired. The mist was too thick to allow
+even of wild shots at the town.
+
+I had another try at getting a Kaffir runner to carry a telegram through
+to Estcourt.
+
+
+     _November 16, 1899._
+
+The sun came back to cheer us up and warm our bones. At the Liverpools'
+picket, on the Newcastle road, the men at six o'clock were rejoicing in
+a glorious and soapy wash where the rain had left a pool in a quarry.
+The day passed very quietly, shells only falling on an average of one
+every half-hour. Unhappily a shrapnel scattered over the station,
+wounded three or four natives, and killed an excellent railway guard--a
+sharp fragment tearing through his liver and intestines. There was high
+debate whether the shell was thrown by "Silent Susan," or what other
+gun. Some even stuck out for "Long Tom" himself. But to the guard it
+makes no difference, and he was most concerned.
+
+Relief was to have come to us to-day for certain, but we hear nothing of
+it beyond vague rumours of troops at Estcourt and Maritzburg. We are
+slowly becoming convinced that we are to be left to our fate while the
+main issue is settled elsewhere. Colonel Ward has organised the
+provisions of the town and troops to last for eighty days. He is also
+buying up all the beer and spirits, partly to cheer the soldiers' hearts
+on these dreary wet nights; partly to prevent the soldier cheering
+himself too much.
+
+In the evening I sent off another runner with a telegram and quite a
+mail of letters from officers and men for their mothers', wives, and
+lovers over seas. He was a bony young Kaffir, with a melancholy face,
+black as sorrow. At six o'clock I saw him start, his apish feet padding
+through the crusted slush. One pocket bulged with biscuits, one with a
+tin of beef. Between his black chest and his rag of shirt he had tucked
+that neat packet which was to console so many a woman, white-skinned and
+delicately dressed. Fetching a wide compass, he stole away into the
+eastern twilight, where the great white moon was rising, shrouded in
+electric cloud.
+
+
+     _November 17, 1899._
+
+A few shells came in early, and by nine o'clock there was so much firing
+on the north-west that I rode out to the main position of the 60th
+(King's Royal Rifles) on Cove Hill. I found that our field battery there
+was being shelled from Surprise Hill and its neighbour, but nothing
+unusual was happening. The men were in a rather disconsolate condition.
+Even where they have built a large covered shelter underground the wet
+comes through the roof and trickles down upon them in liquid filth. But
+they bear it all with ironic indifference, consoling themselves
+especially with the thought that they killed one Boer for certain
+yesterday. "The captain saw him fall."
+
+Crossing the open valley in front I came to the long ridge called
+Observation Hill. There the rifle fire hardly ever ceases. It is held by
+three companies of the K.R.R. and the 5th Lancers dismounted. It looks
+out over the long valley of Bell's Spruit; that scene of the great
+disaster where we lost our battalions, being less than three miles away
+at the foot of the rugged mountain beyond--Surprise Hill. Close in front
+is one of the two farms called Hyde's, and there the Boers find shelter
+at nights and in rain. The farm's orchard, its stone walls, the rocks,
+and all points of cover swarm with Boer sharpshooters, and whenever our
+men show themselves upon the ridge the bullets fly. An immense quantity
+of them are lost. In all the morning's firing only one Lancer had been
+wounded. As I came over the edge the bullets all passed over my head,
+but our men have to keep behind cover if they can, and only return the
+fire when they are sure of a mark. I found a detachment of Lancers, with
+a corporal, lying behind a low stone wall. It happened to be exactly the
+place I had wished to find, for at one end of the wall stood the Lancer
+dummy, whose fame has gone through the camp. There he stood, regarding
+the Dutch with a calm but defiant aspect, his head and shoulders
+projecting about three feet over the wall. His legs were only a sack
+stuffed with straw, but round his straw body a beautiful khaki tunic had
+been buttoned, and his straw head was protected by a regulation helmet,
+for which a slouch hat was sometimes substituted, to give variety and
+versimilitude. In his right hand he grasped a huge branch of a tree,
+either as rifle or lance. He was withdrawn occasionally, and stuck up
+again in a fresh attitude. To please me the corporal crept behind him
+and jogged him up and down in a life-like and scornful manner. The hope
+was that the Boers would send a bullet through that heart of straw. In
+the afternoon they did in fact pierce his hat, but at the time they were
+keeping their ammunition for something more definitely human, like
+myself. As I retired, after saluting the dummy for his courage, the
+bullets flew again, but the sights were still too high.
+
+[Illustration: BULWAN]
+
+On my return to the old Scot's house, I found an excited little crowd in
+the back garden. They were digging out an enormous shell which had
+plumped into the grass, taking off the Scot's hat and knocking him down
+with the shock as it fell. The thing had burst in the ground, and it
+was as good as a Chinese puzzle to fit the great chunks of iron
+together. At first we could not find the solid base, but we dug it out
+with a pick from the stiff, black clay. It had sunk 3 ft. 8 in. down
+from the surface, and had run 7 ft. 6 in. from the point of contact. It
+was a 45-pounder, thrown by a 4.7 in. gun--probably one of the four
+howitzers which the Boers possess, standing half-way down Lombard's Kop,
+about four miles away, and is identical with "Silent Susan." But with
+smokeless powder it is almost impossible to say where a shot comes from.
+"Long Tom" and "Puffing Billy," with their huge volumes of smoke, are
+much more satisfactory.
+
+Rain fell heavily for the rest of the day, and the bombardment ended,
+but it was bitter cold.
+
+
+     _November 18, 1899._
+
+The bombardment was continued without much energy. The balloon reported
+that the Boers were occupied in putting up more guns on Bulwan. Rumour
+says there will be thirteen in all, a goodly number for a position which
+completely commands the town from end to end. All day the shells had a
+note of extra spite in them as they came plunging among the defenceless
+houses. But they did no great harm till evening. As a rule the Boers
+cease fire about half-past six, and some twenty of us then settled down
+to dinner at the hotel--one or two officers, some doctors, and most of
+the correspondents. We had hardly begun to-night when a shell from
+"Silent Susan" whistled just over the roof and burst in the yard. Within
+five minutes came the louder scream of another. It crashed over us,
+breaking its way through the hotel from roof to floor. We all got up and
+crowded to the main entrance on the street. The shell had struck a
+sidewall in the bar, and glanced off through the doorway without
+exploding. Dr. Stark, of Torquay, was standing at the door, waiting for
+a place at dinner, and talking to Mr. Machugh, of the _Daily Telegraph_.
+The shell struck him full in the thigh, leaving his left leg hanging
+only by a piece of flesh, and shattering the right just at the knee.
+"Hold me up," he said, and did not lose consciousness. We moved him to
+the hospital, but he died within an hour. I have little doubt that the
+shells were aimed at the hotel, because the Boers know that Dr. Jameson
+and Colonel Rhodes are in the town. But the man killed was Dr. Stark, a
+strong opponent of the Chamberlain policy, and a vigorous denouncer of
+the war's injustice.
+
+The havoc of the siege is gradually increasing, and the prospect of
+relief grows more and more distant. Just after midnight the Boers again
+aroused us by discharging all their guns into the forts or the town, and
+again the people hurried away to their caves and culverts for
+protection. The long Naval guns replied, and then all was quiet.
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 19, 1899._
+
+Another day of rest, for which we thank the Fourth Commandment. After
+the Sabbath wash, I went up to Cæsar's Camp for the view. On the way I
+called in upon the balloon, which now dwells in a sheltered leafy glade
+at the foot of the Gordons' hill, when it is not in the sky, surrounded
+by astonished vultures. The weak points of ballooning appear to be that
+it is hard to be sure of detail as distinguished from mass, and even on
+a clear day the light is often insufficient or puzzling. It is seldom,
+for instance, that the balloonist gets a definite view towards Colenso,
+which to us is the point of greatest interest. I found that the second
+balloon was only used as a blind to the enemy, like a paper kite flown
+over birds to keep them quiet. Going up to the Manchesters' position on
+the top of Cæsar's Camp, I had a view of the whole country almost as
+good as any balloon's. The Boer laagers have increased in size, and are
+not so carefully hidden.
+
+Beside the railway at the foot of "Long Tom's" hill near Modder Spruit,
+there was quite a large camp of Boer tents and three trains as usual.
+They say the Boers have put their prisoners from the Royal Irish
+Fusiliers here, but it is unlikely they should bring them back from
+Pretoria. The tents of another large camp showed among the bushes on
+Lombard's Nek, where the Helpmakaar road passes between Lombard's Kop
+and Bulwan, and many waggon laagers were in sight beyond. At the foot of
+the flat-topped Middle Hill on the south-west, the Boers have placed two
+more guns to trouble the Manchesters further. But our defences along the
+whole ridge are now very strong.
+
+In the afternoon they buried Dr. Stark in the cemetery between the river
+and the Helpmakaar road. I don't know what has become of a kitten which
+he used to carry about with him in a basket when he went to spend the
+day under the shelter of the river bank.
+
+
+     _November 20, 1899._
+
+"Gentlemen," said Sir George White to his Staff, "we have two things to
+do--to kill time and to kill Boers--both equally difficult." The siege
+is becoming intolerably tedious. It is three weeks to-day since "Black
+Monday," when the great disaster befell us, and we seem no nearer the
+end than we were at first. We console ourselves with the thought that we
+are but a pawn on a great chessboard. We hope we are doing service by
+keeping the main Boer army here. We hope we are not handed over for
+nothing to _ennui_ enlivened by sudden death. But the suspicion will
+recur that perhaps the army hedging us in is not large after all. It is
+a bad look-out if, as Captain Lambton put it, we are being "stuck up by
+a man and a boy."
+
+Nothing is so difficult to estimate as Boer numbers, and we never take
+enough account of the enemy's mobility. They can concentrate rapidly at
+any given point and gain the appearance of numbers which they don't
+possess. However, the balloon reports the presence of laagers of ten
+commandoes in sight. We may therefore assume about as many out of sight,
+and consider that we are probably doing our duty as a pawn.
+
+This morning the Boers hardly gave a sign of life, except that just
+before noon "Puffing Billy" shelled a platelayer's house on the flat
+beyond the racecourse, in the attempt to drive out our scouts who were
+making a defended position of it.
+
+In the afternoon I rode up to the Rifle Brigade at King's Post, above
+the old camp, and met Captain Paley, whom I last saw administering a
+province in Crete. Suddenly the Boer guns began firing from Surprise
+Hill and Thornhill's Kop, just north of us, and the shells passing over
+our heads, crashed right into the 18th Hussar camp beside a little
+bridge over the river below. Surprise Hill alone dropped five shells in
+succession among the crowded tents, horses, and men. The men began
+hurrying about like ants. Tents were struck at once, horses saddled,
+everything possible taken up, and the whole regiment sought cover in a
+little defile close by. Within half an hour of the first shell the place
+was deserted. The same guns compelled the Naval Brigade to shift their
+position last night. We have not much to teach the Boer gunners, except
+the superiority of our shells.
+
+The bombardment then became general; only three Gordons were wounded,
+but the town suffered a good deal. Three of "Long Tom's" shells pitched
+in the main street, one close in front of a little girl, who escaped
+unhurt. Another carried away the heavy stone porch of the Anglican
+Church, and, at dinner-time, "Silent Susan" made a mark on the hotel,
+but it was empty. Just before midnight the guns began again. I watched
+them flashing from Bulwan and the other hills, but could not mark what
+harm they did. It was a still, hot night, with a large waning moon. In
+the north-west the Boers were flashing an electric searchlight,
+apparently from a railway truck on the Harrismith line. The nation of
+farmers is not much behind the age. They will be sending up a balloon
+next.
+
+
+     _November 21, 1899._
+
+The desultory bombardment went on as usual, except that "Long Tom" did
+not fire. The Staff is said to have lost heliographic communication with
+the south. To-day they sent off two passenger pigeons for Maritzburg.
+The rumour also went that the wounded Dublins, taken to Intombi Spruit,
+from the unfortunate armoured train, had heard an official report of
+Buller's arrival at Bloemfontein after heavy losses. Another rumour told
+that many Boer wives and daughters were arriving in the laagers. They
+were seen, especially on Sunday, parading quite prettily in white
+frocks. This report has roused the liveliest indignation, which I can
+only attribute to envy. In our own vulgar land, companies would be
+running cheap excursions to witness the siege of Ladysmith--one shilling
+extra to see "Long Tom" in action.
+
+In the morning they buried a Hindoo bearer who had died of pneumonia.
+The grave was dug among the unmarked heaps of the native graveyard on
+the river bank. It took five hours to make it deep enough, and meantime
+the dead man lay on a stretcher, wrapped in a clean white sheet. His
+friends, about twenty of them, squatted round, almost motionless, and
+quite indifferent to time and space. In their midst a thin grey smoke
+rose from a brazen jar, in which smouldered scented wood, spices,
+lavender, and the fresh blossom of one yellow flower like an aster. At
+intervals of about a minute, one of the Hindoos raised a short, wailing
+chant, in parts of which the others joined. On the ground in front of
+him lay a sweetly-scented manuscript whose pages he never turned. It was
+written in the Oriental characters, which seem to tell either of Nirvana
+or of the nightingale's cry to the rose. At times the other friends
+tapped gently on three painted drums, hardly bigger than tea cups. The
+enemy, seeing from Bulwan the little crowd of us engaged upon a heathen
+rite, threw shrapnel over our heads. It burst and sprinkled the dusty
+ground behind us with lead. Not one of the Hindoos looked up or turned
+his face. That low chant did not pause or vary by a note. Close by, a
+Kaffir was digging a grave for a Zulu woman who had died in childbed. In
+the river beyond soldiers were bathing, Zulus were soaping themselves
+white, and one of the Liverpool Mounted Infantry was trying to prevent
+his horse rolling in four feet of water.
+
+
+     _November 22, 1899._
+
+A day only relieved by the wildest rumours and a few shells more
+dangerous than usual. Buller was reported as being at Hellbrouw; General
+French was at Dundee; and France had declared war upon England. Shells
+whiffled into the town quite indiscriminately. One pitched into the Town
+Hall, now the main hospital. In the evening "Long Tom" threw five in
+succession down the main street. But only one man was killed. A Natal
+policeman was cooking his dinner in a cellar when "Silent Susan's" shot
+fell upon him and he died. For myself, I spent most of the day on
+Waggon Hill west of the town, where the 1st K.R. Rifles have three
+companies and a strong sangar, very close to the enemy. I found that, as
+became Britons, their chief interest lay in sport. They had shot two
+little antelopes or rehbuck, and hung them up to be ready for a feast.
+Their one thought was to shoot more. From the hill I looked down upon
+one of Bester's farms. The owner-a Boer traitor-was now in safe keeping.
+A few days ago his family drove off in a waggon for the Free State.
+White were their parasols and in front they waved a Red Cross flag. On a
+gooseberry bush in the midst of the farm they also left a white flag,
+where it still flew to protect a few fat pigs, turkeys, and other fowl.
+The white flag is becoming a kind of fetish. To-day all our white tents
+were smeared with reddish mud to make them less visible. Beyond Range
+Post the enemy set up a new gun commanding the Maritzburg road as it
+crossed that point of hill. The Irish Fusiliers who held that position
+were shelled heavily, but without loss.
+
+
+     _November 23, 1899._
+
+The schoolmaster's wife had a fine escape. She was asleep in her bedroom
+when a 45lb. shell came through the fireplace and burst towards the
+bed. The room was smashed to pieces, but she was only cut about the
+head, one splinter driving in the bone, but not making a very serious
+wound. Two days before she had given a soldier 10s. for a fragment. Now
+she had a whole shell for nothing. At five o'clock "Long Tom" threw
+seven of his 96lb. shells straight down the street in quick succession,
+smashing a few shops and killing some mules and cattle, but without
+further harm. We watched them from the top of the road. They came
+shrieking over our heads, and then a flare of fire and a cloud of dust
+and stones showed where they fell. At every explosion the women and
+children laughed and cheered with delight, as at the Crystal Palace
+fireworks.
+
+Both yesterday and to-day the Boers on Bulwan spent much time and money
+shelling a new battery which Colonel Knox has had made beside the river
+near the racecourse. It is just in the middle of the flat, and the enemy
+can see its six embrasures and the six guns projecting from them. The
+queer thing is that these guns never reply, and under the hottest fire
+their gunners neither die nor surrender. A better battery was never
+built of canvas and stick on the stage of Drury. It has cost the
+simple-hearted Boers something like £300 in wasted shell.
+
+All day waggons were reported coming down from the Free State and moving
+south. They were said to carry the wives and daughters of the Free
+Staters driven by Buller from their own country and content to settle in
+ours, now that they had conquered it. A queer situation, unparalleled in
+war, as far as I know.
+
+In the evening I heard the Liverpools and Devons were likely to be
+engaged in some feat of arms before midnight. So I stumbled out in the
+dark along the Helpmakaar road, where those two fine regiments hold the
+most exposed positions in camp, and I spent the greater part of the
+night enjoying the hospitality of two Devon officers in their
+shell-proof hut. Hour after hour we waited, recalling tales of Indian
+life and Afridi warfare, or watching the lights in the Boer laagers
+reflected on a cloudy sky. But except for a hot wind the night was
+peculiarly quiet, and not a single shell was thrown: only from time to
+time the sharp double knock of a rifle showed that the outposts on both
+sides were alert.
+
+
+     _November 24, 1899._
+
+Though there was no night attack a peculiar manoeuvre was tried, but
+without success. On the sixty miles of line between here and Harrismith
+the Boers have only one engine, and it struck some one how fine it would
+be to send an empty engine into it at full speed from our side.
+Accordingly, when the Free State train was seen to arrive at the Boer
+rail-head some eight miles off, out snorted one of our spare
+locomotives. Off jumped the driver and stoker, and the new kind of
+projectile sped away into the dark. It ran for about two miles with
+success, and then dashed off the rails in going round a curve. And there
+it remains, the Boers showing their curiosity by prodding it with
+rifles. Unless it is hopelessly smashed up, the Free State has secured a
+second engine for the conveyance of its wives and daughters.
+
+It is a military order that all cattle going out to graze on the flats
+close to the town should be tended by armed and mounted drivers, but no
+one has taken the trouble to see the order carried out. The Empire in
+this country means any dodge for making money without work. All work is
+left to Kaffirs, coolies, or Boers. Two hundred cattle went out this
+morning beyond the old camp, accompanied only by Kaffir boys, who, like
+all herdsmen, love to sleep in the shade, or make the woods re-echo
+Amarylli's. Suddenly the Boers were among them, edging between them and
+the town, and driving the beasts further and further from defence. The
+Kaffirs continued to sleep, or were driven with the cattle. Then the
+Leicester Mounted Infantry came galloping out, and, under heavy rifle
+fire, gained the point of Star Hill, hoping to head the cattle back. At
+once all the guns commanding that bit of grassy plain opened on
+them--"Faith," "Hope," and "Charity"--from Telegraph Hill, the guns on
+Surprise Hill, and Thornhill Kopje, and the two guns now on Bluebank
+Ridge. Two horses were killed, and the party, not being numerous enough
+for their task, came galloping back singly. Meantime the Boers, with
+their usual resource, had invented a new method of calling the cattle
+home by planting shells just behind them. The whole enterprise was
+admirably planned and carried out. We only succeeded in saving thirty or
+forty out of the drove. The lowest estimate of loss is £3,000, chiefly
+in transport cattle.
+
+But who knows whether by Christmas we shall not be glad even of a bit of
+old trek-ox? Probably the Dutch hope to starve us out. At intervals all
+morning they shelled the cattle near the racecourse, just for the sake
+of slaughter. To-day also they tried their old game of sending gangs of
+refugee coolies into the town to devour the rations. Happily, Sir George
+White turned at that, and sent out a polite note reminding the
+commandants that we live in a polite age. So in the afternoon the Boers
+adopted more modern methods. I had been sitting with Colonel Mellor and
+the other officers of the Liverpools, who live among the rocks close to
+my cottage, and they had been congratulating themselves on only losing
+two men by shell and one by enteric since Black Monday, when they helped
+to cover the retirement with such gallantry and composure. I had
+scarcely mounted to ride back, when "Puffing Billy" and other guns threw
+shells right into the midst of the men and rocks and horses. One private
+fell dead on the spot. Three were mortally wounded. One rolled over and
+over down the rocks. Several others were badly hurt, and the bombardment
+became general all over our end of the town.
+
+
+     _November 25, 1899._
+
+Almost a blank as far as fighting goes. It is said that General Hunter
+went out under a flag of truce to protest against the firing upon the
+hospital. There were no shells to speak of till late afternoon. Among
+the usual rumours came one that Joubert had been wounded in the mouth at
+Colenso. The Gordons held their sports near the Iron Bridge, sentries
+being posted to give the alarm if the Bulwan guns fired. "Any more
+entries for the United Service mule race? Are you ready? Sentry, are you
+keeping your eye on that gun?" "Yes, sir." "Very well then, go!" And off
+the mules went, in any direction but the right, a soldier and a sailor
+trying vainly to stick on the bare back of each, whilst inextinguishable
+laughter arose among the gods.
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 26, 1899._
+
+Another day of rest. I heard a comment made on the subject by one of the
+Devons washing down by the river. Its seriousness and the peculiar
+humour of the British soldier will excuse it. "Why don't they go on
+bombardin' of us to-day?" said one. "'Cos it's Sunday, and they're
+singin' 'ymns," said another. "Well," said the first, "if they do start
+bombardin' of us, there ain't only one 'ymn I'll sing, an' that's 'Rock
+of Ages, cleft for me, Let me 'ide myself in thee.'" It was spoken in
+the broadest Devon without a smile. The British soldier is a class
+apart. One of the privates in the Liverpools showed me a diary he is
+keeping of the war. It is a colourless record of getting up, going to
+bed, sleeping in the rain with one blanket (a grievance he always
+mentions, though without complaint), of fighting, cutting brushwood, and
+building what he calls "sangers and travises." From first to last he
+makes but one comment, and that is: "There is no peace for the wicked."
+The Boers were engaged in putting up a new 6 in. gun on the hills beyond
+Range Post, and the first number of the _Ladysmith Lyre_ was published.
+
+
+     _November 27, 1899._
+
+The great event of the day was the firing of the new "Long Tom." The
+Boers placed it yesterday on the hill beyond Waggon Hill, where the 60th
+hold our extreme post towards the west. The point is called Middle Hill.
+It commands all the west of the town and camp, the Maritzburg road from
+Range Post on, and the greater part of Cæsar's Camp, where the
+Manchesters are. The gun is the same kind as "Long Tom" and "Puffing
+Billy"--a 6 in. Creusot, throwing a shell of about 96lbs. The Boers
+have sixteen of them; some say twenty-three. The name is "Gentleman
+Joe." He did about £5 damage at the cost of £200. From about 8 to 9 a.m.
+the general bombardment was rather severe. There are thirty-three guns
+"playing" on us to-day, and though they do not concentrate their fire,
+they keep one on the alert. This morning a Kaffir was working for the
+Army Service Corps (being at that moment engaged in kneading a pancake),
+when a small shell hit him full in the mouth, passed clean through his
+head, and burst on the ground beyond. I believe he was the only man
+actually killed to-day.
+
+A Frenchman who came in yesterday from the Boer lines was examined by
+General Hunter. He is a roundabout little man, who says he came from
+Madagascar into the Transvaal by Delagoa Bay, and was commandeered to
+join the Boer army. He came with a lot of German officers, who drank
+champagne hard. On his arrival it was found he could not ride or shoot,
+or live on biltong. He could do nothing but talk French, a useless
+accomplishment in South Africa. And so they sent him into our camp to
+help eat our rations. The information he gave was small. Joubert
+believes he can starve us out in a fortnight. He little knows. We could
+still hold out for over a month without eating a single horse, to say
+nothing of rats. It is true we have to drop our luxuries. Butter has
+gone long ago, and whisky has followed. Tinned meats, biscuits,
+jams--all are gone. "I wish to Heaven the relief column would hurry up,"
+sighed a young officer to me. "Poor fellow," I thought, "he longs for
+the letters from his own true love." "You see, we can't get any more
+Quaker oats," he added in explanation.
+
+In the afternoon I took copies of the _Ladysmith Lyre_ to some of the
+outlying troops. It is but a single page of four short columns, and with
+a cartoon by Mr. Maud. But the pathetic gratitude with which it was
+received, proved that to appreciate literature of the highest order, you
+have only to be shut up for a month under shell fire.
+
+
+     _November 28, 1899._
+
+Hopeful news came of British successes, both at Estcourt and Mooi River.
+The relief column is now thought to be at Frere, not far below Colenso.
+A large Boer convoy, with 800 mounted men, was seen trending away
+towards the Free State passes, perhaps retiring. Everybody was much
+cheered up. The Boer guns fired now and then, but did little damage. At
+night we placed two howitzers on a nek in Waggon Hill, where the 60th
+have a post south-west of the town.
+
+
+     _November 29, 1899._
+
+A few more Kaffirs came through from Estcourt, but brought no later
+news. Their report of the fighting on the Mooi River was: "The English
+burnt the Dutch like paraffin. The Dutch have their ears down." Did I
+not say that Zulu was the future language of opera? Riding past the
+unfinished hospital I saw a private of the 18th Hussars cut down by a
+shell splinter--the only casualty to-day resulting from several hundred
+pounds' worth of ammunition. The two greatest events were, first, the
+attempt of our two old howitzers on Waggon Hill to silence the 6 in. gun
+on Middle Hill beyond them. They fired pretty steadily from 4 to 5 p.m.,
+sending out clouds of white smoke. For their big shells (6.3 in.) are
+just thirty years old, and the guns themselves have reached the years of
+discretion. They fired by signal over the end of Waggon Hill in front of
+them, and it was difficult to judge their effect. The other great event
+was the kindling of a great veldt fire at the foot of Pepworth Hill, in
+such a quarter that the smoke completely hid "Long Tom" for two or three
+hours of the morning. Captain Lambton at once detected the trick, and
+sent two shells from "Lady Anne" to check it. But it was none the less
+successful. There could be little doubt "Long Tom" was on the move,
+"doing a guy," the soldiers said. We hoped he was packing up for
+Pretoria.
+
+In the evening Colonel Stoneman held the first of his Shakespeare
+reading parties, and again we found how keenly a month of shell-fire
+intensifies the literary sense.
+
+
+     _November 30, 1899._
+
+At night the Boer searchlight near Bester's, north-west of the town,
+swept the positions by Range Post, the enemy having been informed by
+spies (as usual) that we intended a forward movement before dawn. Three
+battalions with cavalry and guns were to have advanced on to the open
+ground beyond Range Post, and again attack the Boer position on
+Bluebank, where there are now two guns. The movement was to prepare the
+way for the approach of any relieving force up the Maritzburg road, but
+about midnight it was countermanded. Accurately informed as the Boers
+always are, they apparently had not heard of this change from any of the
+traitors in town, and before sunrise they began creeping up nearer to
+our positions by the Newcastle road on the north. They hoped either to
+rush the place, or to keep us where we were. The 13th Battery, stationed
+at the railway cutting, opened upon them, and the pickets of the
+Gloucesters and the Liverpools checked them with a very heavy fire. As I
+watched the fighting from the hill above my cottage, the sun appeared
+over Bulwan, and a great gun fired upon us with a cloud of purple smoke.
+A few minutes after there came the sharp report, the screaming rush and
+loud explosion, which hitherto have marked "Long Tom" alone. Our
+suspicions of yesterday were true, and Pepworth Hill knows him no more.
+He now reigns on Little Bulwan, sometimes called Gun Hill, below
+Lombard's Kop. His range is nearer, he can even reach the Manchesters'
+sangars with effect, and he is far the most formidable of the guns that
+torment us.
+
+[Illustration: HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL]
+
+All day the bombardment was severe, as this siege goes. I did not count
+the shells thrown at us, but certainly there cannot have been less than
+250. They were thrown into all parts of the town and forts. No one
+felt secure, except the cave-dwellers. Even the cattle were shelled, and
+I saw three common shell and a shrapnel thrown into one little herd. Yet
+the casualties were quite insignificant, till the terrible event of the
+day, about half-past five p.m. During the afternoon "Long Tom" had
+chiefly been shelling the Imperial Light Horse camp, the balloon, and
+the district round the Iron Bridge. Then he suddenly sent a shell into
+the library by the Town Hall. The next fell just beyond the Town Hall
+itself. The third went right into the roof, burst on contact, flung its
+bullets and segments far and wide over the sick and wounded below. One
+poor fellow--a sapper of the balloon section--hearing it coming, sprang
+up in bed with terror. A fragment hit him full in the chest, cut through
+his heart, and laid him dead. Nine others were hit, some seriously
+wounded. About half of them belonged to the medical staff. The shock to
+the other wounded was horrible. There cannot be the smallest doubt that
+the Boer gunners deliberately aimed at the Red Cross flag, which flies
+on the turret of the Town Hall, visible for miles. They have now hit
+twenty-one people in that hospital alone. This last shell has aroused
+more hatred and rage against the whole people than all the rest of the
+war put together. When next the Boers appeal for mercy, as they have
+often appealed already, it will go hard with them. Overcome with the
+horror of the thing, many good Scots have refused to take part in the
+celebration of St. Andrew's Day, although the Gordons held some sort of
+festival, and there was a drinking-concert at the Royal. But the dead
+were in the minds of all.
+
+About midnight we again observed flash-signaling over the star-lit sky.
+It came from Colenso way, and was the attempt of our General to give us
+news or instructions. It began by calling "Ladysmith" three times. The
+message was in cipher, and the night before a very little of it was made
+out. Both messages ended with the words "Buller, Maritzburg." It is said
+one of the Mountain Battery is to be hanged in the night for signalling
+to the enemy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FLASHES FROM BULLER
+
+
+     _December 1, 1899._
+
+A kaffir came in to-day, bringing the strange story that the old "Long
+Tom" of Pepworth Hill was hit full in the muzzle by "Lady Anne," that
+the charge inside him burst, the gun was shattered, and five gunners
+killed. The Kaffir swore he himself had been employed to bury them, and
+that the thing he said was true. If so, our "Lady Anne" has made the
+great shot of the war. The authorities are inclined to believe the
+story. The new gun on Gun Hill is perhaps too vigorous for our old
+friend, and the rifling on his shells is too clean. Whatever the truth
+may be, he gave us a lively time morning and afternoon. I think he was
+trying to destroy the Star bakery, about one hundred yards below my
+cottage. The shells pitched on every side of it in succession. They
+destroyed three houses. A Natal Mounted Rifle riding down the street was
+killed, and so was his horse. In the afternoon shrapnel came raining
+through our eucalyptus trees and rattling on the roof, so I accepted an
+invitation to tea in a beautiful hole in the ground, and learnt the joys
+spoken of by the poet of the new _Ladysmith Lyre_:--
+
+    "A pipe of Boer tobacco 'neath the blue,
+    A tin of meat, a bottle, and a few
+    Choice magazines like _Harmsworth's_ or the _Strand_--
+    sometimes think war has its blessings too."
+
+But one wearies of the safest rabbit-hole in an afternoon tea-time, and
+I rode to the other end of the town trying to induce my tenth or twelfth
+runner to start. So far, three have gone and not returned, one did not
+start, but lay drunk for ten days, the rest have been driven back by
+Boers or terror.
+
+As I rode, the shells followed me, turning first upon Headquarters and
+then on the Gordons' camp by the Iron Bridge, where they killed two
+privates in their tents. I think nothing else of importance happened
+during the day, but I was so illusioned with fever that I cannot be
+sure. Except "Long Tom," the guns were not so active as yesterday, but
+some of them devoted much attention to the grazing cattle and the
+slaughter-houses. We are to be harried and starved out.
+
+
+     _December 2, 1899._
+
+To me the day has been a wild vision of prodigious guns spouting fire
+and smoke from uplifted muzzles on every hill, of mounted Boers, thick
+as ants, galloping round and round the town in opposite directions, of
+flashing stars upon a low horizon, and of troops massed at night, to no
+purpose, along an endless road. But I am inspired by fever just now, and
+in duller moments I am still conscious that we have really had a fairly
+quiet day, as these days go.
+
+"Long Tom" occupied the morning in shelling the camp of the Imperial
+Light Horse. He threw twelve great shells in rapid succession into their
+midst, but as I watched not a single horse or man was even scratched.
+The narrowest escape was when a great fragment flew through an open door
+and cut the leg clean off a table where Mr. Maud, of the _Graphic_, sat
+at work. Two shells pitched in the river, which half encircles the camp,
+and for a moment a grand Trafalgar Square fountain of yellow water shot
+into the air. A house near the gaol was destroyed, but no damage to man
+or beast resulted.
+
+Soon afterwards, from the highest point of the Convent Hill, looking
+south-west over the Maritzburg road by Bluebank, I saw several hundred
+Boers cantering in two streams that met and passed in opposite
+directions. They were apparently on the move between Colenso and Van
+Reenen's Pass; perhaps their movements implied visits to lovers, and a
+pleasant Sunday. They looked just like ants hurrying to and fro upon a
+garden track.
+
+The reality of the day was a flash of brilliant light far away beyond
+the low gorge, where the river turns southward. My old Scot was the
+first to see it. It was about half-past three. The message came through
+fairly well, though I am told it is not very important. The important
+thing is that communication with the relieving force is at last
+established.
+
+About 8.30 p.m. there was a great movement of troops, the artillery
+massing in the main street, the cavalry moving up in advance, the
+infantry forming up. Being ill, I fell asleep for a couple of hours, and
+when I turned out again all the troops had gone back to camp.
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 3, 1899._
+
+Long before sunrise I went up to the examining post on the Newcastle
+road, now held by the Gloucesters instead of the Liverpools. The
+positions of many regiments have been changed, certain battalions being
+now kept always ready as a flying column to co-operate with the
+relieving force. Last night's movement appears to have been a kind of
+rehearsal for that. It was also partly a feint to puzzle the Boers and
+confuse the spies in the town.
+
+Signalling from lighted windows has become so common among the traitors
+that to-day a curfew was proclaimed--all lights out at half-past eight.
+Rumours about the hanging and shooting of spies still go the round, but
+my own belief is the authorities would not hurt a fly, much less a spy,
+if they could possibly help it.
+
+Nearly all day the heliograph was flashing to us from that far-off hill.
+There is some suspicion that the Boers are working it as a decoy. We
+lost three copies of our code at Dundee, and it is significant that it
+was a runner brought the good news of Methuen's successes on Modder
+River to-night. But at Headquarters the flash signals are now taken as
+genuine, and the sight of that star from the outer world cheers us up.
+
+At noon I rode out to see the new home of the 24th Field Ambulance from
+India. It is down by the river, near Range Post, and the silent Hindoos
+have constructed for it a marvel of shelter and defence. A great rampart
+conceals the tents, and through a winding passage fenced with massive
+walls of turf you enter a chamber large enough for twenty patients, and
+protected by an impenetrable roof of iron pipes, rocks, and mounds of
+earth. As I admired, the Major came out from a tent, wiping his hands.
+He had just cut off the leg of an 18th Hussar, whose unconscious head,
+still on the operating table, projected from the flaps of the tent door.
+The man had been sitting on a rock by the river, washing his feet, while
+"Long Tom" was shelling the Imperial Light Horse, as I described
+yesterday. Suddenly a splinter ricocheted far up the valley, and now,
+even if he recovers, he will have only one foot to wash.
+
+A civilian was killed yesterday, working in the old camp. The men on
+each side of him were unhurt. So yesterday's shelling was not so
+harmless as I supposed.
+
+Early in the afternoon I met Mr. Lynch, known as one of the _Daily
+Chronicle_ correspondents in Cuba last year. He was riding his famous
+white horse, "Kruger," which we captured after the fight at Elands
+Laagte. One side of this bony animal is dyed khaki colour with Condy's
+fluid, as is the fashion with white horses. But the other side is left
+white for want of material. Mr. Lynch showed me with pride a great white
+umbrella he had secured. Round it he had written, "Advt. Dept.
+_Ladysmith Lyre_" In his pocket was a bottle of whisky--a present for
+Joubert. And so he rode away, proposing to exchange our paper for any
+news the Boers might have. Eluding the examining posts, he vanished into
+the Boer lines under Bulwan, and has not re-appeared. Perhaps the Boers
+have not the humour to appreciate the finely Irish performance. They
+have probably kept him prisoner or sent him to Pretoria. On hearing of
+his disappearance, Mr. Hutton, of Reuter's, and I asked leave to go out
+to the Boer camp to inquire after him. But the General was wroth, and
+would not listen to the proposal.
+
+
+     _December 4, 1899._
+
+This morning the General offered the use of the heliograph to all
+correspondents in rotation by ballot. Messages were to be limited to
+thirty words. One could say little more than that we are doing as well
+as can be expected under the circumstances. But the sun did not come out
+all day, and not a single word got through.
+
+In the afternoon I rode out to Waggon Hill, south-west of our position,
+to call upon the two howitzers. They are heavy squat guns about twenty
+years old, their shells being marked 1880, though they are said in
+reality to date from 1869. They were brought up from Port Elizabeth
+where the Volunteers used them, and certainly they have done fine
+service here. Concealed in the hollow of a hill, they are invisible to
+the enemy, and after many trials have now exactly got the range of the
+great 6 in. gun on Middle Hill. At any moment they can plump their
+shells right into his sangar, and the Boer gunners are frightened to
+work there. In fact, they have as effectually silenced that gun as if
+they had smashed it to pieces. They are worked by the Royal Artillery,
+two dismounted squadrons of the I.L.H. acting as escort or support. Them
+I found on picket at the extreme end of the hill. They told me they had
+seen large numbers of Boers moving slowly with cattle and waggons
+towards the Free State passes. The Boers whom I saw were going in just
+the opposite direction, towards Colenso. I counted twenty-seven waggons
+with a large escort creeping steadily to the south along some invisible
+road. They were carrying provisions or the ammunition to fight our
+relieving column.
+
+We hear to-day there will be no attempt to relieve us till the 15th, if
+then. A Natal newspaper, with extracts from the Transvaal _Standard and
+Diggers' News_, brought in yesterday, exaggerates our situation almost
+as much as the Boers themselves. If all Englishmen now besieged were
+asked why most they desired relief, there is hardly one would not reply,
+"For the English mail!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE NIGHT SURPRISE ON GUN HILL
+
+
+     _December 5, 1899._
+
+We have now been shut up nearly five weeks. Some 15,000 people or more
+have been living on a patch of ground roughly measuring three miles each
+way. On that patch of ground at the lowest estimate 3,500 cases of
+explosive iron have been hurled at high velocity, not counting an
+incalculable number of the best rifle bullets. One can conceive the
+effect on a Londoner's mind if a shell burst in the city. If another
+burst next day, the 'buses would begin to empty. If a hundred a day
+burst for five weeks, people would begin to talk of the paralysis of
+commerce. Yet who knows? The loss of life would probably be small. The
+citizen might grow as indifferent to shells as he is to shooting stars.
+Here, for instance, the killed do not yet amount to thirty, the wounded
+may roughly be put down at 170, of whom, perhaps, twenty have died, and
+all except the confirmed cave-dwellers are beginning to go about as
+usual, or run for cover only when it shells particularly hard.
+
+To-day has not been hard in any sense. It opened with a heavy Scotch
+mist, which continued off and on, though for the most part the outlines
+of the mountains were visible. "Long Tom" of Gun Hill did not speak. The
+bombardment was almost entirely left to "Puffing Billy" and "Silent
+Susan." They worked away fairly steadily at intervals morning and
+afternoon, but did no harm to speak of.
+
+Again large numbers of Boers were seen moving along the south-west
+borders, and a Kaffir brought in the story of a great conference at
+Bester's on the Harrismith line. Whether the conference is to decide on
+some future course of action, or to compare the difference between the
+allied states, we do not know. Probably the Dutch will not abandon the
+siege without a big fight.
+
+On our side we contented ourselves with sending a shot or two from
+"Bloody Mary" to Bulwan, but the light was bad and the shells fell
+short. Sir George White now proposes to withdraw the curfew law, in
+hopes that any traitors may be caught red-handed. The Town Guard,
+consisting of young shop assistants with rifles and rosettes, are
+displaying an amiable activity. Returning from dinner last night, I was
+arrested four times in the half mile. I may mention that it is now
+impossible to procure anything stronger than lime-juice or lemonade.
+
+
+     _December 6, 1899._
+
+"Long Tom" of Gun Hill surprised us all by beginning a fairly rapid fire
+about 10 a.m. "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" replied within a few moments
+of each other, and the second of the two shots exploded right on the top
+of "Tom's" earthworks, but he fired again within a few minutes, aiming
+at the new balloon, the old one having been torn to pieces in a
+whirlwind nearly a week ago. When the balloon soared out of reach, he
+turned a few shots upon the town and camps, and then was silent.
+
+Since the siege began one farmer has steadily continued to plough his
+acres on the plain near the racecourse. He reminded one of the French
+peasant ploughing at Sedan. His three ploughs went backwards and
+forwards quite indifferent to unproductive war. But to-day the Boers
+deliberately shelled him at his work, the shells following him up and
+down the field, and ploughing up the earth all wrong. Neither the farmer
+nor his Kaffir labourers paid the least attention to them. The plough
+drove on, leaving the furrow behind, just as the world goes forward, no
+matter how much iron two admirable nations pitch at each other's heads.
+
+Of course percussion-fused shells falling on ploughed land seldom burst,
+as a boy here found by experiment. Having found an eligible little shell
+in the furrows, he carried it home, and put it to soak in his washing
+basin. When it had soaked long enough, he extracted the fuse and
+proceeded to knock out the powder with a hammer. Then the nasty thing
+exploded in his face, and he lost one eye and is otherwise a good deal
+cut about.
+
+In the afternoon I rode out again to the howitzers on Waggon Hill. The 6
+in. gun which they command from their invisible station has not fired
+for six days. The Boer gunners dare not set it to work for fear of the
+85lb. shells which are fired the moment Boers are seen in the sangar.
+Two were fired just as I left.
+
+From the end of the hill there was a magnificent view of the great
+precipices in Basutoland, but hardly a Boer could be seen. Ninety-seven
+waggons had been counted the evening before, moving towards the Free
+State passes, but now I saw hardly a dozen Boers. Yet if their big gun
+had sent a shrapnel over us, what a bag they would have made! Colonel
+Rhodes and Dr. Jameson were at my side, General Ian Hamilton, with Lord
+Ava and Captain Valentine were within six yards, to say nothing of
+Captain Clement Webb, of Johannesburg fame, and other Imperial Light
+Horse officers.
+
+In the evening the Natal Carbineers gave an open-air concert to a big
+audience. A good many women and girls came. As usual the sailors had the
+best of it in the comic songs, but the event of the evening was "The
+Queen." Though the Boers must have seen our lights, and perhaps heard
+the shout of "Send her victorious," they did not fire, not even when the
+balloon, fresh charged at the gas-works, stalked past us like a ghost.
+
+
+     _December 7, 1899._
+
+A glorious day for the heliograph, which flashed encouragement on us
+from that far-off mountain. But little else was done. The bombardment
+was only half-hearted. Some of the shells pitched about the town,
+smashing walls and windows, and two of the Irish Fusiliers were wounded
+by shrapnel. Towards evening a lot of children in white dresses were
+playing among the rocks opposite my window, when "Puffing Billy," of
+Bulwan, sent a huge shell over my roof right into the midst of them as
+it seemed. Fortunately it pitched a few yards too high. The poor little
+creatures scuttled away like rabbits. They are having a queer
+education--a kindergarten training in physical shocks.
+
+During the day I rode nearly all over the camp and outposts, even
+getting to Waggon Hill again to see the enemy at their old trick of
+calling the cattle home with shells. There I heard that the 6 in. gun on
+Middle Hill was removed last evening, and that was the cause of the two
+shots I had heard as I left. Our gunners detected the movement too late
+to prevent it, and the destination of the gun is unknown.
+
+
+     _December 8, 1899._
+
+The brightest day of the siege so far. The secret was admirably kept.
+Outside three or four of the General Staff, not a soul knew what was to
+happen. At 10 p.m. on Thursday an officer left me for his bed; a
+quarter of an hour later he was marching with his squadron upon the
+unknown adventure. It was one of the finest and most successful things
+done in the war, but what I most admire about it is its secrecy. The
+honours go to the Volunteers. One regrets the exclusion of the Regulars
+after all their splendid service and cheery temper, but the Volunteers
+are more distinctly under Headquarter control, and it was thought best
+not to pass the orders through the brigades. Accordingly just after ten
+certain troops of the Imperial Light Horse, under Colonel Edwards, the
+Natal Carbineers, and Border Mounted Rifles, all under the command of
+Colonel Royston, suddenly received orders to march on foot along the
+Helpmakaar road. About 600 went, though only 200 of them actually took
+part in the final enterprise.
+
+The moon was quarter full, but clouded, giving just enough light to see
+the road and no more. The small column advanced in perfect silence. Not
+a whisper was heard or a light seen. After long weeks of grumbling under
+the steady control of Regular officers, the Volunteers are learning what
+discipline means. The Cemetery was passed, the gorge of Bell's Spruit,
+the series of impregnable defences built by the Liverpools and Devons
+along the Helpmakaar road. At the end of those low hills the Devons were
+found drawn up in support, or to cover retreat. General Hunter then took
+command of the whole movement, and the march went on. Three-quarters of
+a mile further the road enters rough and bushy ground, thinly covered
+with stunted thorns and mimosa. It rises gradually to the foot of the
+two great hills, Lombard's Kop and Bulwan, the road crossing the low
+wooded nek between them. Lombard's Kop, which is the higher, lies in the
+left. The kop itself rises to about 1,200 or 1,300 feet, in a
+square-topped pyramid; but in front of it, forming part of the same
+hill, stands a broad and widely-expanded base, perhaps not higher than
+600 or 700 feet. It is called Little Bulwan by the natives and Gun Hill
+by our troops. Near its centre on the sky-line the Boers placed the new
+"Long Tom" 6 in. Creusot gun, throwing a 96lb. shell, as I described
+before, and about 150 yards to the left was a howitzer generally
+identified with "Silent Susan." Those are the two guns which for the
+last fortnight have caused most damage to the troops and town. Their
+capture was the object of the night's adventure.
+
+Leaving two-thirds of-his force in the bush nearly half-way up the
+slope, General Hunter took about 100 Light Horse, nearly 100 Carbineers
+and Mounted Rifles, with ten sappers under Captain Fowke, and began the
+main ascent. Major Henderson, of the Intelligence Department, acted as
+guide, keeping the extreme left of the extended line pretty nearly under
+the position of the big gun. So they advanced silently through the rocks
+and bushes under the uncertain light of the moon, which was just
+setting. It was two o'clock.
+
+The Boer sentries must have been fast asleep. There was only one
+challenge. An old man's voice from behind suddenly cried in Dutch:
+"Halt! who goes there?" One of the Volunteers--a Carbineer--answered,
+"Friend." "Hermann," cried the sentry. "Who's that? Wake up. It's the
+Red-necks" (the Boer name for English). "Hold your row!" cried the
+Carbineer, still in Dutch. "Don't you know your own friends?" The sentry
+either ran away, or was satisfied, and the line crept on. The first part
+of the slope is gentle, but the face of the hill rises steep with rocks,
+and must be climbed on hands and knees, especially in the dark. Up went
+the 200, keeping the best line they could, and spreading out well to
+the right so as to outflank the enemy when the top was reached. Within
+about 100 yards of the summit they came under rifle fire, the Boer guard
+having taken alarm. A picket in rear also began firing up at random. It
+was impossible to judge the number of the enemy. Anything between twenty
+and fifty was a guide's estimate at the time. The slope was so steep
+that the Boers were obliged to lean over the edge and show themselves
+against the sky as they fired. Some of our men returned their fire with
+revolvers. At sixty yards from the top they were halted for the final
+assault. The Volunteers, like the Boers, carry no bayonets. Their orders
+were not to fire, but to club the enemy with the butt if they stood. The
+orders were now repeated. Then some inspired genius (Major Carey-Davis
+[? Karri Davis], of the I.L.H., it is said) raised the cry: "Fix
+bayonets. Give 'em cold steel, my lads." All appreciated the joke, and
+the shout rang down the line, as the men rose up and rushed to the
+summit. Four bayonets were actually present, but I am not sure whether
+they were fixed or not.
+
+That shout was too much for the Boer gunners. They scattered and fled,
+heading across the broad top of the hill, even before our men had
+reached the edge. Swinging round from the right, our line rushed for the
+big gun. The Light Horse and the Sappers were first to reach it, Colonel
+Edwards himself winning the race. They found the splendid gun deserted
+in his enormous earthwork, the walls of which are 30 ft. to 35 ft.
+thick. One Boer was found dead outside it, shot in the assault.
+
+Captain Fowke and his sappers at once got to work. The breech-block was
+unscrewed and taken out, falling a prize to the Light Horse, who vied
+with each other in carrying it home (it weighs 137lbs.) Then gun-cotton
+was thrust up the breech into the body of the gun. A vast explosion told
+the Boers that "Tom" had gone aloft, and his hulk lay in the pit, rent
+with two great wounds, and shortened by a head. The sappers say it
+seemed a crying shame to wreck a thing so beautiful. The howitzer met
+the same fate. A Maxim was discovered and dragged away, and then the
+return began. It was now three o'clock, and by four daylight comes. The
+difficulty was to get the men to move. The Carbineers especially kept
+crowding round the old gun like children in their excitement. At last
+the party came scrambling down the hill, joined the supports, and all
+straggled back into camp together, with exultation and joy. They
+just, and only just, got in before the morning gave the enemy light
+enough to fire on their line of march.
+
+[Illustration: BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL]
+
+The whole movement was planned and executed to perfection. One man was
+killed, three or four were slightly wounded. Our worse loss was Major
+Henderson, wounded in the shoulder and leg during the final advance. He
+went through the rest of the action, and returned with the party, but
+must now retire for a week or so to Intombi Camp, for the Röntgen rays
+to discover the ball in his leg. It is thought to be a buckshot, or,
+rather, the steel ball of a bicycle bearing, fired from a sporting gun.
+
+General Hunter found a letter in the gun-pit. It is in Dutch, and
+half-finished, scribbled by a Boer gunner to his sister in Pretoria. I
+give a literal translation:--
+
+     "MY DEAR SISTER,--It is a month and seven days since we besieged
+     Ladysmith, and I don't know what will happen further. We see the
+     English every day walking about the town, and we are bombarding the
+     place with our cannon. They have built breastworks outside the
+     town. To attack would be very dangerous. Near the town they have
+     set up two naval guns, from which we receive a very heavy fire we
+     cannot stand. I think there will be much blood spilt before they
+     surrender, as Mr. Englishman fights hard, and our burghers are a
+     bit frightened. I should like to write more, but the sun is very
+     hot, and, what's more, the flies are so troublesome that I don't
+     get a chance of sitting still.--Your affectionate Brother."
+
+In the afternoon the General publicly congratulated the Volunteers on
+their achievement. The Boers added their generous praise--communicated
+to some doctors left behind to look after our wounded, who returned to
+us in the course of the day, after being given a good breakfast.
+Unhappily the above account is necessarily second-hand. No correspondent
+had a chance of going with the party. The only one who even started was
+sent back by General Hunter to await the column's return in a
+guard-room. I have been obliged to build up the story from my knowledge
+of the ground and from what has been told me by Major Henderson and
+other officers or privates who were present.
+
+Before that party returned in triumph another important movement was
+already in progress, of which, I believe, I was the only outside
+spectator. Just before four I was awakened by the trampling of cavalry
+going up the Newcastle road. They were the 5th Lancers, the 5th Dragoon
+Guards, and the 18th Hussars. The 19th Hussars had been out all night
+burning a kraal and distracting attention from Gun Hill. Just as the
+stars vanished, the 18th, followed by the others, galloped forward
+towards the Boer lines in the general direction of Pepworth Hill, though
+our main force was on the left of the direct line. General Brocklehurst
+was in command. It is described at Headquarters as a reconnaissance or
+demonstration. But there are rumours that more was originally
+intended--perhaps an attack on the Boer rail head, with its three heavy
+trains this side of Modder Spruit; perhaps the destruction of the Modder
+Spruit Bridge. If the object was only to discover whether the Boers are
+still in force, and to demonstrate the coolness of the British cavalry,
+the movement was entirely successful.
+
+Directly the cavalry advanced across the fairly open valley of Bell's
+Spruit, passing Brook's Farm and making for the left of Limit Hill on
+the main road, they were met by a tremendous rifle fire from every
+ridge and hillock and rock commanding the scene. At the same time, guns
+opened upon them from Surprise Hill on our left rear, and from some spot
+which I could not locate on our left front. Still they advanced,
+squadron after squadron sweeping across Bell's Spruit, and up into the
+tortuous little valleys and ravines beyond, towards Macpherson's Farm.
+That was the limit. It is about two and three-quarter miles (not more)
+from our picket on the Newcastle road, and lies not far from the left
+foot of Pepworth Hill. The 18th Hussars, through some mistake in orders,
+attempted to push still further forward towards the hill, but just
+before five a general retirement began.
+
+Except perhaps at the close of Elands Laagte fight, or in one brief
+assault of Turks upon a Greek position in Epirus, I have never heard
+anything to compare to the rifle fire under which the withdrawal was
+conducted. The range was long, but the roll of the rifle was incessant.
+The whole air screamed with bullets, and the dust rose in clouds over
+the grass as they fell. Then the 6 in. gun on Bulwan ("Puffing Billy")
+and an invisible gun on our right opened fire, throwing shells into the
+thick of our men wherever the ravines or rocks compelled them to crowd
+together. They came back fast, but well in hand, wheeling to right or
+left at word of command, as on parade. The B Squadron of the 18th had a
+terrible gallop for it, right across the front of fire along a ridge
+such as Boers rejoice in. Their loss was two killed and seventeen
+wounded. The others only lost three or four slightly wounded. It proves
+how lightly a highly-disciplined cavalry can come off where one would
+have said hardly any could survive.
+
+As we retired the Boers kept following us up, though with great caution.
+Riding along the valleys, dismounting, and creeping from kopje to kopje
+among the stones, a large body of them came up to Brooks Farm, and began
+firing at our sangars and outposts at ranges of 800 to 1,000 yards, the
+bullets coming very thick over our heads, even after we had reached the
+protection of the Gloucesters' walls and earthworks. There our infantry
+opened fire, while two guns of the 13th Battery near the railway
+cutting, and two of the 69th on Observation Hill, threw shrapnel over
+the kopjes, and checked any further advance.
+
+But the Boers still held their positions, pouring a tremendous fire into
+any of the cavalry who had still to pass within their range. As to
+their number, their magazine rifles, firing five shots in rapid
+succession, makes any estimate difficult. I have heard it put as low as
+600. Perhaps 1,000 is about right. I myself saw some 300 from first to
+last. By seven the whole of our force was again within the lines.
+Splendid as the behaviour of all the cavalry was, one man seemed to me
+conspicuous. Towards the end of the retirement he quietly cantered out
+across the most exposed bit of open ground, and went round among the
+kopjes as though looking for something. For a time he disappeared down a
+gully. Then he came cantering back again, and reached the high road
+along a watercourse, which gave a little cover. At least 300 bullets
+must have been fired at him, but he changed neither his pace nor
+direction. Whether he was looking for wounded or only went out for
+diversion I have not heard, but one could not imagine more complete
+disregard of death.
+
+The rest of the day passed quietly. The Boers gathered in crowds on Gun
+Hill and stood around the carcass of "Long Tom" as though in
+lamentation. His absence gave us an unfamiliar sense of security. Some
+called it dull. "Lay it on where you like, there's no pleasing you,"
+said the gaoler.
+
+
+     _December 9, 1899._
+
+The Dutch left us pretty much alone. Sickness is becoming serious. The
+cases average thirty a day, chiefly enteric. A Natal newspaper only a
+week old was brought in by a runner. It contained a few details of
+Methuen's fight on Modder River, but hardly any English news. Captain
+Heath, of the balloon, told me he could see the Boers concentrating in
+much larger camps than before, especially about Colenso and at
+Springfield further up the Tugela.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 10, 1899._
+
+Just as we were lazily washing our clothes and otherwise enjoying the
+Sabbath rest and security at about eight in the morning, "Puffing
+Billy," of Bulwan, began breaking the Fourth Commandment with
+extraordinary recklessness and rapidity. He sent nine of his shells into
+the town, as fast as he could fire them. "Bloody Mary" flung two over
+his head and one into his earthwork, but he paid no attention to her
+protests. The fact was, the 5th Dragoon Guards, trusting to Boer
+principles, had left their horses fully exposed to view instead of
+leading them away under cover as usual at sunrise. The gunners, probably
+Germans, thought this was presuming too much on their devotion to the
+Old Testament, and set their scruples aside for twenty minutes under
+the paramount duty of slaughtering men and horses. Happily no serious
+harm was done, and the rest of the day was as quiet as Sunday usually
+is.
+
+On our side we were engaged all day in preparing a new home for "Lady
+Anne" on Waggon Hill, south-west of the town. The position, as I have
+often described, gives a splendid view of the country towards Basutoland
+and the Free State mountains. It also commands some four miles of the
+Maritzburg road towards Colenso and the guns which the Boers have set up
+there to check the approach of a relieving force. By late afternoon the
+enormous sangar was almost finished. The gun will be carried over on a
+waggon at night. I watched the work in progress from Rifleman's Post, an
+important outpost and fort, held by the 2nd K.R.R. (60th). It also
+commands the beginning of the Maritzburg road, where it passes across
+the "Long Valley," between Range Post and Bluebank.
+
+The doctors and ambulance men who went out after the brief cavalry
+action on Friday morning report they were fired on while carrying the
+dead and wounded in the dhoolies. The Boers retaliate with a similar
+charge against us in Modder River. Unhappily, there can be no doubt that
+one of our doctors was heavily fired on whilst dressing a man's wounds
+on the field.
+
+
+     _December 11, 1899._
+
+Soon after two in the night I heard rifle-firing, then two explosions,
+and heavier rifle-firing again, apparently two or three miles away. It
+was too dark to see anything, even from the top of the hill, but in the
+morning I found we had destroyed another gun--the 4.7 in. howitzer on
+Surprise Hill. For weeks past it had been one of the most troublesome
+guns of the thirty-two that surround us. It had a long range and
+accurate aim. Its position commanded Observation Hill, part of the
+Newcastle road, Cove Hill, and Leicester Post, the whole of the old camp
+and all the line of country away to Range Post and beyond. It was this
+gun that shelled the 18th Hussars out of their camp and continually
+harassed the Irish Fusiliers. It was constantly dropping shells into the
+69th Battery and on the K.R.R. at King's Post. Surprise Hill is a
+square-topped kopje, from 500 feet to 600 feet high, between Thornhill's
+Kopje and Nicholson's Nek. It overlooks Bell's Spruit and the scene of
+"Mournful Monday's" worst disaster. From Leicester Post, where two guns
+were always kept turned on it, the distance is 4,100 yards--just the
+full range of our field guns. From Observation Hill it is hardly 2,500
+yards. The destruction of its gun was therefore of the highest
+importance.
+
+At ten o'clock last night four companies of the 2nd Rifle Brigade
+started from their camp on Leicester Post, with six sappers, under Mr.
+Digby Jones, and five gunners under Major Wing, of the 69th Battery. The
+whole was commanded by Colonel Metcalfe of the battalion. They marched
+across the fairly open grassland toward Observation Hill, and there
+halted because the half-moon was too bright. About midnight they again
+advanced, as the moon was far down in the west. They marched in fours
+towards the foot of the hill, but had to cross the Harrismith Railway
+two deep through a gap where the wire fences were cut with nippers. One
+deep donga and a shallower had to be crossed as well. At the foot of the
+hill two companies were left, extended in a wedge shape, the apex
+pointing up the hill. The remaining two companies began the ascent. The
+front of the hill is steep and covered with boulders, but is greener
+than most South African hills. About half-way up half a company was left
+in support. The small assaulting party then climbed up in extended line.
+Not a word was spoken, and the Boers gave no sign till our men were
+within twenty yards of the top. Then a sentry cried, "Who's there? Who's
+there?" in English, and fired. Our men fixed swords and charged to the
+top with a splendid cheer. They made straight for the sangar and formed
+in a circle round it, firing outwards without visible target. To their
+dismay they found the gun-pit empty. The gun had been removed perhaps
+for security, perhaps for the Sabbath rest. But it was soon discovered a
+few yards off, and the sappers set to work with their gun-cotton.
+Meantime a party was sent to the corner of the hill on the left to clear
+out a little camp, where the Boer gunners slept and had their meals
+under a few little trees. They fired into it, and then carried
+everything away, some of the men bringing off some fine blankets, which
+they are very proud of this morning. The great-coats were in such a
+disgusting condition that the soldiers had to leave them.
+
+The fuse was long in going off. Some say the first fuse failed, some
+that it was very slow. Anyhow, the party was kept waiting on the
+hill-top almost half an hour, when the whole thing ought to have been
+done in a quarter. Those extra fifteen minutes cost many lives. At last
+the shock of the explosion came. Two great holes were made in the gun's
+rifling near the muzzle, and the breech was blown clean out, the screw
+being destroyed. Major Wing secured the sight, the sponge, and an old
+wideawake, which the gunner used always to wave to him very politely
+just before he fired. Some say there was a second explosion, and I heard
+it myself, but it may have been a Boer gun which threw one round of
+shrapnel high over the hill, the bullets pattering down harmlessly, and
+only making a blue bruise when they hit. As soon as the sappers and
+gunners had made sure the gun was destroyed, the order to retire was
+given, and the line began climbing down in the darkness. The half
+company in support was taken up, the two companies at the foot were
+reached by some, when a heavy fire flashed out of the darkness on both
+sides. The Boers, evidently by a preconcerted scheme, were crowding in
+from Thornhill's farm on our left--Mr. Thornhill, by the way, was acting
+as our guide--and from Bell's farm on our right. They came creeping
+along the dongas, right into the midst of our men, as well as cutting
+off retreat. Then it was that we wanted that quarter of an hour lost by
+the fuse. The men hastily formed up into their four companies and began
+the retirement in succession. Each company had simply to fight its way
+through with the sword-bayonet. They did not fire much, chiefly for fear
+of hitting each other, which unfortunately happened in some cases. The
+Boers took less precaution, and kept up a tremendous fire from both
+flanks, many of the bullets probably hitting their own men. Under
+shelter of the dongas some got right among our companies and fired from
+a few yards' distance.
+
+Then came the horror of a war between two nations familiar with the same
+language. "Second R.B.! Second R.B.!" shouted our fellows as a watchword
+and rallying-cry. "Second R.B.!" shouted every Boer who was challenged
+or came into danger. "B Company here!" cried an officer. "B Company
+here!" came the echo from the Dutch. "Where's Captain Paley?" asked a
+private. "Where's Captain Paley?" the question passed from Boer to Boer.
+In the darkness it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The
+only way was to stoop down till you saw the edge of a broad-brimmed
+hat. Then you drove your bayonet through the man, if he did not shoot
+you first. Many a poor fellow was shot down by some invisible figure who
+was talking to him in English and was taken for a friend. One Boer fired
+upon a private at two or three yards--and missed him! The private sprang
+upon him. "I surrender! I surrender!" cried the Boer, throwing down his
+rifle. "So do I," cried the private, and plunged his bayonet through the
+man's stomach and out at his back.
+
+One by one the companies cut their way into the open ground by the
+railway, and to Observation Hill, where the enemy dare not pursue. By
+half-past three a.m. the greater part were back at Leicester Post again.
+It was a triumph, even for the Rifle Brigade: as fine and gallant an
+achievement as could be done. But the cost was heavy.
+
+Eleven were dead, including one or perhaps two officers. Six are
+prisoners. Forty-three are wounded, some severely. The ambulance was out
+all the morning bringing them in. Again they complained that the Boers
+fired on them and wanted to keep them prisoners. Nothing has so
+embittered our troops against the enemy as this continual firing on the
+wounded and hospitals. It was sad in any case to see the stretchers
+coming home this morning. Meeting a covered dhoolie, I asked the bearers
+who was in it. "Captain Paley," they said, and put him down for water.
+He had been reported missing. In fact, he had stayed behind to look
+after some of his men who were down or lost. He is known for his
+excellent government of a district in Crete. I gave him the water. He
+recognised me at once and was conscious, but his singularly blue eyes
+looked out of a deadly yellow and bloodless face, and his hands seemed
+to have the touch of death on them. When I said I was sorry, he
+answered, "But we got the gun." He was shot through the chest, though,
+as he pointed out, he was not spitting blood. Another bullet had entered
+the left hip and passed out, breaking the right hip-bone. That is the
+dangerous wound. He said he did not feel much pain.
+
+The wounded were taken down to the tents set up in the ravine of the
+Port Road between the Headquarters and the old camp. That is the main
+hospital (11th and 18th) since the wounded were shifted out of the Town
+Hall, because the Boers shelled it so persistently. Since the Geneva
+flag was removed from the hall's turret not a single shell has been
+fired near the building. The ravine--"kloof" is the word here, like
+"cleft"--is fairly safe from shells, though the Bulwan gun has done its
+best to get among the tents ever since spies reported the removal.
+
+It is fully exposed to those terrible dust storms which I described in
+an earlier letter. In the afternoon we had one of the worst I have seen.
+The sand and dust and dry filth, gathered up by the hot west wind from
+the plain of the old camp, swept in a continuous yellow cloud along the
+road and down into the ravine. It blotted out the sun, it blinded horses
+and men, it covered the wounded with a thick layer. I have described its
+horrible effects before. Imagine what it is like to have a hospital
+under such conditions, practically unsheltered--to extract bullets, to
+staunch blood, to amputate. One admires the Boers as a race fighting for
+their freedom, soon to be overthrown on behalf of a mongrel pack of
+speculators and other scoundrels. But I did not like them any better
+when I saw our wounded in the dust-storm to-day, and remembered why they
+were there.
+
+In the afternoon a white woman was killed by a shell as she was washing
+clothes in the river. She is the first woman actually killed, though
+others have died from premature child birth. I don't know which gun
+killed her, but parts of the town and river hitherto safe were to-day
+exposed to fire from the 6 in. gun which was removed from Middle Hill a
+few days ago, and is now set up on Thornhill's farm, due west of the
+town. It commands a very wide district--the old camp, the Long Valley
+which the Maritzburg road crosses, the Great Plain behind Bluebank, and
+most of our western positions. It began firing early in the morning and
+continued at intervals all day. For an hour or two people were surprised
+at seeing a free balloon sailing away towards Bulwan. It turned out to
+be one of Captain Heath's dummies, which had got away. He tells me it
+will be entirely useless to the enemy in any case.
+
+
+     _December 12, 1899._
+
+I was so overcome with fever that again my aspect of things was not
+quite straight. After dawn the Bulwan gun shelled the Star bakery, close
+to my cottage, and the stones and earth splashing on my roof woke me up
+too early. Another cottage was wrecked. The heat was intense, but the
+sun so splendid that I have hopes my heliograph message got through at
+last. None have gone yet, but I took up my sixth version in faith to the
+signal station near the Convent. On inquiry about Captain Paley I found
+he had been sent down to Intombi Camp with other serious cases, but the
+doctors think he has a chance. Lieut. Bond, who has a similar wound,
+went with him. Lieut. Fergusson, who died, had four bad wounds, three
+from bullets and one from a small shell of the automatic "pom-pom,"
+which shattered his thigh. The rest of the day was a delirium of fever
+till the evening, when the wind suddenly changed to east, and it became
+cool and then bitterly cold. At half-past eight the proposed Flying
+Column, which is to co-operate with the relieving force, had a kind of
+dress rehearsal, all turning out with field equipment and transport for
+three days' rations. The Irish Fusiliers under Major Churcher formed the
+head of the column at Range Post, a body of Natal Volunteers coming
+next, followed by the Gordons. I waited at Range Post in the eager and
+refreshing wind till the column gradually dissolved into its camps, and
+all was still. By eleven the rehearsal was over and I rode back to my
+end of the town. To-night the civilians of the Town Guard went on picket
+by the river, and bore their trials boldly, though one of them got a
+crick in the neck.
+
+
+     _December 13, 1899._
+
+The early part of the day was distinguished by a violent fire from the
+big gun of Bulwan upon the centre of the town and the riverside camps.
+"Lady Anne" answered, for she has not yet been removed to her destined
+station on Waggon Hill. In the intervals of their fire we could
+distinctly hear big guns far away near Colenso and the Tugela River.
+They were chiefly English guns, for the explosion followed directly on
+the report, proving they were fired towards us. The firing stopped about
+10 a.m.
+
+All morning our two howitzers, which have been brought down from Waggon
+Hill, pounded away at their old enemy, the 6 in. gun now placed on
+Telegraph Hill as I described. They are close down by the Klip River,
+west of the old camp. Their object is to drive the gun away as they
+drove him before, and certainly they gave him little rest. He had hardly
+a chance of returning the fire; but when he had his shot was terribly
+effective, coming right into the top of our earthworks. Equally
+interesting was the behaviour of two Boers who crept down from
+Thornhill's farm among the rocks and began firing into our right rear. I
+detected them by the little puffs of white smoke, for both had
+Martini's. But no one took the trouble to shoot them, though they
+harassed our gunners. If there had been 50 instead of two they might
+have driven out our handful of men and tumbled the guns into the river.
+For we had no support nearer than the steep top of King's Post. Happily
+Boers do not do such things.
+
+A Kaffir brought in a newspaper only two days old. It said Gatacre had
+suffered a reverse on the Free State frontier. There was nothing about
+the German Emperor, and no football news.
+
+In the late afternoon I rode up to the Manchesters' lines on Cæsar's
+Camp, our nearest point to Colenso. But they knew no more than the rest
+of us, except that an officer had counted the full tale of guns fired in
+the morning--137. The view on all sides was as varied and full of
+growing association as usual, but had no special interest to-day, and I
+hurried back to inquire again after Mr. George Steevens, who is down
+with fever, to every one's regret.
+
+
+     _December 14, 1899._
+
+After the high hopes of the last few days we seem to be falling back,
+and to get no nearer to the end. Very little firing was heard from
+Colenso. The Bulwan gun gave us his morning salute of ten big shells in
+various parts of the town. They made some troublesome pits in the roads,
+and one destroyed a house, but nobody was killed.
+
+The howitzers and the Telegraph Hill Gun pounded away at each other
+without much effect. Sickness is now our worst enemy. Next to sickness
+comes want of forage for the horses. The sick still average thirty a
+day, and there were 320 cases of enteric at Intombi Camp last night. Mr.
+Steevens has it, and his friends were busy all morning, moving him to
+better quarters. Major Henderson is about again. The Röntgen Rays did
+not discover the bicycle shot in his leg, and the doctors have decided
+to leave it there.
+
+It was disappointing to hear that the Kaffir runner I sent with an
+account of the night attack on Surprise Hill had been captured by the
+Boers and robbed of his papers. I had hopes of that boy; he wore no
+trousers. But it is perhaps unsafe to judge character from dress alone.
+This runner business is heart-breaking. I tried to make up by getting
+another short heliogram through, but the sun was uncertain, and the
+receivers on the distant mountain sulky and wayward. They showed one
+faint glimmer of intelligence, and then all was dark again.
+
+In the heat of the day a four-wheeled hooded cart drove from the Boer
+lines under a white flag bringing a letter for the General. The envoy
+was a Dutchman from Holland. He was met outside our lines by Lieutenant
+Fanshawe, of the 19th Hussars, who conversed with him for about two
+hours, till the answer returned. Seated under the shade of the cart, he
+enjoyed the enemy's hospitality in brandy and soda, biltong, and Boer
+biscuit. "But for that white rag," said the Dutchman, "we two would be
+trying to kill each other. Very absurd!" He went on to repeat how much
+the Boers admired the exploits of the night attacks. "If you had gone
+for the other guns that first night, you would have got them all." He
+said the gunners on Gun Hill were all condemned to death. He examined
+the horse and its accoutrements, thinking them all very pretty, but
+maintaining the day for cavalry was gone. He was perfectly intimate with
+the names and character of all the battalions here. Of the Boer army he
+said it contained all nationalities down to Turks and Jews. He had no
+doubt of their ultimate success, and looked forward to Christmas dinner
+in Ladysmith. What we regard as our victories, he spoke of as our
+defeats. Even Elands Laagte he thought unsuccessful. Finally, after all
+compliments, he drove away, bearing a private letter from Mr. Fanshawe
+to be posted through Delagoa Bay and Amsterdam.
+
+
+     _December 15, 1899._
+
+In my own mind I had always fixed to-day as the beginning of our
+deliverance from this grotesque situation. It may be so still. Very
+heavy firing was heard down Colenso way from dawn till noon. Colonel
+Downing, commanding the artillery, said some of it was our field-guns,
+and it seemed nearer than two days ago.
+
+The Bulwan gun gave us his customary serenade from heaven's gate. He did
+rather more damage than usual, wrecking two nice houses just below my
+cottage. One was a boarding house full of young railway assistants, who
+had narrow escapes. The brother gun on Telegraph Hill was also very
+active, not being so well suppressed by our howitzers as before. When I
+was waiting at Colonel Rhodes' cottage by the river, it dropped a shell
+clear over Pavilion Hill close beside it. Otherwise the Boer guns
+behaved with some modesty and discretion.
+
+In the morning I rode up to Waggon Hill, and found that "Lady Anne" had
+at last arrived there, and was already in position. She was hauled up in
+the night in three pieces, each drawn by two span of oxen. Some thirty
+yards in front of her, in an emplacement of its own, stands the 12lb.
+naval gun which has been in that neighbourhood for some days. Both are
+carefully concealed, even the muzzles being covered up with earth and
+stones. They both command the approach to the town across the Long
+Valley by the Maritzburg road, as well as Bluebank or Rifleman's Ridge
+beyond, and Telegraph Hill beyond that.
+
+While I was on the hill I saw one mounted and four dismounted Boers
+capture five of our horses which had been allowed to stray in grazing.
+
+In the afternoon a South African thunderstorm swept over us. In a few
+minutes the dry gully where the main hospital tents are placed, as I
+described, became a deep torrent of filth. The tents were three feet
+deep in water, washing over the sick. "Sure it's hopeless, hopeless!"
+cried unwearying Major Donegan, the medical officer in charge. "I've
+just seen me two orderlies swimmin' away down-stream." The sick, wet and
+filthy as they were, had to be hurried away in dhoolies to the chapels
+and churches again. They will probably be safe there as long as the
+Geneva flag is not hoisted.
+
+
+     _December 16, 1899._
+
+This is Dingaan's Day, the great national festival of the Boers. It
+celebrates the terrible battle on the Blood River, sixty-one years ago,
+when Andreas Pretorius slaughtered the Zulus in revenge for their
+massacre of the Dutch at Weenen, or Lamentation. In honour of the
+occasion, the Boers began their battle earlier than usual. Before
+sunrise "Puffing Billy" of Bulwan exploded five 96lb. shells within
+fifty yards of my humble cottage, disturbing my morning sleep after a
+night of fever. I suppose he was aiming at the bakery again, but he
+killed nobody and only destroyed an outbuilding. Farther down the town
+unhappily he killed three privates. He also sent another shell into the
+Town Hall, and blew Captain Valentine's horse's head away, as the poor
+creature was enjoying his breakfast. After seven o'clock hardly a gun
+was fired all day. Opinion was divided whether the Boers were keeping
+holiday for that battle long ago, or were burying their dead after
+Buller's cannonade of yesterday. But raging fever made me quite
+indifferent to this and all other interests.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 17, 1899._
+
+We are sick of the siege. Enteric and dysentery are steadily increasing.
+Food for men and horses is short and nasty. Ammunition must be used with
+care. The longing for the English mail has almost become a disease. Only
+two days more, we thought, or perhaps we could just stick it out for
+another week. Now we are thrown back into vague uncertainty, and seem no
+nearer to the end.
+
+All the correspondents were summoned at noon to the Intelligence Office.
+That the Intelligence should tell us anything at all was so
+unprecedented that we felt the occasion was solemn. Major Altham then
+read out the General Order, briefly stating that General Buller had
+failed in "his first attack at Colenso," and we could not be relieved
+as soon as was expected. All details were refused. We naturally presume
+the situation is worse than represented. Each of us was allowed to send
+a brief heliogram, balloting for turn. Then we came away. We were told
+it was our duty to keep the town cheerful.
+
+The suffering among the poor who had no stores of their own to fall back
+upon is getting serious. Bread and meat are supplied in rations at a
+fair and steady price. Colonel Ward and Colonel Stoneman have seen to
+that, and as far as possible they check the rapacity of the Colonial
+contractor. But hundreds have no money left at all. They receive
+Government rations on a mere promise to pay. Outside rations, prices are
+running up to absurdity. Chickens and most nice things are not to be
+obtained. But in the market last week eggs were half a guinea a dozen,
+potatoes 1s. 6d. a pound, carrots 5s., candles 1s. each, a tin of milk
+6s., cigarettes 5s. a dozen. Nothing can be bought to drink, except
+lemonade and soda-water, made with enteric germs. The Irishman drinks
+the rinsings of his old whisky bottles. One man gave £5 yesterday for a
+bottle of whisky, but then he was a contractor, and our necessity is his
+opportunity. Of our necessity the Colonial storekeepers and dealers of
+all kinds are making their utmost. Having spent their lives hitherto in
+"besting" every one on a small scale, they are now besting the British
+nation on the large. Happily their profit is not so easily made now as
+in the old days of the Zulu war, when a waggon-load of food would be
+sold three times over on the way to the front and never reached the
+troops at all in the end. A few days ago one contractor thought the Army
+would have to raise its price for mealies (maize) to 30s. a sack. He at
+once bought up all the mealies in the town at 28s., only to discover
+that the army price was 25s. So, under the beneficent influence of
+martial law he was compelled to sell at that price, and made a fine
+loss. The troops received this morning's heavy news with cheerful
+stoicism; not a single complaint, only tender regrets about the whisky
+and Christmas pudding we shall have to do without.
+
+
+     _December 18, 1899._
+
+How is one to treat an indeterminate situation? The siege is already too
+long for modern literature. It was all very well when we thought it must
+end by Christmas at the furthest. But since last Sunday we are thrown
+back into the infinite, and can fix no limit on which hope can build
+even a rainbow. So now the only way to make this account of our queer
+position readable will be to dwell entirely in the glaring events of
+adventure or bloodshed, and let the flat days slide, though the sadness
+and absurdity of any one of them would fill a paper.
+
+We have had such luck in escaping shells that we grow careless. The
+Bulwan gun began his random fire, as usual, before breakfast. He threw
+about fifteen shells, but most of us are quite indifferent to the 96lb.
+explosive thunder-bolts dropping around us. Indeed, fourteen of them did
+little harm. But just one happened to drop in the Natal Carbineer lines
+while the horses were being groomed. Two men were killed outright and
+three mortally wounded. A sapper was killed 200 yards away. Three others
+were wounded. Eleven horses were either killed or hopelessly disabled.
+All from one chance shell, while fourteen hit nobody! One man had both
+legs cut clean off, and for a time continued conscious and happy. Five
+separate human legs lay on the ground, not to speak of horses' legs. The
+shell burst on striking a horse, they say (it was shrapnel), and threw
+forwards. While the Carbineers were carrying away one of their dead
+another shell burst close by. They rightly dropped the body and lay
+flat. The only fragment which struck at all almost cut the dead man in
+half. Another shell later in the day killed a Kaffir woman and her
+husband in a back garden off the main street. Several women have died
+from premature childbirth owing to shock.
+
+Most of my day was again spent in trying to get a Kaffir runner for a
+telegram, but none would go. My last two had failed. All are getting
+frightened. In the evening I rode out to Waggon Hill and found "Lady
+Anne" and the 12lb. naval gun had gone back to their old homes. They are
+not wanted to keep open the approach for Buller now, and perhaps Captain
+Lambton was afraid the position might be rushed.
+
+
+     _December 19, 1899._
+
+Another black day. Details of Buller's defeat at Colenso began to leak
+out and discouraged us all. It would be much better if the truth about
+any disaster, no matter how serious, were officially published. Now
+every one is uncertain and apprehensive. We waste hours in questions and
+speculations. To-day there was something like despair throughout the
+camp. The Boers are putting up new guns on Gun Hill in place of those we
+destroyed. Through a telescope at the Heliograph Station I watched the
+men working hard at the sangar. Two on the face of the hill were
+evidently making a wire entanglement. On Pepworth Hill the sappers think
+they are putting up one of the 8.7 in. guns, four of which the Boers are
+known to have ordered, though it is not certain whether they received
+them. They throw a 287lb. shell. We are all beginning to feel the pinch
+of hunger. Bit by bit every little luxury we had stored up has
+disappeared. Nothing to eat or drink is now left in any of the shops;
+only a little twist tobacco.
+
+What is even worse, the naval guns have too little ammunition to answer
+the enemy's fire; so that the Boers can shell us at ease and draw in
+nearer when they like. The sickness increases terribly. Major Donegan
+sent out thirty-six cases of enteric to Intombi Camp from the divisional
+troops' hospital alone. Probably over fifty went in all. Everything now
+depends on Buller's winning a great victory. It seems incredible that
+two British armies should be within twenty miles of each other and
+powerless to move.
+
+I cannot induce a Kaffir runner to start now. Even the Intelligence
+Officer cannot do it. The heliograph has failed me, too. Sunday's
+message has not gone, and this afternoon was clouded with storms and
+rain. The temperature fell 30°. Yesterday it was 102°; the day before
+106° in the shade.
+
+
+     _December 20, 1899._
+
+From dawn till about seven the mutter of distant guns was heard near
+Colenso. But no news came through, for the sky was clouded nearly all
+day long. The new 4.7 in. howitzer which the Boers have put up on
+Surprise Hill opened fire in the morning, and will be as dangerous as
+its predecessor which we blew up. From every point of the compass it
+shelled hard nearly all day. I connect this feverish activity with the
+apparition of a chaise and four seen driving round the Boer outposts,
+and to-day quite visible on the Bulwan. Four outriders accompany it, and
+queer little flags are set up where it halts. Can the black-coated old
+gentleman inside be Oom Paul himself? It is significant that the big gun
+of Bulwan did some extraordinary shooting during the day. It threw one
+shell right into the old camp; another sheer over the Irish at Range
+Post; both were aimed at nothing but simply displayed the gun's full
+range; another pointed out the position of the Naval battery, and whilst
+I was at lunch in the town, another whizzed past and carried away one
+side of the Town Hall turret. I envy the gunner's feelings, though for
+the moment I thought he had killed my horse at the door. The Town Hall
+is now really picturesque, just the sort of ruin visitors will expect to
+see after a bombardment. With a little tittifying it will be worth
+thousands to the Colonials.
+
+[Illustration: A PICTURESQUE RUIN.]
+
+The day was cool and cloudy; fair shelling weather, but bad for
+heliographs. So my Christmas message is still delayed. A certain
+lieutenant (whom I know, but may not name) went out under flag of truce
+with a letter to the Boer General, and was admitted even into Schalk
+Burger's tent. The Boer gave him some details of Buller's disaster last
+Friday, and of the loss of the ten guns, which they said came up within
+heavy rifle fire and were disabled. They especially praised one officer
+who refused to surrender, fired all his revolver' cartridges, drew his
+sword, and would have fallen had not the Boers attacked him only with
+the butt, determined to spare the life of so brave a man. I give the
+story: its truth will be known by this time.
+
+Sickness continues. There are 900 cases of enteric in Intombi. A sister
+from the camp came and besought Colonel Stoneman with tears to stop the
+shameful robbery of the sick which goes on in the camp. The blame, of
+course, does not lie with him or the authorities here. The supplies are
+sent out regularly day by day. It is in the careless or corrupt
+distribution that the sick are robbed and murdered by a mob of cowardly
+Colonials of the rougher class, who had not enough courage to stay in
+the town, and now turn their native talent for swindling to the plunder
+of brave men who are suffering on their behalf.
+
+A deputation of mayor and town councillors waited on Colonel Ward
+to-day. The petitioners humbly prayed that the bathing parties of
+soldiers below the town on Sundays might be stopped, because they
+shocked the feelings of the women. For a mixture of hypocrisy and
+heartlessness I take that deputation to be unequalled. The soldiers are
+exposed all the week long, day and night, to sun and cold and dirt, on
+rocks and hill-tops where it is impossible even to dip their hands in
+water. On Sunday the Boers seldom fire. The men are marched down in
+companies under the officers to bathe, and to any decent man or woman
+the sight of their pleasure is one of the few joys of the campaign. But
+those who think nothing of charging a soldier 6d. for a penny bottle of
+soda-water, or 2s. for twopenn'orth of cake, tremble for the feelings of
+their wives and daughters. Why do the women go to look? as Colonel Ward
+asked, in his indignant refusal even to listen to the petition. Sunday
+is the one day when they can stay at home with safety, and leave their
+husbands to skulk in the river holes if they please.
+
+
+     _December 21, 1899._
+
+"Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, distinguished himself this morning by
+sending one shot into Colonel Ward's house and the next into the
+general's just beyond. In Colonel Ward's was a live Christmas turkey,
+over which a sentry is posted day and night. At first the rumour spread
+that the bird was mortally wounded; its thigh fractured, its liver
+penetrated. But about midday public alarm was allayed by the news that
+the invaluable creature could be seen strutting about and stiffening its
+feathers as usual. It had not even suffered from shock. The second shot
+went through Sir Henry Rawlinson's office, which he had just left, and
+shattered the Headquarters' larder, depriving the Staff of butter for
+the rest of the siege. It has made a model ruin for future sightseers.
+Unhappily the general was ill in bed with slight fever, and had to be
+carried to another house up the hill in a dhoolie. This may have
+encouraged the Boers to think they had killed him.
+
+It was again a bad day for the heliograph, and the Boers have purposely
+kindled a veldt fire across the line of light. But I think I got through
+my thirty words of Christmas greeting to the _Chronicle_. I tried in
+vain all day for a Kaffir runner, but in the late afternoon I rode away
+over the plain, past the racecourse, and through the thorns at the foot
+of Cæsar's Camp, till I almost came in touch with the enemy's piquets at
+Intombi. I saw a flock of long-billed waders, like small whimbrel, a
+great variety of beautiful little doves, and many of that queer bird the
+natives call Sakonboota, whose tail grows so long in the breeding season
+that his little wings can hardly lift it above the ground, and he
+flutters about in the breeze like a badly made kite. Riding back at
+sunset over the flat I felt like Montaigne when he desired to wear away
+his life in the saddle. The difference is that in the end I may have
+to eat my own horse. The shells from four guns kept singing their
+evening hymn above my head as I cantered along.
+
+[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL]
+
+
+     _December 22, 1899._
+
+The morning opened with one of those horrible disasters which more than
+balance our general good luck. The Bulwan gun began his morning shell
+rather later than usual. His almost invariable programme is to fire five
+or six shots at the bakery or soda-water shed beside my cottage; then to
+give a few to the centre of the town, and to finish off with half a
+dozen at the Light Horse and Gordons down by the Iron Bridge. Having
+earned his breakfast, he usually stops then, and cools down a bit. The
+performance is so regular that when he has finished with our end of the
+town the men cease to take precautions even at the sound of the whistle
+or bugle which gives notice of danger whenever the special sentry sees
+the gun flash.
+
+But this morning the routine was changed. Having waked me up as usual
+with the crash of shells close by on my left, the gun was turned down
+town, smashed into a camp or two without damage, and then suddenly
+whipped round on his pivot and sent a shell straight into the
+Gloucester lines, about 300 yards away to my right. It pitched just on
+the top of a traverse at the foot of the low hill now held by the
+Devons. The men were quite off their guard, busy with breakfast and
+sharing out the kettles. In an instant five lay dead and twelve were
+wounded. The shell burst so close that three of the dead were horribly
+scorched. One got covered by a tarpaulin, and was not found at first.
+His body was split open, one leg was off, his head was burnt and smashed
+to pulp. The cries of the wounded told me at once what had happened.
+Summoned by telephone, the dhoolies came quickly up and bore them away,
+together with the remains of the dead. Three of the wounded died before
+the night. Eight dead and nine wounded--it is worse than the disaster to
+the King's (Liverpools) almost exactly on the same spot a few weeks ago.
+In the middle of the morning much the same thing nearly happened to the
+5th Lancers. The 6 in. gun on Telegraph Hill, usually more noisy than
+harmful, was banging away at the Old Camp and the Naval battery on Cove
+Hill, when one of the shells ricocheted off the hill-top, and plunged
+into the Lancers' camp at the foot. Four officers were hit, including
+the colonel, who had a bit of finger blown off, and a segment through
+both legs. A sergeant lost an eye. One officer ducked his head and got a
+fragment straight through his helmet. The shell was a chance shot, but
+that made it no better. The men are sick of being shot at like rabbits,
+and sicker still of running into rabbit holes for shelter. The worst of
+all is that we can no longer reply for fear of wasting ammunition.
+
+There was no sound of Buller's guns all day. I induced another Kaffir to
+make the attempt of running the Boer lines. Mr. McCormick, a Colonial
+correspondent, also started. I should go myself, but have no wish to be
+shut up in Pretoria for the rest of the campaign, cut off from all
+letters, and more useless even than I am here. So I spent the afternoon
+with others, building a sand-bag fort round the tent where Mr. Steevens
+is to be nursed, beside the river bank. The five o'clock shells came
+pretty close, pitching into the Light Horse camp and the main watering
+ford. But the tent itself is fairly safe. The feeding of the horses is
+our greatest immediate difficulty. Every bit of edible green is being
+seized and turned to account. I find vine-leaves a fair substitute for
+grass, but my horses are terribly hungry all the same.
+
+
+     _December 23, 1899._
+
+The bombardment was violent at intervals, and some hundreds of shells
+must have been thrown at us. But there was no method or concentration in
+the business.
+
+Buller's guns were heard for about two hours in the morning, and wild
+rumours filled the air. Roberts and Kitchener were coming out. Buller
+was across the Tugela. Within the week our relief was certain. At night
+the 18th Hussars gave another concert among the rocks by the riverside.
+In the midst of a comic song on the inner meaning of Love came a sound
+as of distant guns. The inner meaning of Love was instantly forgotten.
+All held their breaths to listen. But it was only some horses coming
+down to water, and we turned to Love again, while the waning moon rose
+late beside Lombard's Kop, red and shapeless as a potsherd.
+
+
+     _December 24, 1899._
+
+Nothing disturbed the peace of Christmas Eve except three small shells
+thrown into the town about five o'clock tea-time, for no apparent
+reason. The main subject of interest was the chance of getting any
+Christmas dinner. Yesterday twenty-eight potatoes were sold in the
+market for 30s. A goose fetched anything up to £3, a turkey anything up
+to £5. But the real problem is water. The river is now a thick stream of
+brown mud, so thick that it cannot be filtered unless the mud is first
+precipitated. We used to do it with alum, but no alum is left now. Even
+soda-water is almost solid.
+
+
+     _December 25, 1899._
+
+The Boer guns gave us an early Christmas carol, and at intervals all day
+they joined in the religious and social festivities. Our north end of
+the town suffered most, and we beguiled the peaceful hours in digging
+out the shells that had nearly killed us. They have a marketable value.
+One perfect specimen of a 96lb. shell from Bulwan fell into a soft
+flower bed and did not burst or receive a scratch. I suppose it cost the
+Boers about £35, and it would still fetch £10 as a secondhand article. A
+brother to it pitched into a boarding house close by us, and blew the
+whole gable end sky high. Unhappily two of the inmates were wounded, and
+a horse killed.
+
+But such little contretemps as shells did not in the least interfere
+with the Christmas revels. About 250 children are still left in the town
+or river caves (where one or two have recently been born), and it was
+determined they should not be deprived of their Christmas tree. The
+scheme was started and organised by Colonel Rhodes and Major "Karri"
+Davis, of the Imperial Light Horse. Four enormous trees were erected in
+the auction rooms and decked with traditional magnificence and toys
+ransacked from every shop. At half-past eight p.m. fairyland opened. A
+gigantic Father Christmas stalked about with branches of pine and snowy
+cap (the temperature at noon was 103deg. in the shade). Each child had a
+ticket for its present, and joy was distributed with military precision.
+When the children had gone to their dreams the room was cleared for a
+dance, and round whirled the khaki youths with white-bloused maidens in
+their arms. It was not exactly the Waterloo Ball with sound of revelry
+by night, but I think it will have more effect on the future of the
+race.
+
+Other festivities, remote from the unaccustomed feminine charm, were a
+series of mule races, near the old camp, for soldiers and laughing
+Kaffir boys. The men's dinner itself was enough to mark the day. It is
+true everything was rather skimped, but after the ordinary short rations
+it was a treat to get any kind of pudding, any pinch of tobacco, and
+sometimes just a drop of rum.
+
+Almost the saddest part of the siege now is the condition of the
+animals. The oxen are skeletons of hunger, the few cows hardly give a
+pint of milk apiece, the horses are failing. Nothing is more pitiful
+than to feel a willing horse like mine try to gallop as he used, and
+have to give it up simply for want of food. During the siege I have
+taught him to talk better than most human beings, and his little
+apologies are really pathetic when he breaks into something like his old
+speed and stops with a sigh. It is the same with all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+SICKNESS, DEATH, AND A NEW YEAR
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _December 26, 1899_.
+
+Good news came through the heliograph about General Gatacre's force at
+Dordrecht. There were rumours about Lord Methuen, too, for which Dr.
+Jameson was quoted as authority. But the best evidence for hope was the
+unusual violence of the bombardment. It began early, and before the
+middle of the afternoon the Boers had thrown 178 shells at us. They were
+counted by a Gordon officer on Moriden's Castle, and the total must have
+reached nearly 200 before sunset. Such feverish activity is nearly
+always a sign of irritation on the part of the Dutch, and one can always
+hope the irritation is due to bad news for them.
+
+I have not heard of any loss in town or camp. Our guns, with the
+exception of the howitzers and Major Wing's field guns, which can just
+reach the new howitzer on Surprise Hill, have hardly replied at all.
+
+The milk question was the most serious of the day. I saw a herd of
+thirty-five cows which had only yielded sixteen pints at milking time.
+It is now debated whether we shall not have to feed the cows and starve
+the horses; or kill the thinnest horses and stew them down into broth
+for the others. The reports about the condition of Intombi Camp were
+particularly horrible to-day. But General Hunter will not allow any one
+to visit the camp, and it is no good repeating secondhand reports.
+
+
+     _December 27, 1899._
+
+The side of Tunnel Hill, at the angle of the Helpmakaar road, where
+Liverpools and Gloucesters have suffered in turn, was to-day the scene
+of an exactly similar disaster to the Devons.
+
+The great Bulwan gun began shelling us later than usual. It must have
+been past eight. The Devon officers had long finished breakfast, and
+after inspecting the lines were gathered for orderly room in their mess.
+It is a fairly large shed on a platform of beaten earth, levelled in the
+side of the hill. The roof, of corrugated iron and earth, covered with
+tarpaulin, would hardly even keep out splinters, and is only supported
+on rough wooden beams. It is impossible to construct sufficient head
+shelter. The ground is so rocky that all you can do with it is to build
+walls and traverses. Along one side of the mess tent a great traverse
+runs, some eight or ten feet thick, and about as high. When the sentry
+blows the warning whistle at the flash of a big gun, officers are
+supposed to come under the shelter of this traverse, till the shell has
+passed or declared its direction. At the first shot this morning I heard
+no whistle blow, but it was sounded at the second and third. It was the
+third that did the damage. Striking the top of the traverse, it plunged
+forward in huge fragments into the messroom, tearing an enormous hole in
+the tarpaulin screen. Unhappily Mr. Dalzell, a first lieutenant with
+eight years' service, had refused to come under the wall, and was
+sitting at the table reading. The main part of the shell struck him full
+on the side of the face, and carried away nearly all his head. He passed
+painlessly from his reading into death. The state of the messroom when I
+saw it was too horrible to describe. The wounds of the other officers
+prove that the best traverse is insufficient unless accompanied by head
+shelter. Though their backs were against the wall, seven were wounded,
+and three others badly bruised. Two cases are serious: Lieutenant P.
+Dent had part of his skull taken off, and Lieutenant Caffin had a
+compound fracture of the shoulder-blade. Lieutenant Cane, an "orficer
+boy," who only joined on Black Monday, was also wounded in the back. The
+dhoolies quickly came and bore the wounded away to the Wesleyan Chapel.
+Mr. Dalzell was buried in the afternoon. "Well, well," sighed the old
+gravedigger, "I never thought I should live to bury a man without a
+head."
+
+To-day, for the first time, we heard that Lord Roberts had lost his only
+son at Colenso. The whole camp was sad about it. The scandal over the
+robbery of the sick by the civilians at Intombi has grown so serious
+that at last General Hunter is sending out Colonel Stoneman to
+investigate. I have myself repeatedly endeavoured to telegraph home
+known facts about the corruption and mismanagement, but all I wrote has
+been scratched out by the Censorship. One such little fact I may mention
+now. The 18th Hussar officers at Christmas gave up a lot of little
+luxuries, such as cakes and things, which count high in a siege, and
+sent them down to their sick at Intombi. Not a crumb of it all did the
+sick ever receive. Everything disappeared _en route_--stolen by
+officials, or sold to greedy Colonials for whom the sick had fought. It
+is a small point, but characteristic of the whole affair.
+
+
+     _December 28, 1899._
+
+The night was wet and pitchy dark. Only by the help of the lightning I
+had stumbled and plunged home to bed, when at about eleven a perfect
+storm of rifle-fire suddenly swept along the ridges at our end of the
+town. Rushing out I saw the edges of the hills twinkle with lines of
+flashes right away to Gun Hill and Bulwan. Alarmed at the darkness, and
+hearing strange sounds in the rain the Boers had taken a scare and were
+blazing away at vacancy, in terror of another night attack. The uproar
+lasted about five minutes. Then all was quiet until, as dawn was
+breaking, "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" shook me off my camp bed with
+the crash of seven reports in quick succession just over my roof. For
+some days it had been an idea of Captain Lambton's to catch the Boer
+gunners on Bulwan just as they were going up to their big gun, or were
+occupied with early breakfast. Five of our shells burst on the face of
+the hill where many Boers spend the night, probably to protect the gun.
+The two last fell on the top, close to the gun itself. The latter did
+not fire at all to-day, and I saw the Boers standing about it in groups
+evidently excited and disturbed.
+
+The bombardment continued much as usual in other parts, and I spent the
+afternoon with the 69th Battery on Leicester Post, watching Major Wing
+reply to the new howitzer on Surprise Hill. Rain fell heavily at times,
+and the Boers never like firing in the wet.
+
+The day was chiefly marked by Colonel Stoneman's visit to Intombi Camp
+to inquire into the reported scandals. He thinks that the worst of the
+corruption and swindling is already over, being killed by the very
+scandal. But he found a general want of organisation in the distribution
+of food and other stores. There are now 2,557 inhabitants of the camp,
+of whom 1,015 are sick and wounded soldiers. Of late the numbers have
+been increasing by forty or fifty a day, allowing for those who return
+or die. The graves to-day number eighty-three, and a gang of forty
+Kaffirs is always digging. Outside the military, the majority of the
+refugees are Kaffirs and coolies, the white civilians only numbering
+600 or 700. Colonel Stoneman had all, except the sick, paraded in
+groups, and assigned separate tasks to each--nursing for the whites,
+digging and sanitation for the Kaffirs, cooking and skilled labour for
+the coolies. One important condition he made--every one required to work
+is also required to take his day's wage. The medical authority has
+objected to certain improvements on the ground of expense, but, as
+Colonel Stoneman says, what will England care about a few thousands at
+such a crisis in her history? Or what would she say if we allowed her
+sick and wounded to die in discomfort for the want of a little money? By
+to-morrow all the sick will have beds and even sheets, food will be
+distributed on a better organised plan, and civilians will be raised
+from a two-months' slough of feeding, sleeping, grumbling, and general
+swinishness unredeemed even by shells.
+
+[Illustration: EFFECT OF A 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE]
+
+At night the British flashlight from Colenso was throwing signals upon
+the cloudy sky, and it was amusing to watch the Boers trying to confuse
+the signals by flashing their two searchlights upon the same cloud. They
+have one light west of us near Bester's Station, and to-night they
+showed a very brilliant electric light on the top of Bulwan. When our
+signalling stopped, they turned it on the town, and very courteously
+lighted me home. It was like the clearest moonlight, the shadows long
+and black, but all else distinct in colourless brilliance. The top of
+Bulwan is four miles from our main street. To make up for yesterday the
+shells were particularly lively to-day. Before breakfast one fell on the
+railway behind our house, one into the verandah next door, and two into
+our little garden. Unhappily, the last killed one of our few remaining
+fowls--shivered it into air so that nothing but a little cloud of
+feathers was seen again. In the middle of the afternoon old "Puffing
+Billy" again opened fire with energy. I was at the tailor's on the main
+street, and the shells were falling just round his shop. "Thirty-eight,
+thirty-four," said the little Scot measuring. "There's the Dutch church
+gone. Forty-two, sixteen. There's the bank. Just hold the tape, mon,
+while I go and look. Oh, it's only the Town Hall!" Among other shells
+one came in painted with the Free State colours, and engraved "With the
+compliments of the season." It is the second thus adorned, but whereas
+the first had been empty, this was charged with plum-pudding. Can it be
+a Dutchman who has such a pleasant wit? The condition of the horses
+becomes daily more pitiful. Some fall in the street and cannot get up
+again for weakness. Most have given up speed. The 5th Lancers have
+orders never to move quicker than a walk. The horses are just kept alive
+by grass which Hindoos grub up by the roots. A small ration of ground
+mealies and bran is also issued. Heavy rain came on and fell all night,
+during which we heard two far-off explosions.
+
+
+     _December 30, 1899._
+
+Going up to Leicester Post in the early morning, I found the K.R. Rifles
+drying themselves in the African sun, which blazed in gleams between the
+clouds. Without the sun we should fare badly. As it is, the rain,
+exposure, and bad food are reducing our numbers fast. Passing the 11th
+Field Hospital on my way up, I saw stretcher after stretcher moving
+slowly along with the sick in their blankets. "Dysentery, enteric;
+enteric, dysentery," were the invariable answers. All the thousands of
+shells thrown at us in the last two months count for nothing beside the
+sickness.
+
+On the top of the hill I found the two guns of Major Wing's battery
+trained on Surprise Hill as usual. In accordance with my customary good
+fortune all the enemy's guns opened fire at once. But only the howitzer,
+the automatic, and the Bluebank were actually aimed our way. The
+Bluebank was most effective.
+
+It was amusing to see the men of the 60th when a shell pitched among
+them to-day. How they regarded it as a busy man regards the intrusion of
+the housemaid--just a harmless necessary nuisance, and no more. The
+cattle took the little automatic shells in much the same spirit, but
+with an addition of wonder--staring at them and snuffing with bovine
+astonishment. The Kaffir herdsmen first ran yelling in every direction,
+and then rushed back to dig the shell up, amid inextinguishable
+laughter. The Hindoo grass-cutter neither ran nor laughed, but awaited
+destiny with resignation. By the way, there is a Hindoo servant in the
+19th Hussar lines, who at the approach of a "Long Tom" shell always
+falls reverently on his face and prays to it.
+
+At sundown, in hopes of adding to our starvation rations, I went out
+among the thorns at the foot of Cæsar's Camp to shoot birds and hares.
+But the thorns are fast disappearing as firewood, and the appalling rain
+almost drowned me in the rush of the spruits. So we dined as usual on
+lumps of trek-ox thinly disguised. Talking of rain, I forgot to mention
+that the deluge on Friday night drowned six horses of the Leicester
+Mounted Infantry, carried away twenty-seven of their saddles, broke down
+the grand shelter-caves of the Imperial Light Horse, carried their
+bridge away to the blue, and flooded out half the poor homes of natives
+and civilians dug in the sand of the river banks.
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 31, 1899._
+
+Most of my day was wasted in an attempt to get leave to visit Intombi.
+Colonel Exham (P.M.O.) and Major Bateson had asked me to go down and
+give a fair account of what I saw. General Hunter took my application to
+the Chief, but Sir George thought it contrary to his original agreement
+with Joubert, that none but medical and commissariat officers should
+enter the camp. So Intombi remains unvisited--a vision of my own. In
+high quarters I gather that, considering the great difficulties of the
+case, the camp is thought a successful piece of work, very creditable to
+the officers in charge. Otherwise the day was chiefly remarkable for the
+unusual amount of firing at the outposts, and the arrival by runner of
+a Natal newspaper with the news that Lord Roberts was coming out. As it
+was New Year's eve, we expected a midnight greeting from the Boer guns,
+and sure enough, between twelve and one, all the smaller guns in turn
+took one shot into vacancy and then were still.
+
+
+     _January 1, 1900._
+
+The Bulwan gun began the New Year with energy. He sent thirty of his
+enormous shells into the camps and town, eight or nine of which fell in
+quick succession among the Helpmakaar fortifications, now held by the
+Liverpools.
+
+Three or four houses in the town were wrecked by shells, the most
+decisive ruin being at Captain Valentine's. The shell went through the
+iron verandah, pierced the stone wall above the front door without
+bursting, and exploded against the partition wall of the passage and
+drawing-room. Throwing forward, it cleared away the kitchen wall, and
+swept the kitchen clean. Down a passage to the right the expansion of
+the air blew off a heavy door, and threw it across the bed of a wounded
+Rifle Brigade officer. He escaped unhurt, but a valued servant from the
+Irish Rifles got a piece of shell through back and stomach as he was
+preparing breakfast in the kitchen. He died in a few hours. His last
+words were, "I hope you got your breakfast all right, sir."
+
+The house had long been a death-trap. Perhaps the Boers aim at the
+telegraph-office across the road, or possibly spies have told them
+Colonel Rhodes goes there for meals. The General has now declared the
+place too dangerous for habitation.
+
+In the afternoon we were to have had a military tournament on the
+Islington model, but the General stopped it, because the enemy would
+certainly have thrown shells into our midst, and women and children
+would have been there. At night, however, the Natal Volunteers gave
+another open-air concert. In the midst we heard guns--real guns--from
+Colenso way. Between the reflected flash on the sky and the sound of the
+report one could count seventy-eight seconds, which Captain Lambton
+tells me gives a distance of about fifteen and a half miles. All day
+distant guns were heard from time to time. Some said the direction was
+changed, but I could hear no difference.
+
+The mayor and councillors relieve the monotony of the siege with
+domestic solicitude. To-day they are said to be preparing a deputation
+to the General imploring that the first train which comes up after the
+relief shall be exclusively devoted--not to medical stuff for the
+wounded, not to food for the hungry troops and fodder for the starving
+horses, not to the much-needed ammunition for the guns--but to their own
+women.
+
+
+     _January 2, 1900._
+
+Soon after daylight dropping bullets began to whiz past my window and
+crack upon the tin roof in quite a shower. The Boer snipers had crept up
+into Brooks's Farm, beyond the Harrismith railway, and were firing at
+the heads of our men on Junction Hill. Whenever they missed the edge of
+the hill the bullets fell on my cottage. At last some guns opened fire
+from our Naval battery on Cove Redoubt. Captain Lambton had permitted
+the Natal Naval Volunteers to blaze away some of their surplus
+ammunition at the snipers. And blaze they did! Their 3-pounders kept up
+an almost continuous fire all the morning, and hardly a sniper has been
+heard since. There was nothing remarkable about the bombardment.
+
+"Puffing Billy" gave us his four doses of big shell as usual. Whilst I
+was at the Intelligence Office a shell lit among some houses under the
+trees in front, killed two and wounded others. The action of another
+shell would seem incredible if I had not seen it. The thing burst among
+the 13th Battery, which stands under shelter of Tunnel Hill, in a
+straight line with my road, less than 300 yards away. I was just
+mounting my horse and stopped to see the burst, when a fragment came
+sauntering high through the air and fell with a thud in the garden just
+behind me. It was a jagged bit of outer casing about three inches thick,
+and weighing over 6 lbs. The extraordinary thing about it was that it
+had flung off exactly at right angles from the line of fire. Gunners say
+that melinite sometimes does these things.
+
+I rode south-west, over Range Post and a bit of the Long Valley to
+Waggon Hill, our nearest point to the relief column and the English
+mail. At no great distance--ten miles or so--I could see the hills
+overlooking the Tugela, where the English are. Far beyond rose the crags
+and precipices of the Drakensberg, illuminated by unearthly gleams of
+the setting sun, which found their way beneath the fringes of a purple
+thunder-shower and turned to amber-brown a cloud of smoke rising from
+the burning veldt.
+
+
+     _January 3, 1900._
+
+The quiet hour before sunrise was again broken by the crash of our Naval
+guns. "Bloody Mary" (now politely called the "Princess Victoria") threw
+five shells along the top of Bulwan. A Naval 12-pounder sent three
+against the face of the hill. Again it was intended to catch the Boer
+gunners and guard as they were getting up and preparing breakfast.
+
+
+     _January 4, 1900._
+
+No news came in, and it was a day as dull as peace, but for some
+amenities of bombardment.
+
+The Surprise Hill howitzer tried a longer range. At lunch "Bulwan Billy"
+made some splendid shots close to our little mess and burst the tanks at
+Taylor's mineral water works. In the wet afternoon the big gun's work
+was less dignified. He threw five shrapnel over the cattle licking up
+what little grass was left on the flat, and did not kill a single cow.
+
+The guides boast that to-day they killed one Boer by strategy used for
+tigers in India. Two or three of them went out to Star Kopje and loosed
+two miserable old ponies, driving them towards the Boer lines to graze.
+A Boer or two came for the prize and one was shot dead.
+
+At night the flash signals from Colenso were very brilliant on a black
+and cloudy sky. They only said, "Dearest love from your own Nance," or
+"Baby sends kisses," but the Bulwan searchlight tried hard to thwart
+their affectionate purpose by waving his ray quickly up and down across
+the flashing beam.
+
+
+     _January 5, 1900._
+
+There was little to mark the day beyond the steady shelling of snipers
+by the Natal Navals, and a great 96lb. shell from Bulwan which plunged
+through a Kaffir house, where black labourers live stuffed together,
+took off a Kaffir's foot, ricocheted over our little mess-room, just
+glancing off the roof, and fell gasping, but still entire, beside our
+verandah. I rode up to Cæsar's Camp in the morning sun. It was a scene
+of sleepy peace, only broken by the faint interest of watching where the
+shells burst in the town far below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE GREAT ATTACK
+
+
+     _January 6, 1900._
+
+It has been a commonplace of the war that the Boers could cling to a
+position of their own choosing from behind stones, but would never
+venture to attack a position or fight in the open. Like all the
+comforting commonplaces about the Boers, this is now overthrown. The
+untrained, ill-equipt farmers have to-day assaulted positions of
+extraordinary strength, have renewed the attack again and again, have
+rushed up to breastworks, and died at the rifle's mouth, and have only
+been repulsed after fifteen hours of hard and gallant fighting on the
+part of the defence.
+
+Waggon Hill is a long, high spur of Cæsar's Camp, running out south-west
+between Long Valley and Bester's Farm. At the extremity, as I have
+described, are the great gun-pits prepared for "Lady Anne" and a Naval
+12-pounder some weeks ago. "Lady Anne" was for the second time being
+brought up into position there last night, and ought to have been fixed
+the night before, but was stopped half-way by the wet.
+
+The Boer attack was probably not merely an attempt on the gun, but on
+the position, and the gun is being taken back to her usual position
+to-night. Besides the gun-pits, the hill has no defences except a few
+low walls, only two or three stones high, piled up at intervals round
+the edge, as shelters from long-range fire. The place was held only by
+three dismounted squadrons of Imperial Light Horse, but the 1st K.R.R.
+(60th) were in support in a large sangar about three-quarters of a mile
+along the same ridge, separated from Waggon Hill proper by the low "nek"
+where the two howitzers used to stand. From the 60th the ridge turns at
+an angle eastward, and becomes the long tableland of Cæsar's Camp, held
+by the Manchesters and 42nd Battery (Major Goulburn). The top is broad
+and flat, covered with grass and loose stones. The whole position
+completely overlooks the town to the north, and if it fell into the
+enemy's hands we should either have to retake it or quit the camps and
+town. The edge measures 4,000 yards, and the Manchesters had only 560
+men to hold it.
+
+At a quarter to three a.m., while it was still dark, a small party of
+Boer sharpshooters climbed up the further (south-east) face of Waggon
+Hill, just left of the "nek." They were picked men who had volunteered
+for the exploit. Nearly all came from Harrismith. We had posted a picket
+of eight at the point, but long security had made them careless, or else
+they were betrayed by a mistake which nearly lost the whole position.
+From the edge of the hill the whole face is "dead" ground. It is so
+steep that an enemy climbing up it cannot be seen. It was almost a case
+of Majuba again.
+
+The Dutch crept up quite unobserved. At last a sentry challenged, and
+was answered with "Friend." He was shot dead, and was found with rifle
+raised and still loaded. The alarm was given, but no one realised what
+had happened. Captain Long (A.S.C.), who was superintending the
+transport of "Lady Anne," told me he could not understand how it was
+that bullets kept whistling past his nose. He thought the firing was
+from our own sentries. But the Dutch had reached the summit, and were
+enfilading the "nek" and the whole extremity of the hill from our left.
+As light began to dawn it was impossible to show oneself for a moment on
+the open top. The furthest range was not over 300 yards, and the top of
+a helmet, the corner of an arm, was sufficient aim for those deadly
+marksmen. Unable to stand against the fire, the Light Horse withdrew
+behind the crest of the hill, whilst small parties continued a desperate
+defence from the two big gun-pits.
+
+Nearly all the officers present have been killed or wounded, and it is
+difficult to get a clear account of what happened from any eye-witness.
+Four companies from each battalion of the K.R. Rifles came up within the
+hour, but no one keeps count of time in such a struggle. The Boers were
+now climbing up all along the face of the hill, and firing from the
+edge. All day about half the summit was in their possession. Three times
+they actually occupied the gun-pits and had to be driven out again.
+Leaning their rifles over the parapets they fired into the space inside.
+It was so that Major Miller-Wallnutt, of the Gordons, was killed. Old De
+Villiers, the Harrismith commandant, shot him over the wall, and was in
+turn shot by Corporal Albrecht, of the Light Horse, who was himself shot
+by a Field-Cornet, who was in turn shot by Digby-Jones, the sapper. So
+it went on. The Boers advanced to absolutely certain death, and they met
+it without hesitation--the Boers who would never have the courage to
+attack a position! One little incident illustrates their spirit. A
+rugged old Boer finding one of the I.L.H. wounded on the ground, stopped
+under fire and bound him up. "I feel no hatred towards you," he said,
+"but you have no reason to fight at all. We are fighting for our
+country." He turned away, and a bullet killed him as he turned.
+
+Before six o'clock the defence was further reinforced by a party of
+Gordons from Maiden Castle. They did excellent work throughout the day,
+though they, too, were once or twice driven from the top. But the credit
+of the stand remains with the I.L.H. and a few sappers like Digby-Jones,
+who held one of the little forts alone for a time, killed three Boers
+with his revolver, and went for a fourth with the butt. He would have
+had the V.C. if he had not fallen. So perhaps would Dennis, of the
+Sappers, though I am told he was present without orders. Lord Ava,
+galloper to General Ian Hamilton, commanding the defences, was shot
+through the head early in the day, about six o'clock. Sent forward with
+a message to the Light Horse, he was looking through glasses over a
+rock when the bullet took him. While I write he is still alive, but
+given up. A finer fellow never lived. "You'd never take him for a lord,"
+said an Irish sergeant, "he seems quite a nice gentleman." Equally sad
+was the loss of Colonel Dick-Cunyngham, of the Gordons. A spent bullet
+struck him in the back as he was leaving camp. The wound is mortal, and
+he had only just recovered from his wound at Elands Laagte.
+
+So the fight began. The official estimate of the Boers who gained the
+top is 600. Eye-witnesses put the number at anything between 100 and
+1,000. The struggle continued from 3 a.m. till nearly seven at night. It
+must be remembered that our men had nothing to eat from five the
+afternoon before, and got nothing till nine at night. Twenty-eight hours
+they were without food, and for about sixteen they were fighting for
+life and death. At 4 p.m. a tremendous thunderstorm with rain and hail
+came on, but the fire never slackened. The 21st and 67th Batteries were
+behind the position in front of Range Post, but were unable to give
+assistance for fear of killing our men. The 18th Hussars and 5th Dragoon
+Guards and some 5th Lancers came up dismounted to reinforce, but still
+the enemy clung to the rocks, and still it was death to creep out on the
+narrow level of the summit.
+
+It was now evident that the position must be retaken at all costs, or
+the enemy would hold it all night. The General sent for three companies
+of the Devons. Up they came, tramping through the storm--that glorious
+regiment of Western Englishmen. Colonel Park and four other officers led
+them on. It was about six o'clock when they reached the summit. Keeping
+well to the left of the "nek," between the extremity held by the Light
+Horse and the 60th's sangar, they took open order under cover of the
+ridge. Then came the command to sweep the position with the bayonet.
+They fixed, and advanced at the quick till they reached the open. Then,
+under a steady hail of bullets, they came on at the double--180 men,
+with the steel ready. Colonel Park himself led them. The Boers kept up
+an incessant fire till the line was within fifteen yards. Then they
+turned and ran, leaping down the steep face of the hill, and
+disappearing in the dead ground. Their retreat was gallantly covered by
+their comrades, who swept the ridge with an oblique fire from both
+sides.
+
+The Devons, edging a little to the right in their charge, got some cover
+from a low wall near the "nek" just quitted by the Boers. Even there the
+danger was terrible. It was there that four officers fell, three stone
+dead. It will be long before such officers as Lafone (already twice
+wounded in this war) and Field can be replaced. Lieutenant Masterson,
+formerly a private, and later a colour-sergeant in the Irish Fusiliers,
+was ordered back over the exposed space cleared by the first charge to
+bring up a small reinforcement further on the left. On the way he was
+shot at least three times, but staggered on and gave his order. He still
+survives, and is recommended for the Victoria Cross. He comes of a
+fighting Irish stock, and his great-grandfather captured the French
+Eagle at Barossa in the Peninsular War. He received his commission for
+gallantry in Egypt.
+
+But the day was won. The position was cleared. That charge finished the
+business. The credit for the whole defence against one of the bravest
+attacks ever made rests with the Light Horse, the Gordons, and the
+Devons. Yet it is impossible to forget the unflinching self-devotion of
+the King's Royal Rifle officers. They suffered terribly, and the worst
+is they suffered almost in vain. At one moment, when the defenders had
+been driven back over the summit's edge, Major Mackworth (of the
+Queen's, but attached to the King's Royal Rifles) went up again, calling
+on the men to follow him. Just with his walking-stick in his hand he
+went up, and with the few brave men who followed him he died.
+
+The attack on the main position of Cæsar's Camp was much the same in
+plan and result. At 3 a.m. the Manchester pickets along the extremity's
+left edge (_i.e._, north-east) were surprised by the appearance of Boers
+in their very midst. Lieutenant Hunt-Grubbe, who was visiting the
+pickets, mistook them for volunteers. "Hullo! Boers!" he cried out. They
+laughed and answered, "Yes, burghers!" He was a prisoner in their hands
+for some hours. The whole of one section was shot dead at their post.
+The alarm was given, but the outlying sentries and piquets could not
+move from the little shelters and walls which alone protected them from
+the oblique fire from an unknown direction. Many were shot down. Some
+remained hidden at the bottom of their defence pits till late in the
+afternoon without being able to stir. Creeping up the dead ground on the
+cliffs face, which is covered with rocks and thick bushes, the Boers
+lined the left edge of the summit in great numbers. Probably about 1,000
+attacked that part alone, and about 200 advanced on to the top. They
+were all Transvaal Boers, chiefly volunteers from the commandoes of
+Heidelburg and Wakkerstroom. This main body was attempting to take our
+left (north) side of the hill in flank, and kept edging through the
+thorns and dongas near the foot. The Natal Police, supported by the
+Natal Mounted Rifles, had been set to prevent such a movement, but had
+left a gap of 500 yards between their right and three companies of
+Gordons stationed in front of "Fly" kraal on that side of the hill. At
+last, observing the enemy in a donga, they challenged, and were met by
+the answer, "For God's sake, don't fire; we're the Town Guard." At once
+they were undeceived by a volley which killed one of them and wounded a
+few others. How far they avenged this act of treachery I have not
+discovered. The Boers flanking movement was only checked by the 53rd
+Battery (Major Abdy), which was posted on the flat across the river from
+the show ground, and did splendid service all day. It shelled the side
+and top of the hill almost incessantly, though the big Bulwan gun kept
+pouring shrapnel and common shell right in front of it, making all the
+veldt look like a ploughed field.
+
+Meantime the Boers on the summit held their ground. Their movement was
+backed by three field guns and two automatics across the Bester's valley
+at ranges of 2,000 yards and 4,000 yards. Their further advance along
+the edge was really checked by two Manchester privates, Scott and Pitts,
+who kept up an incessant fire from their little wall at the extremity
+after all their comrades were shot. Three companies of the Rifle Brigade
+at last came up to reinforce. Then the G Company of the Gordons, under
+Captain Carnegie. But for a long time no one knew where the gap in our
+line really was. About half-past nine one could see the enemy still
+thick among the rocks and trees on the left of the extremity, though the
+shrapnel was dropping all among them from the 53rd Battery. It was just
+before this that Lieutenant Walker, watching with a telescope from the
+signal station on the Convent, saw two Boers creeping along the edge
+alone for about 150 yards under tremendous fire. Suddenly a shrapnel
+took them, and both fell down. They were father and son. About half-past
+ten the first assault was repulsed, and for a time the Boers
+disappeared, but one could see reinforcements massing behind a hill
+called the "Red Kopje," across the deep stream of the Bester's valley.
+The second main attack was delivered about one, and the third during the
+storm at five. I think, after the first assault, the Boer line never
+advanced beyond the cover of the edge. But their incessant fire was
+supported by a storm of long-range bullets from the heights across the
+valley. The position was not finally cleared till nearly seven.
+
+The attack and the defence were equally gallant, as at Waggon Hill. Our
+guns were of far more service than theirs, but probably the loss by
+rifle fire was not so great, the range being longer. The total force of
+the attack on both positions was probably about 7,000. Some 2,000
+Volunteers led the way--old Boer farmers and picked men who came forward
+after a prayer meeting on Friday. For immovable courage I think it would
+be impossible to beat our gunners--especially of the 42nd and 53rd
+Batteries. All through the action they continued the routine of gunnery
+just as if they were out for exercise on the sands.
+
+By seven o'clock the main positions on the south side of our defences
+were safe. On the north, fighting had been going on all day also. At
+about 4 a.m. the artillery and rifle fire was so violent around
+Observation Hill that I thought the main attack was on that point.
+Originally the Boers no doubt intended a strong attack there. The hill
+has always been one of the weakest points of our defence.
+
+The Boers began their attack on Observation Hill just before dawn with a
+rapid fire of guns and rifles at long range. At first only our guns
+replied, the two of the 69th doing excellent work with shrapnel over the
+opposite ridges. By about six we could see the Boers creeping forward
+over Bell Spruit and making their way up the dongas and ridges in our
+front. At about eight there was a pause, and it seemed as if the attack
+was abandoned, but it began again at nine with greater violence. The
+shell fire was terrific. Every kind of shell, from the 45-pounder of the
+4.7 in. howitzer down to the 1-1/2-pounder of the automatic, was hurled
+against those little walls, while shrapnel burst almost incessantly
+overhead.
+
+It is significant for our own use of artillery that not a single man
+'was killed by shells, though the air buzzed with them. The loose stone
+walls were cover enough. But the demoralising effect of shell fire is
+well known to all who have stood it. A good regiment is needed to hold
+on against such a storm. But the Devons are a good regiment--perhaps the
+best here now--and, under the command of Major Curry, they held. At
+half-past nine the rifle fire at short range became terrible.
+
+Boers were crawling up over what little dead ground there was, and one
+group of them reached an edge from which they began firing into our
+breastwork at about fifteen yards. One or two of them sprang up as
+though to charge. With bayonets they might have come on, but, standing
+to fire, they were at once shot down. Among them was Schutte, the
+commandant of the force. He was killed on the edge, with about ten
+others. Then the attacking group fell back into the dead ground. Our men
+got the order not to fire on them if they ran away. It was the best
+means of clearing them off the hill, and they made off one by one. The
+long-range fire continued all day, but there was no further rush upon
+our works. Our loss was only two men killed and a few wounded. The Boer
+loss is estimated at fifty, but it is impossible to know.
+
+The King's (Liverpools), who now hold the works built by the Devons on
+the low Helpmakaar ridge, were also under rifle and shell fire all day.
+About 3 p.m. about eighty Boers came down the deep ravine or donga at
+the further end of the ridge. A mounted infantry picket of three men was
+away across the donga, watching the road towards Lombard's Nek. Instead
+of retiring, they calmly lay down and fired into the thick of the Boers
+whenever they saw them. Apparently the Boers had intended some sort of
+attack or feint, but, instead of advancing, they remained hidden in the
+donga, firing over the banks. At last Major Grattan, fearing the brave
+little picket might be cut off, sent out two infantry patrols in
+extended order, and the Boers did not await their coming; they hurried
+up the donga into the shelter of the thorns, which just now are all
+golden with balls of sweet-smelling blossom.
+
+Soon after the sun set behind the storm of rain the fighting ceased. The
+long and terrible day was done. I found myself with the Irish Fusiliers
+at Range Post, where the road crosses to the foot of Waggon Hill. The
+stream of ambulance was incessant--covered mule-waggons, little
+ox-carts, green dhoolies carried by indomitable Hindoos, knee-deep in
+water, and indifferent to every kind of death. In the sixteen hours'
+fighting we have lost fourteen officers and 100 men killed, twenty-one
+officers and 220 men wounded. The victory is ours. Our men have done
+what they were set to do. But two or three more such victories, and
+where should we be?
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 7, 1900._
+
+The men remained on the position all night under arms, soaked through
+and hardly fed. Rum was issued, but half the carts lost their way in the
+dark, because the officers in charge had preferred to go fighting on the
+loose and got wounded. The men lay in pools of rain among the dead.
+Lieutenant Haag, 18th Hussars, kept apologising to the man next him for
+using his legs as a pillow. At dawn he found the man was a Rifleman long
+dead, his head in a puddle of blood, his stiff arms raised to the sky.
+Many such things happened. Under the storm of fire it had been
+impossible to recover all the wounded before dark. Some lay out fully
+twenty-four hours without help, or food, or drink. One of the Light
+Horse was used by a Boer as a rest for his rifle. When I reached Waggon
+Hill about nine this morning the last of the wounded were being brought
+down. Nearly all the Light Horse dead (twenty of them) had been taken
+away separately, but at the foot of the hill lay a row of the Gordons,
+bloody and stiff, their Major, Miller-Wallnutt, at their head,
+conspicuous by his size. The bodies of the Rifles were being collected.
+Some still lay curled up and twisted among the dripping rocks. Slowly
+the waggons were packed and sent off to the place of burial.
+
+The broad path up the hill and the tracks along the top were stained
+with blood. It lay in sticky pools, which even the rain could not wash
+out. It was easy to see where the dead had fallen. Most had lain behind
+some rock to fire and there met their end. On the summit some Kaffirs
+were skinning eight oxen which had been spanned to the "Lady Anne's"
+platform, and stood immovable during the fight. Four had been shot in
+the action, the others had just been killed as rations. Passing to the
+further edge where the Boers crept up I saw a Boer ambulance and an
+ox-waggon waiting. Bearded Boers in their slouch hats stood round them
+with an English doctor from Harrismith, commandeered to serve. Our men
+were carrying the Boer wounded and dead down the steep slope. The dead
+were laid out in line, and put in the ox-waggon. At that time there were
+seventeen of them waiting, but eight others were still on the hill, and
+I found them where they fell. Most were grey-bearded men, rough old
+farmers, with wrinkled and kindly faces, hardened by a grand life in sun
+and weather. They were dressed in flannel shirts, rough old jackets of
+brown cloth, rough trousers with braces, weather-stained slouch hats,
+and every variety of boot. Only a few had socks. Some wore the yellow
+"veldt-shoes," some were bare-footed; their boots had probably been
+taken. They lay in their blood, their glazed blue eyes looking over the
+rocks or up to the sky, their ashen hands half-clenched, their teeth
+yellow between their pale blue lips.
+
+Beside the outer wall of "Lady Anne's" sangar, his head resting on its
+stones, lay a white-bearded man, poorly dressed, but refined in face. It
+was De Villiers, the commandant of the Harrismith district--a relation,
+a brother perhaps, of the Chief Justice De Villiers, who entertained me
+at Bloemfontein less than four months ago. Across his body lay that of a
+much younger man, with a short brown beard. He is thought to have been
+one of the old man's field cornets, and had fought up to the sangar at
+his side till a bullet pierced his eye and brain.
+
+Turning back from the extremity of our position, I went along the whole
+ridge. The ground told one as much as men could tell. Among the rocks
+lay blood-stained English helmets and Dutch hats; piles of English and
+Dutch cartridge-cases, often mixed together in places which both sides
+had occupied; scraps of biltong and leather belts; handkerchiefs, socks,
+pieces of letters, chiefly in Dutch; dropped ball cartridges of every
+model--Lee-Metford, Mauser, Martini, and Austrian. I found a few
+hollow-nosed bullets, too, expanding like the Dum-Dum. The effect of
+such a bullet was seen on the hat of some poor fellow in the Light
+Horse. There was a tiny hole on one side, but the further side was all
+rent to pieces. I hear some "express" sporting bullets have also been
+taken to the Intelligence Office, but I have not seen them. Beside one
+Boer was found one of the old Martini rifles taken from the 52nd at
+Majuba.
+
+On the top of Cæsar's Camp our dead were laid out for
+burial--Manchesters, Gordons, and Rifle Brigade together. The Boers
+turned an automatic Maxim on the burying party, thinking they were
+digging earthworks. In the wooded valley at the foot of the hill they
+themselves, under Geneva flags, were searching the bushes and dongas
+for their own dead, and disturbing the little wild deer beside the
+stream. On the summit parties of our own men were still engaged
+unwillingly in finding the Boer dead and carrying them down the cliff.
+Just at the edge of the summit, to which he had climbed in triumph, lay
+the body of a man about twenty. A shell had almost cut him in half....
+Only his face and his hands were untouched. Like most of the dead he had
+the blue eyes and light hair of the well-bred Boer. When first he was
+found, his father's body lay beside him, shattered also, but not so
+horribly. They were identified by letters from home in their pockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A PAUSE AND A RENEWAL
+
+
+     _January 8, 1900._
+
+All was ready to receive another attack, but the Boers made no sign
+beyond the usual bombardment. One of the wounded--a Harrismith man--says
+there is a strong party in favour of peace, men who want to get back to
+their farms and their families. We have heard that tale before, but
+still, here the Boers are fighting for freedom and existence if ever men
+did.
+
+To-day's bombardment nearly destroyed the tents and dhoolies of our
+field hospital, but did little else save beheading and mangling some
+corpses. The troops were changed about a good deal, half the K.R.R.
+being sent to the old Devon post on Helpmakaar road; half the Liverpools
+to King's Post, and the Rifle Brigade to Waggon Hill.
+
+At night there was a thanksgiving service in the Anglican Church. I
+ought to have mentioned earlier that on the night before the attack the
+Dutch held a solemn supplication, calling on God to bless their efforts.
+
+
+     _January 9, 1900._
+
+One long blank of drenching rain unrelieved by shells, till at sunset a
+stormy light broke in the west, and a few shots were fired.
+
+
+     _January 10, 1900._
+
+In the night the authorities expected an attack on Observation Hill.
+They hurried out two guns of the 69th Battery to a position outside
+King's Post. The guns were dragged through the heavy slush, but when
+they arrived it was found no guns could live in such a place, fully
+exposed to all fire, and unsupported by infantry. So back came the weary
+men and horses through the slush again, getting to their camp between 2
+and 3 a.m.
+
+At intervals in the night the two mountain guns on Observation Hill kept
+firing star-shell to reveal any possible attack. But none came, and the
+rest of the day was very quiet. My time was occupied in getting off a
+brief heliogram, and sending out another Kaffir with news of Saturday's
+defence. Two have been driven back. The Boers now stretch wires with
+bells across the paths, and it goes hard with any runner caught.
+
+
+     _January 11, 1900._
+
+The enemy was ominously quiet. Bulwan did not fire all day. From King's
+Post, whilst visiting the new fortifications and the guns in their new
+positions all about it, I watched the Boers dragging two field guns
+hastily southward along the western track, perhaps to Springfield Drift,
+over the Tugela. Then a large body--500 or 600--galloped hurriedly in
+the same direction.
+
+A sadness was thrown over the day by Lord Ava's death early in the
+afternoon. If he could have recovered the doctors say he would have been
+paralysed or have lost his memory. He was the best type of
+Englishman--Irish-English, if you will--excellently made, delighting in
+his strength and all kinds of sport, his eye full of light, his voice
+singularly beautiful and attractive. His courage was extraordinary, and
+did not come of ignorance. At Elands Laagte I saw him with a rifle
+fighting side by side with the Gordons. He went through the battle in
+their firing line, but he told me afterwards that the horror of the
+field had sickened him of war. In manner he was peculiarly frank and
+courteous. I can imagine no one speaking ill of him. His best epitaph
+perhaps is the saying of the Irish sergeant's which I have already
+quoted.
+
+The ration of sugar was increased by one ounce to-day, the mealies by
+two ounces, so as to give the men porridge in the morning. For a
+fortnight past all the milk has been under military control, and can
+only be obtained on a doctor's certificate. We began eating trek-oxen
+three days ago. Some battalions prefer horse-flesh, and get it.
+Dysentery and enteric are as bad as ever, but do not increase in
+proportion to the length of siege. There are 1,700 soldiers at Intombi
+sick camp now. A great many horses die every day, but not of the
+"horse-sickness." Their bodies are thrown on waste ground along the
+Helpmakaar road, and poison the air for the Liverpools and Rifles there.
+To-night the varied smell all over the town is hardly endurable.
+
+
+     _January 12, 1900._
+
+A quiet day again. Hardly a gun was fired. Wild rumours flew--the Boers
+were trekking north in crowds--they were moving the gun on Bulwan--all
+lies!
+
+I spent the whole day trying to induce a Kaffir to risk his life for
+£15. A Kaffir lives on mealie-pap, varied by an occasional cow's head.
+He drinks nothing but slightly fermented barley-water. Yet he will not
+risk death for £15! After four false starts, my message remains where it
+was. The last Kaffir who tried to get through the Boers with it was shot
+in the thigh by our pickets as he was returning. That does not encourage
+the rest.
+
+
+     _January 13, 1900._
+
+Between seven and eight in the morning the Bulwan gun hurled three
+shells into our midst, and repeated the exploit in the afternoon. But
+somehow he seemed to have lost form. He was not the Puffing Billy whom
+we knew. We greeted him as one greets an enemy who has come down in the
+world--with considerate indulgence. The sailors think that his carriage
+is strained.
+
+A British heliograph began flashing to us from Schwarz Kop, a hill only
+one and a half miles over Potgieter's or Springfield Drift on the
+Tugela. It is that way we have always expected Buller's main advance.
+Can this be the herald of it? Most of us have agreed never to mention
+the word "Buller," but it is hard to keep that pledge.
+
+In the afternoon I was able to accompany Colonel Stoneman (A.S.C.) over
+the scene of battle on Cæsar's Camp. His duties in organising the food
+supply keep him so tied to his office--one of the best shelled places in
+the town--that he has never been up there before. All was quiet--the
+mountains silent in the sunset. The Boers had been moving steadily
+westward and south. They had taken some of their guns on carts covered
+with brushwood. We had not more than half a dozen shots fired at us all
+round that ridge which had blazed with death a week ago. In his tent on
+the summit we found General Ian Hamilton. It was to his energy and
+personal knowledge of his men that last Saturday's success was
+ultimately due. Not a day passes but he visits every point in his
+brigade's defences.
+
+All in camp were saddened by the condition of Mr. Steevens, of the
+_Daily Mail_. Yesterday he was convalescent. To-day his life hangs by a
+thread. That is the way of enteric.
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 14, 1900._
+
+Absolute silence still from the Tugela. On a low black hill beyond its
+banks I could see the British heliograph flashing. On a spur beside it
+I was told a British outpost was stationed. In the afternoon we thought
+we heard guns again, but it was only thunder. With a telescope on
+Observation Hill I saw the Boers riding about their camps. On the Great
+Plain they were digging long trenches and stretching barbed wire
+entanglements. To-day all was peaceful. The sun set amid crimson
+thunder-clouds behind the Drakensberg; there was no sign of war save the
+whistle of a persistent sniper's bullet over my head. Our weather-beaten
+soldiers were trying to make themselves comfortable for the night in
+their little heaps of stones.
+
+
+     _January 15, 1900._
+
+This is the day I had fixed upon long ago for our relief. There were
+rumours of fighting by the Tugela, and some said they had seen squadrons
+of our cavalry and even Staff officers galloping on the further limits
+of the Great Plain. But beyond the wish, there is no need to believe
+what they said.
+
+In the morning Steevens, of the _Daily Mail_, was so much worse that we
+sent off a warning message to Mrs. Steevens by heliograph. At least I
+climbed to all the new signal stations in turn, trying to get it sent,
+but found the instruments full up with official despatches. Major
+Donegan (R.A.M.C.) was called in to consult with Major Davis, of the
+Imperial Light Horse, who has treated the case with the utmost patience
+and skill. Strychnine was injected, and about noon we recovered hope. A
+galloper was sent to stop the message, and succeeded. Steevens became
+conscious for a time, and Maud, of the _Graphic_, explained to him that
+now it was a fight for life. "All right," he answered, "let's have a
+drink, then." Some champagne was given him, and he seemed better. When
+warned against talking, he said, "Well, you are in command. I'll do what
+you like. We are going to pull through." Maud then went to sleep at
+last, and between four and five Steevens passed quietly from sleep into
+death.
+
+Everything that could possibly be done for him had been done. For five
+weeks Maud had nursed him with a devotion that no woman could surpass.
+Two days ago we thought him almost well. He talked of what it would be
+best to do when the siege was raised, so as to complete his recovery.
+And now he is dead. He was only thirty. What is to most distinguished
+men the best part of life was still before him. In eight working years
+he had already made a name known to all the Army and to thousands
+beyond its limits. Beyond question he had the touch of genius. The
+individuality of his power perhaps lay in a clear perception transfused
+with an imaginative wit that never failed him. The promise of that
+genius was not fulfilled, but it was felt in all he said and wrote. And
+beyond this power of mind he possessed the attractiveness of courtesy
+and straightforward dealing. No one ever knew him descend to the tricks
+and dodges of the trade. There was not a touch of "smartness" in his
+disposition. On the field he was too reckless of his life. I saw him
+often during the fighting at Elands Laagte, Tinta Inyoni, and Lombard's
+Kop. He was usually walking about close to the firing line, leading his
+grey horse, a conspicuous mark for every bullet. Veteran officers used
+to marvel that he was not hit. In the midst of it all he would stand
+quite unconcerned, and speak in his usual voice--slow, trenchant,
+restrained by a cynicism that came partly from youth and an English
+horror of fuss. How different from the voice of unconsciousness which I
+heard raving in his room only this morning!
+
+To-night we buried him. The coffin was not ready till half-past eleven.
+All the London correspondents came, and a few officers, Colonel
+Stoneman (A.S.C.) and Major Henderson, of the Intelligence Department,
+representing the Staff. Many more would have come, but nearly the whole
+garrison was warned for duty. About twenty-five of us, all mounted,
+followed the little glass hearse with its black and white
+embellishments. The few soldiers and sentries whom we passed halted and
+gave the last salute. There was a full moon, covered with clouds, that
+let the light through at their misty edges. A soft rain fell as we
+lowered the coffin by thin ropes into the grave. The Boer searchlight on
+Bulwan was sweeping the half circle of the English defences from end to
+end, and now and then it opened its full white eye upon us, as though
+the enemy wondered what we were doing there. We were laying to rest a
+man of assured, though unaccomplished genius, whose heart had still been
+full of hopes and generosity. One who had not lost the affections and
+charm of youth, nor been dulled either by success or disappointment.
+
+
+    "From the contagion of the world's slow stain
+      He is secure; and now can never mourn
+    A heart grown old, a head grown grey, in vain--
+      Nor when the spirit's self has ceased to burn
+    With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn."
+
+
+     _January 16, 1900_.
+
+A day of unfulfilled expectation, unrelieved even by lies and rumours.
+From the top of Observation Hill I again watched the Dutch in their
+clustered camps, fourteen miles away across the great plain, whilst our
+heliograph flashed to us from the dark hill beyond them. But there was
+no sound of the expected guns, and every one lost heart a little.
+
+At the market, eggs were a guinea a dozen. Four pounds of oatmeal sold
+for 11s. 6d. A four-ounce tin of English tobacco fetched 30s. Out of our
+original numbers of about 12,000 nearly 3,000 are now sick or wounded at
+Intombi, and there are over 200 graves there. More helpers are wanted,
+and to-day Colonel Stoneman summoned 150 loafers from their holes in the
+river-bank, and called for twenty volunteers. No one came, so he has
+stopped their rations till they can agree among themselves to produce
+the twenty ready to start.
+
+
+     _January 17, 1900._
+
+The far-off mutter of Buller's guns began at half-past five a.m., and
+lasted nearly all day. From King's Post I watched the stretch of
+plain--Six Mile Flats, the official map calls it--leading away to
+Potgieter's Drift, where his troops are probably crossing. I could see
+three of the little Dutch camps, and here and there bodies of Boers
+moving over the country. Suddenly in the midst of the plain, just our
+side of the camp near "Wesse's Plantation," a great cloud of smoke and
+dust arose, and slowly drifted away. Beyond doubt, it was the bursting
+of a British shell. Aimed at the camp it overshot the mark, and landed
+on the empty plain. As a messenger of hope to us all it was not lost.
+The distance was only fourteen miles from where I stood--a morning's
+walk--less than an hour and a half's ride. Yet our relief may take many
+days yet, and it will cost hundreds of lives to cross that little space.
+The Boers have placed a new gun on the Bluebank ridge. It is disputed
+whether it faces us or Buller's line of approach over the Great Plain.
+The whole ridge is now covered from end to end with walls, traverses,
+and sangars.
+
+
+     _January 18, 1900._
+
+In the early morning the welcome sound of Buller's guns was not so
+frequent as yesterday. But it continued steadily, and between four and
+five increased to an almost unbroken thunder. From the extremity of
+Waggon Hill, I watched the great cloud of dust and smoke which rose from
+the distant plain as each shell burst. The Dutch camps were still in
+position, and we could only conjecture that the British were trying to
+clear the river-bank and the hills commanding it, so as to secure the
+passage of the ford.
+
+While I was there the enemy threw several shrapnel over the Rifle
+Brigade outpost. Major Brodiewald, Brigade Major to the Natal Volunteers
+under Colonel Royston, was sitting on the rocks watching Buller's shells
+like myself. A shrapnel bullet struck him in the mouth and passed out at
+the back of his neck. He was carried down the hill, his blood dripping
+upon the stones along the track. In the afternoon one of the bluejackets
+was also seriously wounded by shrapnel. The bombardment was heavy all
+day, the Bulwan gun firing right over Convent Hill and plunging shells
+into the Naval Camp, the Leicesters, and the open ground near
+Headquarters. It looks as if a spy had told where the General and Staff
+are to be found.
+
+The market quotations at this evening's auction were fluctuating. Eggs
+sprang up from a guinea to 30s. a dozen. Jam started at 30s. the 6lb.
+jar. Maizena was 5s. a pound. On the other hand, tobacco fell. Egyptian
+cigarettes were only 1s. each, and Navy Cut went for 4s. an ounce.
+During a siege one realises how much more than bread, meat, and water is
+required for health. Flour and trek-ox still hold out, and we receive
+the regulation short rations. Yet there is hardly one of us who is not
+tortured by some internal complaint, and many die simply for want of
+common little luxuries. In nearly all cases where I have been able to
+try the experiment I have cured a man with any little variety I had in
+store or could procure--rice, chocolate, cake, tinned fruit, or soups. I
+wonder how the enemy are getting on with the biltong and biscuit.
+
+
+     _January 19, 1900._
+
+Before noon, as I rode round the outposts, I found the good news flying
+that good news had come. It was thought best not to tell us what, lest,
+like children, we should cry if disappointed. But it is confidently said
+that Buller's force has crossed the Tugela in three places--Wright's
+Drift eastward, Potgieter's Drift in the centre, and at a point further
+west, perhaps Klein waterfall, where there is a nine-mile plain leading
+to Acton Homes. The names of the brigades are even stated, and the
+number of losses. It is said the Boers have been driven from two
+positions. But there may not be one word of truth in the whole story.
+
+I was early on Observation Hill, watching that strip of plain to the
+south-west. No shells were bursting on it to-day, and the sound of guns
+was not so frequent. Our heliograph flashed from the far-off Zwartz Kop,
+and high above it, looking hardly bigger than a vulture against the pale
+blue of the Drakensberg precipices, rose Buller's balloon, showing just
+a point of lustre on its skin.
+
+The view from Observation Hill is far the finest, but the whiz of
+bullets over the rocks scarcely ever stops, and now and again a shell
+comes screaming into the rank grass at one's feet.
+
+To-day we enjoyed a further variety, well worth the risk. At the foot of
+Surprise Hill, hardly 1,500 yards from our position, the Boers have
+placed a mortar. Now and then it throws a huge column of smoke straight
+up into the air. The first I thought was a dynamite explosion, but after
+a few seconds I heard a growing whisper high above my head, as though a
+falling star had lost its way, and plump came a great shell into the
+grass, making a 3ft. hole in the reddish earth, and bursting with no end
+of a bang. We collected nearly all the bits and fitted them together.
+It was an eight or nine-inch globe, reminding one of those "bomb-shells"
+which heroes of old used to catch up in their hands and plunge into
+water-buckets. The most amusing part of it was the fuse--a thick plug of
+wood running through the shell and pierced with the flash-channel down
+its centre. It was burnt to charcoal, but we could still make out the
+holes bored in its side at intervals to convert it into a time-fuse.
+This is the "one mortar" catalogued in our Intelligence book. It was
+satisfactory to have located it. Two guns of the 69th Battery threw
+shrapnel over its head all morning; then the Naval guns had a turn and
+seem to have reduced it to silence.
+
+In the afternoon there was an auction of Steevens's horses and camp
+equipment. Many officers came, and the usual knot of greedy civilians on
+the look-out for a bargain. As auctioneer I had great satisfaction in
+running the prices up beyond their calculation. But in another way they
+got the best of the old country to-day. Colonel Stoneman, having
+discovered a hidden store of sugar, was selling it at the fair price of
+4d. a pound to any one who pledged his word he was sick and in need of
+it. Round clustered the innocent local dealers with sick and sorry
+looks, swearing by any god they could remember that sugar alone would
+save their lives, paid their fourpences, and then sold the stuff for 2s.
+outside the door.
+
+
+     _January 20, 1900._
+
+Again I was on Observation Hill two or three times in the day. It is
+impossible to keep away from it long. The rumble of the British guns was
+loud but intermittent, but the Boer camps remain where they were. With
+us the bombardment continued pretty steadily. After a silence of two
+days "Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, threw one shell into the town and six
+among the Devons. His usual answer to the report that he has worn
+himself out or been carried away. Whilst he was firing I tried to get
+sight of a small mocking bird, which has learnt to imitate the warning
+whistle of the sentries. In the Gordons the Hindoo, Purriboo Singh, from
+Benares, stands on a huge heap of sacks under an umbrella all day and
+screams when he sees the big gun flash. But in the other camps, as I
+have mentioned, a sentry gives warning by blowing a whistle. The mocking
+bird now sounds that whistle at all times of the day, and what is even
+more perplexing, he is learning to imitate the scream and buzzle of the
+shell through the air. He may learn the explosion next. I mention this
+peculiar fact for the benefit of future ornithologists, who might
+otherwise be puzzled at his form of song.
+
+Another interesting event in natural history occurred a short time ago
+up the Port road. A Bulwan shell, missing the top of Convent Hill,
+lobbed over and burst at random with its usual din and circumstance.
+People rushed up to see what damage it had done, but they only found two
+little dead birds--one with a tiny hole in her breast, the other with an
+eye knocked out. Ninety-six pounds of iron, brass, and melinite, hurled
+four miles through the air, at unknown cost, just to deal a true-lovers'
+death to two sparrows, five of which are sold for one farthing!
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 21, 1900._
+
+After varying my trek-ox rations by catching a kind of barbel with a
+worm in the yellow Klip, I went again to Observation Hill, and with the
+greater interest because every one was saying two of the Boer camps were
+in flames. Of course it was a lie. The camps stood in their usual places
+quite undisturbed. But I saw one of our great shells burst high up the
+mountain side of Taba Nyama (Black Mountain) instead of on the plain at
+its foot, and with that sign of forward movement I was obliged to be
+content.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+"WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE"
+
+
+     _January 22, 1900._
+
+Twelve weeks to-day since Black Monday, when our isolation really began!
+A heliogram came from Buller to say all was going well, and in this
+evening's Orders we were officially informed that relief is "within
+measurable distance." I don't know about time, but in space that
+measurable distance is hardly more than fifteen miles. From Observation
+Hill I again watched the British shells breaking over the ridge above
+the ford. The Boers had moved one of their waggon laagers a little
+further back, but the main camps were unchanged. With a telescope I
+could make out where their hospital was--in a cottage by a wood--and I
+followed an ambulance waggon driving at a trot to three or four points
+on ridge and plain, gathering up the sick or wounded, and returning to
+hospital.
+
+The mass of Boers appeared to be lying under the shelter of Taba Nyama
+(or Intaba Mnyama--Black Mountain). It is a nine-mile range of hills
+running east and west, nearly parallel to the Tugela, and having
+Potgieter's Drift on its left. The left extremity, looking over the
+Drift, rises into double peaks, and is called Mabedhlane, or the Paps,
+by Zulus. The main Boer position appears to be halfway up these peaks
+and along the range to their right. To-day it is said that the relieving
+force intends to approach the mountain by parallels, sapping and mining
+as it goes, and treating the positions like a mediæval fortress, or one
+of those ramparted and turreted cities which "Uncle Toby" used to
+besiege on the bowling green.
+
+One's only fear is about the delay. The population at Intombi is now
+approaching 4,000, nearly 3,000 being sick. I doubt if we could put
+4,000 men in the field to-day. Men and horses crawl feebly about, shaken
+with every form of internal pain and weakness. Women suffer even more.
+The terror of the shells has caused thirty-two premature births since
+the siege began. It is true a heliogram to-day tells us there are
+seventy-four big waggons waiting at Frere for our relief--milk,
+vegetables, forage, eleven waggons of rum, fifty cases of whisky, 5,000
+cigarettes, and so on. But all depends upon those parallels, so slowly
+advancing against Taba Nyama, and our insides are being sapped and mined
+far more quickly.
+
+Towards noon a disaster occurred, which has depressed the whole town.
+Two of the _Powerful's_ bluejackets have lately been making what they
+called a good thing by emptying unexploded Boer shells of their charges,
+so that the owners might display them with safety and pride when the
+siege is over. For this service they generally received 10s. each. It is
+only two days since they were in my cottage--chiselling out the melinite
+from a complete "Long Tom" shell which alighted in my old Scot's garden.
+I watched them accomplish that task safely, and this morning they set to
+work upon a similar shell by order of the Wesleyan minister, who wished
+to keep it in his window as a symbol of Christianity. One of the men was
+holding it between his knees, while the other was quietly chipping away,
+when suddenly it exploded. Fragments of one of the men strewed the
+minister's house--the other lay wondering upon the ground, but
+without his legs. Whilst I write he is still nominally alive, and keeps
+asking for his mate. One of his legs has been picked up near the Town
+Hall--about 150 yards away.
+
+[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF BOER SHELLS]
+
+A lesser disaster this morning befel Captain Jennings Bramley, of the
+19th Hussars. Whilst on picket he felt something slide over his legs,
+and looking up he saw it was a snake over 5ft. long. The creature at
+once raised its head also, and deliberately spat in his face, filling
+both eyes with poison. That is the invariable defence of the "Spitting
+Snake" (_Rinkholz_ in Dutch, and _Mbamba Twan_ or child catcher in
+Zulu). The pain is agonising. The eye turns red and appears to run with
+blood, but after a day or two the poison passes off and sight returns.
+The snake is not otherwise poisonous, but apparently can count on
+success in its shots at men, leopards, or dogs.
+
+
+     _January 23, 1900._
+
+Soon after dawn our own guns along the northern defences from Tunnel
+Hill to King's Post woke me with an extraordinary din. They could not
+have made more noise about another general attack, but there was no
+rifle fire. Getting up very unwillingly at 4.30 a.m., I climbed up
+Junction Hill and looked up the Broad valley, but not a single Boer was
+in sight. The firing went on till about six, and then abruptly ceased. I
+heard afterwards that Buller had asked us to keep as many Boers here as
+possible. I suppose we expended about 200 rounds of our precious
+ammunition. A cool and cloudy sky made the heliograph useless, but in
+the night the clouds had served to reflect the brilliance of Buller's
+searchlight.
+
+So far the Boers have passed us all round in strategy, but in
+searchlights they are nowhere, though Bulwan makes a grand attempt. All
+day from King's Post or Waggon Hill I watched the Great Plain of Taba
+Nyama as usual. Now and then we could see the shells bursting, but the
+Boer camps have not moved.
+
+The ration coffee has come to an end, except a reserve of 3 cwt, which
+would hardly last a day. The tea ration is again reduced. The flour
+mixed with mealy meal makes a very sour bread. The big 5th Lancers
+horses are so hungry that at night they eat not only their picket ropes
+but each other's manes and tails. They are so weak that they fall three
+or four times in an hour if the men ride them. Enteric is not quite so
+bad as it was, but dysentery increases. The numbers of military sick
+alone at Intombi, not counting all the sick in the camps and hospitals
+here, are 2,040 to-day.
+
+
+     _January 24, 1900._
+
+The entire interest of the day was centred on Taba Nyama--that black
+mountain, commanding the famous drift in its front and the stretch of
+plain behind. It is fifteen miles away. From Observation Hill one could
+see the British shells bursting along this ridge all morning, as well as
+in the midst of the Boer tents half-way down the double peaks, and at
+the foot of the hill. The firing began at 3 a.m., and lasted with
+extreme severity till noon, the average of audible shells being at least
+five a minute. We could also see the white bursts of shrapnel from our
+field artillery. In the afternoon I went to Waggon Hill, and with the
+help of a telescope made out a large body of men--about 1,000 I
+suppose--creeping up the distant crest and spreading along the summit. I
+could only conjecture them to be English from their presence on the
+exposed ridge, and from their regular though widely extended formation.
+They were hardly visible except as a series of black points.
+Thunderclouds hung over the Drakensberg behind, and the sun was
+obscured. Yet I had no doubt in my own mind that the position was won.
+It was five o'clock, or a little later.
+
+Others saw large parties of Boers fleeing for life up dongas and over
+plains, the phantom carriage-and-four driving hastily north-westward
+after an urgent warning, and other such melodramatic incidents, which
+escaped my notice. The position of the falling shells, and the movement
+of those minute black specks were to me enough of drama for one day's
+life.
+
+In the evening, I am told, the General received a signal from Buller:
+"Have taken hill. Fight went well." No one thought or talked of anything
+but the prospect of near relief. Yet (besides old Bulwan's violent
+bombardment of the station) there was one other event in the day
+deserving record. Hearing an unhappy case of an officer's widow left
+destitute, Colonel Knox, commanding the Divisional Troops, has offered
+twelve bottles of whisky for auction to-morrow, and hopes to make £100
+by the sale. I think he will succeed, unless Buller shakes the market.
+
+
+     _January 25, 1900._
+
+Before 6 a.m. I was on Observation Hill again, watching. One hopeful
+sign was at once obvious. The Boer waggon-laagers were breaking up. The
+two great lines of waggons between the plantations near Pinkney's farm
+were gone. By 6.30 they were all creeping away with their oxen up a road
+that runs north-west among the hills in the direction of Tintwa Pass. It
+was the most hopeful movement we had yet seen, but one large laager was
+still left at the foot of Fos Kop, or Mount Moriah.
+
+The early morning was bright, but a mist soon covered the sun. Rain
+fell, and though the air afterwards was strangely clear, the heliograph
+could not be used till the afternoon. We were left in uncertainty.
+Shells were bursting along the ridge of Taba Nyama, on the double peaks
+and the Boer tents below. Only on the highest point in the centre we
+could see no firing, and that in itself was hopeful. About 8 a.m. the
+fire slackened and ceased. We conjectured an armistice. Through a
+telescope we could see little black specks on the centre of the hill;
+they appeared to be building sangars. The Naval Cone Redoubt, having the
+best telescope, report that the walls are facing this way. In that case
+the black specks were probably British, and yet not even in the morning
+sun did we get a word of certainty. We hardly know what to think.
+
+In the afternoon the situation was rather worse. We saw the shelling
+begin again, but no progress seemed to be made. About 4 p.m. we
+witnessed a miserable sight. Along the main track which crosses the
+Great Plain and passes round the end of Telegraph Hill, almost within
+range of our guns, came a large party of men tramping through the dust.
+They were in khaki uniforms, marched in fours, and kept step.
+Undoubtedly they were British prisoners on their way to Pretoria. Their
+numbers were estimated at fifty, ninety, and 150 by different look-out
+stations. In front and rear trudged an unorganised gang of Boers,
+evidently acting as escort. It was a miserable and depressing thing to
+see.
+
+At last a cipher message began to come through on the heliograph. There
+was immense excitement at the Signal Station. The figures were taken
+down. Colonel Duff buttoned the precious paper in his pocket. Off he
+galloped to Headquarters. Major De Courcy Hamilton was called to
+decipher the news. It ran as follows: "Kaffir deserter from Boer lines
+reports guns on Bulwan and Telegraph Hills removed!"
+
+It was dated a day or two back. To-day both guns mentioned have been
+unusually active. Their shells have been bursting thick among us, and
+the sound of their firing must have been quite audible below. Yet this
+was the message.
+
+Eggs to-night fetched 30s. 6d. per dozen; a sucking pig 35s.; a chicken
+20s. In little over a week we shall have to begin killing our horses
+because they will have nothing to eat.
+
+
+     _January 26, 1900._
+
+Full of hopes and fears, I rode early up to Observation Hill as usual,
+and saw at once that the Boer waggon-laagers, which I watched departing
+yesterday, had returned in the night. Perhaps there were not quite so
+many waggons, and the site had been shifted a few hundred yards. But
+still there they stood again. Their presence is not hopeful, but it does
+not imply disaster. They may have gone in haste, and been recalled at
+leisure. Buller may have demanded their return under the conditions of a
+possible armistice. They may even have found the passes blocked by our
+men. Anyhow, there they are, and their return is the only important news
+of the day.
+
+No message or tidings came through. The day was cloudy, and ended in
+quiet rain. We saw a few shells fall on the plain at the foot of Taba
+Nyama, and what looked like a few on the summit. But nothing else could
+be made out, except that the Boer ambulances were very busy driving
+round.
+
+Among ourselves the chief event was the feverish activity of the
+Telegraph Hill big gun. Undeterred by our howitzers, he continued nearly
+all morning throwing shells at every point within sight. By one supreme
+effort, tilting his nose high up into the air, he threw one sheer up to
+the Manchesters on Cæsar's Camp--a range of some 12,000 yards, the
+gunners say. Perhaps he was trying to make up for the silence of his
+Bulwan brother. It is rumoured that Pepworth Hill is to have a successor
+to the "Long Tom" of earlier and happier days. Six empty waggons with
+double spans of oxen were seen yesterday wending towards Bulwan.
+
+Our hunger is increasing. Men and horses suffer horribly from weakness
+and disease. About fifteen horses die a day, and the survivors gasp and
+cough at every step, or fall helpless.
+
+Biscuits are to be issued to-night instead of bread, because flour is
+running short. It is believed that not 500 men could be got together
+capable of marching five miles under arms, so prevalent are all diseases
+of the bowels. As to luxuries, even the cavalry are smoking the used
+tea-leaves out of the breakfast kettles. "They give you a kind of hot
+taste," they say.
+
+
+     _January 27, 1900._
+
+I was again on Observation Hill, watching. Nothing had changed, and
+there was no sign of movement. The Boers rode to and fro as usual, and
+their cattle grazed in scattered herds. Now and then a big gun fired,
+but I could see no bursting shells, and the sound seemed further away. I
+crossed the broad valley to Leicester Post. Our cattle and horses were
+trying to pick up a little grass there, while the howitzer and automatic
+"pom-pom" shelled them from Surprise Hill. "Pom-poms" are elegant little
+shells, about five inches long, and some with pointed heads were
+designed for the British Navy, but rejected. The cattle sniff at them
+inquisitively, and Kaffirs rush for a perfect specimen, which fetches
+from 10s. to 30s. For they are suitable presents for ladies, but
+unhappily all that fell near me to-day exploded into fragments.
+
+The telescope on Leicester Post showed me nothing new. Not a single man
+was now to be seen on Spion Kop or the rest of Taba Nyama. At two
+o'clock the evil news reached us. The heliograph briefly told the
+story; the central hill captured by the British on Wednesday afternoon,
+recaptured at night by the Boers, and held by them ever since. Our loss
+about five hundred and some prisoners.
+
+It was the worst news we have yet received, all the harder to bear
+because our hopes had been raised to confidence. It is harder to face
+disappointment now than six weeks ago. Even on biscuit and trek-oxen we
+can only live for thirty-two days longer, and nearly all the horses must
+die. The worst is that in their sickness and pain the men could hardly
+resist another assault. The sickness of the garrison is not to be
+measured by hospital returns, for nearly every one on duty is ill,
+though he may refuse to "go sick." The record of Intombi Camp is not
+cheering. The total of military sick to-day is 1,861, including 828
+cases of enteric, 259 cases of dysentery, and 312 wounded. The numbers
+have slightly diminished lately because an average of fourteen a day
+have been dying, and all convalescents are hurried back to Ladysmith.
+The number of graves down there now is 282 for men and five for
+officers, but deaths increase so fast that long trenches are dug, and
+the bodies laid in two rows, one above the other. "You see," said the
+gravedigger, "I'm goin' to put Patrick O'Connor here with Daniel
+Murphy."
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 28, 1900._
+
+From my station on Observation Hill I could see a new Boer laager drawn
+up, about six miles away, at the far end of the Long Valley. Otherwise
+all remains quiet and unmoved. Three or four distant guns were heard in
+the afternoon, but that was all.
+
+On the whole the spirit of the garrison was much more cheerful. We began
+to talk again of possible relief within a week. The heliograph brought a
+message of thanks from Lord Roberts for our "heroic, splendid defence."
+Every one felt proud and happy. The words were worth a fresh brigade.
+
+In the morning a consultation was held on the condition of the cavalry
+horses. At first it was determined to kill three hundred, so as to save
+food for the rest, but afterwards the orders were to turn them out on
+the flat beyond the racecourse, and let them survive if they could. The
+artillery horses must be fed as long as possible. The unfortunate walers
+of the 19th Hussars will probably be among the first to go. Coming
+straight from India, they were put to terribly hard work on landing,
+and have never recovered. Walers cannot do on grass which keeps local
+horses and even Arabs fat enough. What the average horse is chiefly
+suffering from now is a kind of influenza, accompanied by a frightful
+cough. My own talking horse kept trying to lie down to-day, and said he
+felt languid and queer. When he endeavoured to trot or canter a cough
+took him fit to break his mother's heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+HOPE DEFERRED
+
+
+     _January 29, 1900._
+
+The only change to-day was the steady passage of Boers westward, to
+concentrate afresh round Taba Nyama. Their new laager up the Long Valley
+had disappeared. Large bodies of men had been seen coming up from
+Colenso. The crisis of the war in Natal is evidently near. Meantime
+Kaffir deserters brought in a lot of chatter about the recent fighting.
+On one point they generally agreed--that Kruger himself was with his
+men. It is very likely. The staunch old prophet and patriot would hardly
+stay away when the issue involves the existence of his people.
+
+But when the Kaffirs go on to say that Kruger, Joubert, and Steyn stood
+together on Mount Moriah (Loskop) to witness the battle, the addition
+may be only picturesque. It would be well if that were the worst fiction
+credulity swallowed. One of the head nurses from Intombi told me to-day
+that the Boers had bribed an old herbalist--she thought at Dundee or
+somewhere--to reveal a terrible poison, into which they dipped their
+cartridges, and even the bullets inside their shrapnel! To this she
+attributed the suppuration of several recent wounds. Of the garrison's
+unhealthy condition she took no account whatever. No, it was poison. She
+had heard the tale somewhere--from a railway official, she thought--and
+believed it with the assurance of the Christian verity. Nearly every one
+is like that, and the wildest story finds disciples.
+
+Rations are again reduced to-day to the following quantities: tinned
+meat 1/2 lb., or fresh meat 1 lb.; biscuit 1/2 lb., or bread 1 lb.; tea,
+1/6 oz.; sugar, 1-1/2 ozs.; salt, 1/2 oz., and pepper 1/36 oz.
+
+It has also been decided to turn all the horses out to grass, except the
+artillery, three hundred from the cavalry, seventy officers' chargers,
+and twenty engineers' draught. These few are to be kept fed with rations
+of 3 lbs. of mealies, 4 lbs. of chaff, 16 lbs. of grass, 1-1/2 ozs. of
+salt. The artillery horses will get 2 lbs. of oats or bran besides. In
+the Imperial Light Horse they are killing one of their horses every
+other day, and eating him.
+
+
+     _January 30, 1900._
+
+Mortals depend for their happiness not only on their circulation but on
+the weather. To-day was certainly the gloomiest in all the siege. It
+rained steadily night and morning, the steaming heat was overpowering,
+and we sludged about, sweating like the victims of a foul Turkish bath.
+Towards evening it suddenly turned cold. Black and dismal clouds hung
+over all the hills. The distance was fringed with funereal indigo. The
+wearied garrison crept through their duties, hungry and gaunt as ghosts.
+There was no heliograph to cheer us up, and hardly a sound of distant
+guns. The rumour had got abroad that we were to be left to our fate,
+whilst Roberts, with the main column, diverted all England's thoughts to
+Bloemfontein. Like one man we lost our spirits, our hopes, and our
+tempers.
+
+The depression probably arose from the reduction of rations which I
+mentioned yesterday. The remaining food has been organised to last
+another forty-two days, and it is, of course, assumed we shall have to
+use it all, whereas the new arrangement is only a precaution. Colonel
+Ward and Colonel Stoneman are not to be caught off their guard. One of
+their chief difficulties just now is the large body of Indians--bearers,
+sais, bakers, servants of all kinds--who came over with the troops, and
+will not eat the sacred cow. Out of about 2,000, only 487 will consent
+to do that. The remainder can only get very little rice and mealies.
+Their favourite ghi, or clarified butter, has entirely gone, and their
+hunger is pitiful. The question now is whether or not their religious
+scruples will allow them to eat horse.
+
+Most of us have been eating horse to-day with excellent result. But one
+of the most pitiful things I have seen in all the war was the
+astonishment and terror of the cavalry horses at being turned loose on
+the hills and not allowed to come back to their accustomed lines at
+night. All afternoon one met parties of them strolling aimlessly about
+the roads or up the rocky footpaths--poor anatomies of death, with
+skeleton ribs and drooping eyes. At about seven o'clock two or three
+hundred of them gathered on the road through the hollow between Convent
+Hill and Cove Redoubt, and tried to rush past the Naval Brigade to
+the cavalry camp, where they supposed their food and grooming and
+cheerful society were waiting for them as usual. They had to be driven
+back by mounted Basutos with long whips, till at last they turned
+wearily away to spend the night upon the bare hillside.
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN BAKERY]
+
+
+     _January 31, 1900._
+
+Again the sky was clouded, and except during an hour's sunshine in the
+afternoon no heliograph could work. But below the clouds the distance
+was singularly clear, and one could see all the Dutch camps, and the
+Boers moving over the plain. The camps are a little reduced. Only four
+tents are left in the white string that hung down the side of Taba
+Nyama.
+
+Two parties, of forty Boers apiece, passed north along the road behind
+Telegraph Ridge whilst I was on Observation Hill in the morning. But
+there was no special meaning in their movements, and absolutely no news
+came in. Only rumours, the rumours of despair--Warren surrounded,
+Buller's ammunition train attacked and cut to pieces, the whole
+relieving force in hopeless straits.
+
+In the town and camps things went on as usual, under a continued weight
+of depression. The cold and wet of the night brought on a terrible
+increase of dysentery, and I never saw the men look so wretched and
+pinched. When officers in high quarters talk magnificently about the
+excellent spirits of the troops, I think they do not always realise what
+those excellent spirits imply. I wish they had more time to visit the
+remnants of battalions defending the hills--out in cold and rain all
+night, out in the blazing sun all day, with nothing to look forward to
+but a trek-ox or a horse stewed in unseasoned water, two biscuits or
+some sour bread, and a tasteless tea, generally half cold. No beer, no
+tobacco, no variety at all. To me, one of the highest triumphs of the
+siege is the achievement of MacNalty, a young lieutenant of the Army
+Service Corps. For nights past he has been working in the station engine
+shed at an apparatus of his own invention for boiling down horses into
+soup. After many experiments in process and flavouring, and many
+disappointments, he has secured an admirable essence of horse. This will
+sound familiar and commonplace to people who can get a bottle of such
+things at grocer's, but it may save many a good soldier's life none the
+less. I hope to see the process at work, and describe it later on.
+
+Mr. Lines, the town clerk, who has quietly stuck to his duties in spite
+of confusion and shells, gave me details to-day of the rations allowed
+to civilians. During the siege there has been a fairly steady white
+population of 560 residents and 540 refugees, or 1,100 in all. This does
+not include the civilians at Intombi, whose numbers are still
+unpublished. Practically all the civilians are drawing rations, for
+which they apply at the market between 5 and 7 p.m. They get groceries,
+bread or biscuit, and meat in the same quantities as the soldiers.
+Children under ten receive half rations. Each applicant has to be
+recommended by the mayor or magistrate, and brings a check with him. I
+suppose the promise to pay at the end of the siege is only a nominal
+formula.
+
+The civilian Indians and Kaffirs number 150 and 300 respectively, and
+draw their rations at the station, the organisation being under Major
+Thompson, A.C.G., as is the whole of the milk supply, now set aside for
+the sick. The Indian ration is atta, 4 oz.; rice, 3 oz.; mealie meal, 9
+oz.; salt, 1/2 oz.; goor, 1-1/4 oz.; amchur, 1/4 oz. And those who will
+eat meat get 8 oz. twice a week instead of mealies. The Kaffir ration
+is simpler: fresh meat, 1 lb.; mealie meal, 3/4 lb.; salt, 1/2 oz.
+
+
+     _February 1, 1900._
+
+How we should have laughed in November at the thought of being shut up
+here till February? But here we are, and the outlook grows more
+hopeless. People are miserably depressed. It would be impossible to get
+up sports or concerts now. Too many are sick, too many dead. The
+laughter has gone out of the siege, or remains only as bitter laughter
+when the word relief is spoken. We are allowed to know nothing for
+certain, but the conviction grows that we are to be left to our fate for
+another three weeks at least, while the men slowly rot. A Natal paper
+has come in with an account of Buller's defeat at Taba Nyama on the
+25th. We read with astonishment the loud praises of a masterly retreat
+over the Tugela without the loss of a single man. When shall we hear of
+a masterly advance to our aid? Do we lose no men?
+
+To-day the morning was cold and cloudy, as it has been since Monday, but
+the sun broke out for an hour or two, in the afternoon, and official
+messages could be sent through by heliograph. For information and
+relief we received the following words, and those only:--
+
+     "German specialist landed Delagoa Bay pledges himself to dam up
+     Klip River and flood Ladysmith out."
+
+That was all they deigned to tell us.
+
+
+     _February 2, 1900._
+
+After a misty dawn, soaked with minute rain, the sky slowly cleared at
+last, letting the merry sunshine through. At once the heliograph began
+to flash. I sent off a brief message, and soon afterwards the signal
+"Line clear" was sent from Zwartz Kop over the Tugela. The "officials"
+began to arrive, and we hoped for news at last. Three or four messages
+came through, but who could have guessed the thrilling importance of the
+first? It ran:--
+
+     "Sir Stafford Northcote, Governor of Bombay, has been made a peer."
+
+The other messages were vague and dull enough--something about the
+Prince of Wales reviewing Yeomanry, and the race for some hunt cup in
+India. But that peerage! To a sick and hungry garrison!
+
+We were shot at rather briskly all day by the enemy's guns. The groups
+of wandering horses were a tempting aim. The poor creatures still try to
+get back to their lines, and some of them stand there motionless all
+day, rather than seek grass upon the hills. The cavalry have made
+barbed-wire pens, and collect most of them at night. But many are lost,
+some stolen, and more die of starvation and neglect. An increasing
+number are killed for rations, and to-day twenty-eight were specially
+shot for the chevril factory. I visited the place this afternoon. The
+long engine-shed at the station has been turned to use. Only one engine
+remains inside, and that is used as a "bomb-proof," under which all
+hands run when the shelling is heavy. Into other engine-pits cauldrons
+have been sunk, constructed of iron trolleys without their wheels, and
+plastered round with clay. A wood fire is laid along under the
+cauldrons, on the same principle as in a camp kitchen. The horseflesh is
+brought up to the station in huge red halves of beast, run into the
+shed on trucks, cut up by the Kaffirs, who also pound the bones, thrown
+into the boiling cauldron, and so--"Farewell, my Arab steed!"
+
+There is not enough hydrochloric or pepsine left in the town to make a
+true extract of horse, but by boiling and evaporation the strength is
+raised till every pint issued will make three pints of soup. A punkah is
+to be fitted to make the evaporation more rapid, and perhaps my horse
+will ultimately appear as a jelly or a lozenge. But at present the stuff
+is nothing but a strong kind of soup, and at the first issue to-day the
+men had to carry it in the ordinary camp-kettles.
+
+Every man in the garrison to-night receives a pint of horse essence hot.
+I tasted it in the cauldron, straight from the horse, and found it so
+sustaining that I haven't eaten anything since. The dainty Kaffirs and
+Colonial Volunteers refuse to eat horse in any form. But the sensible
+British soldier takes to it like a vulture, and begs for the lumps of
+stewed flesh from which the soup has been made. With the joke, "Mind
+that stuff; it kicks!" he carries it away, and gets a chance, as he
+says, of filling--well, we know what he says. The extract has a
+registered label:--
+
+[Illustration: Superior Ladysmith
+
+CHEVRIL
+
+RESURGAM
+
+Trade Mark
+
+"The Iron Horse"]
+
+Under the signature of Aduncus Bea and Co. acute signallers will
+recognise the official title of Colonel Ward.
+
+Since the beginning of the siege one of the saddest sights has been the
+Boer prisoners lounging away their days on the upper gallery of the
+gaol. They have been there since Elands Laagte, nearly four months now,
+with no news, nothing to do, and nothing to see except one little bit of
+road visible over the wall.
+
+The solitude has so unnerved them that when the shells fall near the
+gaol or whiz over the roof the prisoners are said to howl and scream. On
+visiting them to-day I found that only seven real prisoners of war are
+left here, the others being suspects or possible traitors, arrested on
+suspicion of signalling or sending messages to the enemy. Among them is
+the French deserter I mentioned weeks ago. The little man is much
+reduced in girth, and terribly lonely among the Dutch, but he appears to
+grow no wiser for solitude and low living.
+
+Among the twenty-three suspects it was pleasant to see one new arrival
+who has been the curse of the town since the beginning of the siege,
+when he went about telling the terrified women and children that if they
+were not blown to bits by the shells the Boers would soon get them. So
+he has gone on ever since, till to-day Colonel Park, of the Devons, had
+him arrested for the military offence of "causing despondency." He had
+kept asking the Devons when they were going to run away, and how they
+would like the walk to Pretoria when Ladysmith surrendered. There are
+about thirty Kaffirs also in the prison, chiefly thieves, but some
+suspects. They are kept in the women's quarters, for the kind of woman
+who fills Kaffir gaols has lifted up her blankets and gone to Maritzburg
+or Intombi Camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SUN AND FEVER
+
+
+     _February 3, 1900._
+
+The day was fairly quiet. Old "Bulwan Billy" did not fire at us at all,
+and there was no movement in the distant Boer camps, though the
+universal belief is that the enemy is concentrating round Ladysmith for
+a fresh attack.
+
+In the evening the rations were issued to the civilians under Major
+Thompson's new regulations in the Market House. Each child, or whoever
+else is sent, now brings his ticket; it is verified at a table, the cost
+is added daily to each account, the child is sent on down the shed to
+draw his allowance of tea and sugar, his loaf, and bit of horse. The
+organisation is admirable, but one feels it comes a little late in the
+day. The same is true of the new biscuit tins which are to be put up as
+letter-boxes about the camp for a local post, and of the new plan of
+making sandals for the men out of flaps of saddles and the buckets for
+cavalry carbines. For a fortnight past, 120 of the Manchesters have gone
+barefoot among the rocks.
+
+
+     _Sunday, February 4, 1900._
+
+The sun shone. Women and children went up and down the street. I even
+saw two white-petticoated girls climbing the rocks of Cove Redoubt to
+get a peep at "Princess Victoria"--otherwise "Bloody Mary." It was a day
+of peace, but every one believes it to be the last. To-night an attack
+is confidently expected. The Boers are concentrating on the north-west.
+A new gun was seen yesterday moving towards Thornhill's Kopje, and
+sounds of building with stones were heard there last night. It is
+thought the attack will be upon the line from Observation Hill to Range
+Post. Every available man is warned. Even the military prisoners are
+released and sent on duty again. The pickets are doubled and pushed far
+out. A code of signals by rocket has been arranged to inform Buller of
+what is going on. It is felt that this is the enemy's last chance of
+doing so big a thing as capturing this garrison.
+
+But all that is still uncertain, and in the quiet afternoon I harnessed
+up my cart for a gentle drive with Sergeant-Gunner Boseley, of the 53rd
+Battery. He is a red Irishman, born at Maidstone, and has done eleven
+years' service. During the attack on the 6th he was sitting beside his
+gun waiting for Major Abdy's word to fire in his turn, when a 96lb.
+shell from "Bulwan" struck him in its flight, and shattered his left arm
+and leg. He says he was knocked silly, and felt a bit fluttered, but had
+no pain till they lifted him into the dhoolie. He broke the record, I
+believe, by surviving a double amputation on the same side, which left
+him only about 6 in. of thigh and 4 in. of arm. For every movement he is
+helpless as a log. Four of us hoisted him into the cart, and then we
+drove round to see his old battery, where the greetings of his mates
+were brief, emphatic, and devoid of all romance. We then went up to the
+tin camp, and round the main positions, which he regarded with silent
+equanimity. I thought he was bored by the familiar scene, but at the end
+he told me he had enjoyed it immensely, never having seen Ladysmith by
+daylight before! The man is now in magnificent health, rosy as a rose,
+and no doubt has a great career before him as a wonder from the war.
+
+
+     _February 5, 1900._
+
+The noise of guns boomed all day from the Tugela. It sounded as though a
+battle was raging along miles of its banks, from Colenso right away west
+to Potgieter's Drift. I could see big shells bursting again on Taba
+Nyama and the low nek above the ford. Further to the left they were
+bursting around Monger's Hill, nearly half-way along the bank to
+Colenso. From early morning the fire increased in intensity, reaching
+its height between 3 and 4 p.m. At half-past four the firing suddenly
+slackened and stopped. That seems like victory, but we can only hope.
+
+
+     _February 6, 1900._
+
+Firing was again continuous nearly all day along the Tugela, except that
+there appeared to be a pause of some hours before and after midday. The
+distance was hazy, and light was bad. The heliograph below refused to
+take or send messages, and we had no definite news. But at night it was
+confidently believed that relief was some miles nearer than in the
+morning. For myself, the sun and fever had hold of me, and I could only
+stand on Observation Hill and watch the far-off bursting of shells and
+the flash of a great gun which the Boers have placed in a mountain
+niche upon the horizon to our left of Monger's Hill, overlooking the
+Tugela. Sickness brought despondency, and I seemed only to see our
+countrymen throwing away their lives in vain against the defences of a
+gallant people fighting for their liberty.
+
+One cannot help noticing the notable change of feeling towards the enemy
+which the war has brought. The Boers, instead of being spoken of as
+"ignorant brutes" and "cowards" have become "splendid fellows,"
+admirable alike for strategy and courage. The hangers-on of Johannesburg
+capitalism have to keep their abusive contempt to themselves now, but
+happily only one or two of them have cared to remain in the beleaguered
+town.
+
+At a mess where I was to-night, all the officers but one agreed there
+was not much glory in this war for the British soldier. It would only be
+remembered as the fine struggle of an untrained people for their liberty
+against an overwhelming power. The defence of the Tyrol against Ney was
+quoted as a parallel. The Colonel, it is true, pathetically anxious to
+justify everything to his mind and conscience, and trying to hate the
+enemy he was fighting, stuck to his patriotic protests; but he was
+alone, and the conversation was significant of a very general change.
+Not that this prevents any one from longing for Buller's victory and our
+relief, though the field were covered with the dead defenders of their
+freedom.
+
+
+     _February 7, 1900._
+
+We have now but one thought--is it possible for Buller to force his way
+across that line of hills overlooking the Tugela? The nearest summits
+are not more than ten miles away. We could ride out there in little more
+than an hour and join hands with our countrymen and the big world
+outside. Yet the barrier remains unbroken. Firing continued nearly all
+day, except in the extreme heat of afternoon. We could watch the columns
+of smoke thrown up by the Boers' great gun, still fixed above that niche
+upon the horizon. The Dutch camps were unmoved, and at the extremity of
+the Long Valley a large new camp with tents and a few waggons appeared
+and increased during the day. Some thought it was a hospital camp, but
+it was more likely due to a general concentration in the centre. Here
+and there we could see great shells bursting, and even shrapnel. The
+sound of rifles and "pom-poms" was often reported. Yet I could not see
+any real proof of advance. Perhaps fever and sun blind me to hope, for
+the staff are very confident still. They even lay odds on a celebration
+of victory next Sunday by the united forces, and I hear that Sir George
+is practising the Hundredth Psalm.
+
+
+     _February 8 to February 24, 1900._
+
+I had hoped to keep well all through the siege, so as to see it all from
+start to finish. But now over a fortnight has been lost while I have
+been lying in hospital, suffering all the tortures of Montjuich, "A
+touch of sun," people called it, combined with some impalpable kind of
+malaria. On the 8th I struggled up Cæsar's Camp again, and saw parties
+of Boers burning all the veldt beyond Limit Hill, apparently to prevent
+us watching the movements of the trains at their railhead. On the 9th I
+could not stand, and the bearers, with their peculiar little chant, to
+keep them out of step, brought me down to the Congregational Chapel in a
+dhoolie. There I still lie. The Hindoo sweepers creep about, raising a
+continual dust; they fan me sleepily for hours together with a look of
+impenetrable vacancy, and at night they curl themselves on the ground
+outside and cough their souls away. The English orderlies stamp and
+shout, displaying the greatest goodwill and a knowledge of the nervous
+system acquired in cavalry barracks. Far away we hear the sound of
+Buller's guns. I did not know it was possible to suffer such atrocious
+and continuous pain without losing consciousness.
+
+Of course we have none of the proper remedies for sunstroke--no ice, no
+soda-water, and so little milk that it has to be rationed out almost by
+the teaspoonful. Now that the fever has begun to subside I can only hope
+for a tiny ration of tea, a brown compound called rice pudding,
+flavoured with the immemorial dust of Indian temples, and a beef-tea
+which neighs in the throat. That is the worst of the condition of the
+sick now; when they begin to mend it is almost impossible to get them
+well. There is nothing to give them. At Intombi, I believe it is even
+worse than here. The letters I have lately seen from officers recovering
+from wounds or dysentery or enteric are simply heart-rending in their
+appeals.
+
+
+     _February 25, 1900._
+
+Nearly all the patients who have passed through the field hospital
+during the fortnight have been poor fellows shot by snipers in arms or
+legs. Except when their wounds are being dressed, they lie absolutely
+quiet, sleeping, or staring into vacancy. They hardly ever speak a word,
+though the beds are only a foot apart. On my left is the fragment of the
+sergeant gunner whom I took for a drive. His misfortunes and his
+cheerful indifference to them make him a man of social importance. He
+shows with regret how the shell cut in half a marvellous little Burmese
+lady, whose robes once swept down his arm in glorious blues and reds,
+but are now lapped over the bone as "flaps."
+
+Another patient was a shaggy, one-eyed old man, between whose feet a
+Bulwan shell exploded one afternoon as he was walking down the main
+street. Beyond the shock he was not very seriously hurt, but his calves
+were torn by iron and stones. He said he was the one survivor of the
+first English ship that sailed from the Cape with settlers for Natal. He
+was certainly very old.
+
+On the night of the 22nd a man was brought into the hospital where I
+lay--also attacked by sunstroke--his temperature 107 degrees, and all
+consciousness happily gone. It was Captain Walker, the clever Irish
+surgeon, who has served the Gordons through the siege as no other
+regiment has been served, making their bill of health the best, and
+their lines a pleasure to visit. His skill, especially in dysentery,
+was looked to by many outside the Gordons themselves. Nothing could save
+him. He was packed in cold sheets, fanned, and watched day and night.
+For a few moments he knew me, and reminded me of a story we had laughed
+over. But yesterday evening, after struggling long for each breath, he
+died--one of the best and most useful men in camp.
+
+If it was fated that I should be laid up for a fortnight or more of the
+siege it seems that this was about the best time fate could choose. From
+all the long string of officers, men, telegraph clerks, and civilians,
+who, with unceasing kindliness have passed beside my bed bringing news
+and cheering me up, I have heard but one impression, that this has been
+the dullest and deadliest fortnight of the siege. There has been no
+attack, no very serious expectation of Buller's arrival. The usual
+bombardment has gone wearily on. Sometimes six or seven big shells have
+thundered so close to this little chapel, that the special kind of
+torture to which I was being subjected had for a time to be interrupted.
+Really nothing worthy of note has happened, except the building by the
+Boers of an incomprehensible work beside the Klip at the foot of Bulwan.
+About 300 Kaffirs labour at it, with Boer superintendents. It is
+apparently a dam to stop the river and flood out the town. No doubt it
+is the result of that German specialist's arrival, of which we heard.
+
+On coming to my first bit of bread to-day I found it uneatable. In the
+fortnight it has degenerated simply to ground mealies of maize--just the
+same mixture of grit and sticky dough as the peasants in Pindus starve
+upon. Even this--enough in itself to inflame any English stomach--is
+reduced to 1/2 lb. a day. As I stood at the gate this afternoon taking
+my first breath of air, I watched the weak-kneed, lantern-jawed soldiers
+going round from house to house begging in vain for anything to eat. Yet
+they say the health of the camp as a whole has improved. This they
+attribute to chevril.
+
+During my illness, though I cannot fix the exact day, one of the saddest
+incidents of the siege has happened. My friend Major Doveton, of the
+Imperial Light Horse, a middle-aged professional man from Johannesburg,
+who had joined simply from patriotism, was badly wounded in the arm in
+the great attack of the 6th. Mrs. Doveton applied to Joubert for leave
+to cross the Boer lines to see her husband, and bring medical
+appliances and food. The leave was granted, and she came. But amputation
+was decided upon, and the poor fellow died from the shock. He was a fine
+soldier, as modest as brave. Often have I seen him out on the hillside
+with his men, quietly sharing in all their hardships and privations. I
+don't know why the incident of his wife's passage through the enemy's
+lines should make his death seem sadder. But it does. On Saturday night
+I drove away from the hospital in my cart, though still in great pain
+and hardly able to stand. I was unable to endure the depression of all
+the hospital sights and sounds and smells any longer. Perhaps the worst
+of all is the want of silence and darkness at night. The fever and pain
+both began to abate directly I got home to my old Scot.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL RT. HON. SIR REDVERS HENRY BULLER, V.C., G.C.B.,
+K.C.M.G., K.C.B.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+RELIEVED AT LAST
+
+
+     _Tuesday, February 27, 1900._
+
+This is Majuba Day, and in the afternoon the garrison was cheered by the
+news that Roberts had surrounded Cronje and compelled him to surrender.
+For ourselves, relief seems as far off as ever, though it is said shells
+were seen bursting not far beyond Intombi Camp. The bread rations are
+cut down again to half, after a few days' rise; though, indeed, they can
+hardly be called bread rations, for the maize bread was so uneatable
+that none is made now. The ration is biscuits and three ounces of mealie
+meal for porridge.
+
+Towards evening I went for my first drive through old familiar scenes
+that have come to look quite different now. The long drought has turned
+the country brown, and it is all the barer for the immense amount of
+firewood that has been cut. It was decided about a week ago not to issue
+any more horse as rations till the very last of the oxen had been
+killed.
+
+
+     _February 28, 1900._
+
+From early morning it was evident that the Boers were much disturbed in
+mind. Line after line of waggons with loose strings of mounted men kept
+moving from the direction of the Tugela heights above Colenso, steadily
+westward, across the top of Long Valley, past the foot of Hussar Hill,
+out into the main road along the Great Plain, over the Sandspruit Drift
+at the foot of Telegraph Hill, and so to the branching of the roads
+which might lead either to the Free State passes or to Pepworth Hill and
+the railway to the north. All day the procession went on. However
+incredible it seemed, it was evident that the "Great Trek" had begun at
+last.
+
+Soon after midday a heliogram came through from Buller, saying he had
+severely defeated the enemy yesterday, and believed them to be in full
+retreat. Better still, about three the Naval guns on Cove Redoubt and
+Cæsar's Camp (whither "Lady Anne" was removed three days ago) opened
+fire in rapid succession on the great Bulwan gun. The Boers were
+evidently removing him. They had struck a "shearlegs" or derrick upon
+the parapet. One of our first shots brought the whole machinery down,
+and all through the firing of the Naval guns was excellent.
+
+About six I had driven out (being still enfeebled with fever) to King's
+Post, to see the tail-end of the Boer waggons disappear. On returning I
+found all the world running for all they were worth to the lower end of
+the High-street and shouting wildly. The cause was soon evident. Riding
+up just past the Anglican Church came a squadron of mounted infantry.
+They were not our own. Their horses were much too good, and they looked
+strange. Behind them came another and another. They had crossed the
+drift that leads to the road along the foot of Cæsar's Camp past Intombi
+to Pieter's, and Colenso. There was no mistake about it. They were the
+advance of the relief column, and more were coming behind. It was Lord
+Dundonald's Irregulars--Imperial Light Horse, Natal Carbineers, Natal
+Police, and Border Mounted Rifles.
+
+The road was crammed on both sides with cheering and yelling
+crowds--soldiers off duty, officers, townspeople, Kaffirs, and coolies,
+all one turmoil of excitement and joy. By the post office General White
+met them, and by common consent there was a pause. Most of his Staff
+were with him too. In a very few words he welcomed the first visible
+evidence of relief. He thanked his own garrison for their splendid
+service in the defence, and added that now he would never have to cut
+down their rations again, a thing that always went to his heart.
+
+Then followed roar after roar of cheering--cheers for White, for Buller,
+for Ward, for many others. Then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves
+shouting the National Anthem in every possible key and pitch. Then more
+cheering and more again.
+
+But it was getting dark. The General and Staff turned towards
+Headquarters. The new arrivals had to be settled in their quarters for
+the night. Most were taken in by the Imperial Light Horse--alas! there
+is plenty of room in their camp now! To right and left the squadrons
+wheeled, amid greetings and laughter and endless delight. By eight
+o'clock the street was almost clear, and there was nothing to show how
+great a change had befallen us.
+
+About ten a tremendous explosion far away told that the Boers were
+blowing up the bridges behind them as they fled.
+
+And so with to-night the long siege really ends. It is hardly credible
+yet. For 118 days we have been cut off from the world. All that time we
+have been more or less under fire, sometimes under terrible fire. What
+it will be to mix with the great world again and live each day in
+comparative security we can hardly imagine at present. But the peculiar
+episode called the Siege of Ladysmith is over.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+HOW LADYSMITH WAS FED
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _March 23, 1900_.
+
+_Where all worked so well it would be a shame to say Ladysmith was saved
+by any particular branch of the service--the naval guns, the Army
+Service Corps, or the infantry soldier. But it is quite certain that
+without the strictest control on the food supply we could not have held
+out so long, and by the kindness of one whose authority is above
+question I am able to give the following account of how the town was fed
+for the seventeen weeks of the siege._
+
+
+THE PROBLEM.
+
+A celebrated French writer on military matters has said: "There are two
+words for war--_le pain et la poudre_."
+
+In a siege _le pain_ is of even greater importance than _la poudre_, for
+"hunger is more cruel than the sword, and famine has ruined more armies
+than battle." Feeding must go on at least three times a day, and every
+day, or the men become ineffective, and the hospitals filled.
+
+At the beginning of November, 1899, Ladysmith, containing over 20,000
+souls, with 9,800 horses and mules, and 2,500 oxen and a few hundred
+sheep, was cut off from the outer world, and nothing in the way of
+supplies was brought in for 119 days, except a few cattle which our
+guides looted at night from the besieging enemy. The problem was how to
+utilise the food supplies which were in the place, and those who had the
+misfortune (or, as some say, the good fortune) to go through that trying
+period will say that the problem was very satisfactorily solved in spite
+of the enormous difficulties the Army Service Corps had to contend with.
+
+The two senior officers of that corps--Colonel E.W. D. Ward, C.B., and
+Lieut.-Colonel Stoneman--recognising the possibility of a siege, and
+also that a big margin is everything in army administration, had caused
+enormous quantities of supplies to be sent up from the base to
+Ladysmith. The articles were not even tallied or counted as received, in
+spite of the remonstrances of the consignors; but by means of Kaffir
+labourers, working night and day, the trucks were off-loaded as fast as
+possible, and again sent down the line to bring up more food.
+
+
+STORES AT THE BEGINNING.
+
+The quantities of the various articles in hand at the beginning of
+November were as follows:--
+
+                                    lbs.
+  Flour                           979,996
+  Preserved Meat                  173,792
+  Biscuits                        142,510
+  Tea                              23,167
+  Coffee                            9,483
+  Sugar                           267,699
+  Salt                             38,741
+  Maize                         3,965,400
+  Bran                            923,948
+  Oats                          1,270,570
+  Hay, &c.                      1,864,223
+
+and a large amount of medical comforts, such as spirits, wines,
+arrowroot, sago, beef tea, &c.
+
+In addition to the above we had rice, _ghi_, _goor_, _atta_, &c., for
+the natives of the Indian contingent. (_Ghi_ is clarified butter;
+_goor_, unrefined sugar; _atta_ is whole meal.)
+
+At the beginning of the siege the scale of rations was as follows:--
+
+   Bread, 1-1/4 lb, or biscuit, 1 lb.
+   Meat (fresh), 1-1/4 lb., or preserved meat, 1 lb.
+ { Coffee, 1 oz.,
+ {      or
+ { Tea, 1/2 oz.
+   Sugar, 3 oz.
+   Salt, 1/2 oz.
+   Pepper, 1/36 oz.
+ { Vegetables (compressed), 1 oz.,
+ {      or
+ { Potatoes, 1/2 lb.
+
+Cheese, bacon, and jams were frequently issued as an extra, in addition
+to the above.
+
+
+REQUISITIONING.
+
+The above quantities of articles, large as they appear, would not have
+sufficed to supply our wants for the long siege. The military
+authorities therefore very wisely determined at a very early date to
+make use of the Requisition. This power of seizing at a certain price
+from their owners all articles required by the troops has to be used
+very carefully and tactfully, as otherwise the people hide or bury their
+goods. A civilian, commanding the confidence of the people, was
+appointed by the local authorities to fix the prices in co-operation
+with a military officer, who represented the interests of her Majesty's
+Government. In this way a large quantity of food, &c., was obtained at a
+fair price. These quantities were:--
+
+  Cattle, 1,511.
+  Goats and sheep, 1,092.
+  Mealies or maize, 1,517,996 lbs.
+  Kaffir corn, or a kind of millet, 68,370 lbs.
+  Boer meal, or coarse wheat-meal, 108,739 lbs.
+
+All spirits and wines were taken and a fair price paid.
+
+In December, when the cases of enteric fever and dysentery began to be
+very numerous, it was determined to take possession of the milch cows,
+and to see that the milk was used for the sick alone. So under the
+supervision and control of Colonel Stoneman and Captain Thompson, a
+dairy farm was started, and the milk was issued to civilians and
+soldiers alike on medical certificate. Owing to the scarcity of milk,
+and to the great necessity for it in cases of enteric and dysentery,
+the dairy farm is still going (March 23, 1900), the owners of the cows
+being paid 1s. per quart; a careful account being kept of the milk
+produced.
+
+In connection with the requisitioning of cows by Colonel Stoneman, a
+quaint incident is recorded. A gentleman of Ladysmith of a stubborn
+temperament on receiving the requisition wrote to Colonel Stoneman in
+the following terms: "SIR,--Neither you nor any one else shall take my
+cow. If you want milk for your sick apply to Joubert for it. Get out
+with you, and get your milk from the Dutch." The cow was promptly taken.
+
+
+POULTRY AND EGGS.
+
+These soon became very scarce, and the price demanded for eggs was
+enormous. The highest price reached was £2 10s. for twelve eggs, but
+they were often sold at sums from 30s. to 44s. per dozen. As eggs were
+so important a food in the dietary of the sick, it was determined, under
+the authority of the Lieutenant-General commanding, to requisition the
+poultry and eggs of those persons who would not sell them at a
+reasonable rate. A good price was paid to the owners for their eggs and
+chickens, which were issued only on medical certificate.
+
+A well-known official of the Natal Government Railway had thirty-six
+tins of condensed milk. At the auction which took place three times a
+week in the town, 6s. 6d. a tin was offered for this, but the unselfish
+and unsympathetic owner did not consider this price sufficient; he
+declined to sell under 7s. 6d. a tin. This fact being brought to the
+notice of Colonel Stoneman, he requisitioned the whole lot at 10d. a
+tin.
+
+I have stated that 1,511 cattle were requisitioned from their owners for
+slaughter purposes. This was a great trial both to the officer who
+carried out this duty and to the owners. The Kaffir lady Ugumba did not
+want to part with her pet cow, which was the prop of her house, had been
+bred up amongst her children, and had lived in the back yard. The white
+owners discovered suddenly that their cattle were of the very highest
+breed, and had been specially imported from England or Holland at
+enormous cost. However, most of these cattle, except milch cows, had to
+be taken. The proprietors of high-bred stock were directed to claim
+compensation, over the meat value, from the "Invasion Losses Commission"
+now sitting.
+
+
+FAIR SALE.
+
+Colonels Ward and Stoneman having requisitioned considerable quantities
+of food-stuffs at the beginning of the siege, they determined to sell
+some of them, such as sugar, sardines, &c., &c., at the same price as
+was paid. One or two fathers with sick children were supplied with 4 oz.
+of brandy on medical certificate. There was no liquor to be had in the
+town, and the fathers with sick children grew in numbers with suspicious
+rapidity.
+
+In the month of February the pinch began to be felt. Most men were
+without smiles, and most women were scarcely able to suppress their
+tears--tears of weakness and exhaustion. The scale of rations was then
+reduced to a fine point. Many a man begged for suitable food for his
+sick wife and little baby, many mothers asked for a little milk and
+sugar for their young children, and many sick men, both at Intombi and
+in Ladysmith, wrote, or caused to be written, pathetic letters for
+"anything in the way of food" that could be granted.
+
+The "Chevril" factory was started to supply soup, jellies, extracts, and
+even marrow bones made from horses; a sausage factory was instituted;
+and a biltong factory was run in order to utilise the flesh of horses
+which would have otherwise died from starvation. A grass-cutting labour
+gang was organised to go out and (under fire) cut grass and bring it in
+for our cattle and horses; a wood-cutting labour gang went out daily and
+cut wood for fuel--being "sniped at" by the Boers constantly; mills were
+worked by the A.S.C. for the purpose of grinding maize, &c., as food;
+arrangements were made by the A.S.C. for a pure water supply by means of
+condensation and filtration; coffee was made by roasting and grinding
+mealies; the gluten necessary to maize to make bread was supplied by
+Colman's starch; and in short nothing was left undone that ingenuity
+could devise.
+
+
+LOWEST RATIONS.
+
+And yet, in spite, of all that human power could do, as the days dragged
+out the supplies grew shorter. The scale of rations, much to the sorrow
+of the lieut.-general commanding, had been several times reduced, and
+once more, on February 27, it was again found necessary to cut them
+down, with a view to holding out until April if necessary. On that day
+the ration scale was as follows per man, per day, this being the extreme
+limit:--
+
+  For Whites--Biscuit, 1/4 lb.; Maize meal, 3 oz.
+  For Indians and Kaffirs--Maize meal, 8 oz.
+  Europeans--Fresh meat, 1 lb.
+  Kaffirs--Fresh meat, 1-1/4 lbs. (Chiefly horseflesh.)
+  For White men--Coffee or tea, 1/12 oz.; pepper, 1/64 oz.; salt, 1/3 oz.;
+                 sugar, 1 oz.; mustard, 1/20 oz.; Vinegar, 1/12 gill.
+  For Indians--a little rice.
+
+The Indian, it will be observed, would have fared the worst, much
+against the will of the authorities, for he does not eat beef, much less
+horseflesh.
+
+We had not, however, to spend the month of March on this scale of diet,
+for to our great joy, about midday on the 28th, we received the
+following message from General Buller:--"I beat the enemy thoroughly
+yesterday, and my cavalry is now pursuing as fast as bad roads will
+permit. I believe the enemy to be in full retreat." The ration scale was
+at once doubled, and that evening Lord Dundonald's cavalry arrived.
+
+
+
+
+UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH & WEST OF LADYSMITH]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ladysmith, by H. W. Nevinson
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ladysmith, by H. W. Nevinson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ladysmith
+       The Diary of a Siege
+
+Author: H. W. Nevinson
+
+Release Date: August 27, 2005 [EBook #16603]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LADYSMITH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Taavi Kalju and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 388px;">
+<a id="image01" name="image01">
+<img src="images/01.jpg" width="388" height="600" alt="H.W. NEVINSON" title="H.W. NEVINSON" /></a>
+<span class="caption">H.W. NEVINSON</span>
+</div>
+
+<h1>LADYSMITH</h1>
+
+<h1>THE DIARY OF A SIEGE</h1>
+
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+
+<h2>H.W. NEVINSON</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE THIRTY DAYS' WAR"</h4>
+
+
+<h5>
+METHUEN &amp; CO.<br />
+36 ESSEX STREET W.C.<br />
+LONDON<br />
+1900<br />
+</h5>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>Pg v</span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="ctr">
+<table summary="Contents">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">CHAPTER</td><td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td></td><td align="center">PAGE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td>CONTENTS</td><td align="right"><a href="#pagev">v</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</td><td align="right"><a href="#pagevii">vii</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td>NOTE</td><td align="right"><a href="#pageviii">viii</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">I.</td><td></td><td>ON THE EDGE</td><td align="right"><a href="#page1">1</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">II.</td><td></td><td>AT THE BRITISH FRONT</td><td align="right"><a href="#page9">9</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">III.</td><td></td><td>THE FIRST WEEK'S WAR</td><td align="right"><a href="#page20">20</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">IV.</td><td></td><td>BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE</td><td align="right"><a href="#page30">30</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">V.</td><td></td><td>BATTLE OF TINTA INYONI</td><td align="right"><a href="#page41">41</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">VI.</td><td></td><td>THE REVERSE AT NICHOLSON'S NEK</td><td align="right"><a href="#page51">51</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">VII.</td><td></td><td>HEMMED IN</td><td align="right"><a href="#page61">61</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">VIII.</td><td></td><td>TRAGEDY AND COMEDY</td><td align="right"><a href="#page72">72</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">IX.</td><td></td><td>INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND REALITIES</td><td align="right"><a href="#page83">83</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">X.</td><td></td><td>ENNUI ENLIVENED BY SUDDEN DEATH</td><td align="right"><a href="#page100">100</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XI.</td><td></td><td>FLASHES FROM BULLER</td><td align="right"><a href="#page129">129</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XII.</td><td></td><td>THE NIGHT SURPRISE ON GUN HILL</td><td align="right"><a href="#page138">138</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XIII.</td><td></td><td>THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL</td><td align="right"><a href="#page156">156</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XIV.</td><td></td><td>THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL</td><td align="right"><a href="#page176">176</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>Pg vi</span>XV.</td><td></td><td>SICKNESS, DEATH, AND A NEW YEAR</td><td align="right"><a href="#page194">194</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XVI.</td><td></td><td>THE GREAT ATTACK</td><td align="right"><a href="#page211">211</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XVII.</td><td></td><td> A PAUSE AND A RENEWAL</td><td align="right"><a href="#page231">231</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XVIII.</td><td></td><td>"WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page250">250</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XIX.</td><td></td><td>HOPE DEFERRED</td><td align="right"><a href="#page265">265</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XX.</td><td></td><td>SUN AND FEVER</td><td align="right"><a href="#page279">279</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">XXI.</td><td></td><td>RELIEVED AT LAST</td><td align="right"><a href="#page291">291</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td></td><td>APPENDIX</td><td align="right"><a href="#page299">299</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>Pg vii</span></p>
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<div class="ctr">
+<table summary="Illustrations">
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image01"><b>PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image02"><b>MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image03"><b>GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B., G.C.S.I.</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image04"><b>PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image05"><b>LOMBARD'S KOP</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image06"><b>IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image07"><b>THE DRIFT AND WATERING-PLACE</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image08"><b>BULWAN</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image09"><b>HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image10"><b>BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image11"><b>A PICTURESQUE RUIN</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image12"><b>HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image13"><b>EFFECT OF 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image14"><b>SPECIMEN OF BOER SHELLS</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image15"><b>INDIAN BAKERY</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image16"><b>GENERAL RT. HON. SIR R.H. BULLER, V.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.B.</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(<i>photograph by KNIGHT, Aldershot</i>)</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#image17"><b>SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH AND WEST OF LADYSMITH</b></a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>Pg viii</span></p>
+<h2>NOTE</h2>
+
+
+<p>This book has been reprinted, by kind permission of the Proprietors of
+the <i>Daily Chronicle</i>, from the full text of the Letters sent to the
+paper.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name="page1"></a>Pg 1</span></p>
+<h2>LADYSMITH</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DIARY OF A SIEGE</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>ON THE EDGE</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">NEWCASTLE, NATAL, <i>Thursday, October 5, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Late last Sunday night I found myself slowly crawling towards the front
+from Pretoria in a commandeered train crammed full of armed Boers and
+their horses. I had rushed from the Cape to quiet little Bloemfontein,
+the centre of one of the best administered States in the world, where
+the heads of the nation in the intervals of discussing war proudly
+showed me their pianos, their little gardens, little libraries of
+English books, little museums of African beasts and Greek coins, and all
+their other evidences of advancing culture. Then on to Pretoria, the
+same kind of a town on a larger and richer scale&mdash;trim bungalow houses,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name="page2"></a>Pg 2</span>
+for the most part, spread out among gardens full of roses, honeysuckle,
+and syringa. But at the station all day and night the scene was not
+idyllic. Every hour train after train moved away&mdash;stores and firewood in
+front, horses next, and luggage vans for the men behind. The partings
+from lovers and wives and children must be imagined. They are bad enough
+to witness when our own soldiers go to the front. But these men are not
+soldiers at all. Each of them came direct from his home in the town or
+on some isolated farm. They rode up, dressed just in their ordinary
+clothes, but for the slung Mauser and the full cartridge belt over the
+shoulder or round the waist. Except for a few gunners, there is no
+uniform in the Boer Army. Even the officers can hardly be distinguished
+from ordinary farmers. The only thing that could be called uniform is
+the broad-brimmed soft hat of grey or brown. But all Boers wear it. It
+is generally very stained and dirty, and invariably a rusty crape band
+is wound about the crown. For the Boer, like the English poorer classes,
+has large quantities of relations, and one of them is always dying.</p>
+
+<p>By the courtesy of the Pretorian Government I had secured room in the
+guard's van for myself<span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>Pg 3</span> and a companion, who was equally anxious to
+cross the Natal frontier before the firing began, and that was expected
+at any moment. In the van with us were a score of farmers from
+Middleburg way, their contingent occupying four trains with about 800
+men and horses. For the most part they were fine tall men with shaggy
+light beards, reminding one of Yorkshire farmers, but rougher and not so
+well dressed. Most of them could speak some English, and many had Scotch
+or English relatives. They lay on the floor or sat on the edge of the
+van, talking quietly and smoking enormous pipes. All deeply regretted
+the war, regretted the farm left behind just when spring and rain are
+coming, and they were full of foreboding for the women and children left
+at the mercy of Kaffirs. There was no excitement or shouting or bravado
+of any kind. So we travelled into the night, the monotony only broken by
+one violent collision which shook us all flat on the floor, while arms
+and stores fell crashing upon us. In the silent pause which followed,
+whilst we wondered if we were dead, I could hear the Kaffirs chattering
+in their mud huts close by, and in the distance a cornet was playing
+"Home, Sweet Home," with variations.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>Pg 4</span></p>
+
+<p>It must have been the next evening, as we were waiting three or four
+hours, as usual, for the line to clear, that General Joubert came up in
+a special train. A few young men and boys in ordinary clothes formed his
+"staff." The General himself wore the usual brown slouch hat with crape
+band, and a blue frock coat, not luxuriously new. His beard was quite
+white, but his long straight hair was still more black than grey. The
+brown sallow face was deeply wrinkled and marked, but the dark brown
+eyes were still bright, and looked out upon the world with a kind of
+simplicity mingled with shrewdness, or perhaps some subtler quality. He
+spoke English with a piquant lack of grammar and misuse of words. When I
+travelled with him next day, almost the first thing he said to me was,
+"The heart of my soul is bloody with sorrow." His moderating influence
+on the Kruger Government is well known, and he described to me how he
+had done his utmost for peace. But he also described how bit by bit
+England had pushed the Boers out of their inheritance, and taken
+advantage of them in every conference and native war. He was
+particularly hurt that the Queen had taken no notice of the long letter
+or pamphlet he wrote to her on the situation. And, by the way, I often<span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name="page5"></a>Pg 5</span>
+observed what regard most Boers appear to feel for the Queen personally.
+They constantly couple her name with Gladstone's when they wish to say
+anything nice about English politics. As to the General's views on the
+crisis, there would be little new to say. Till the present war his hope
+had been for a South African Confederacy under English protection&mdash;the
+Cape, Natal, Free State, and Transvaal all having equal rights and local
+self-government. He knows well enough the inner causes of the present
+evils. "But now," he said, "we can only leave it to God. If it is His
+will that the Transvaal perish, we can only do our best."</p>
+
+<p>At Zandspruit, the scene of the old Sand River Convention, the whole
+Boer camp crowded to the station to greet the national hero, and he was
+at once surrounded by a herd of farmers, shaking his hands and patting
+him warmly on the back. It was a respectful but democratic greeting. The
+Boer Army&mdash;if for a moment we may give that name to an unorganised
+collection of volunteers&mdash;is entirely democratic. The men are nominally
+under field cornets, commanders, and the General. But they openly boast
+that on the field the authority and direction of officers do not count
+for<span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name="page6"></a>Pg 6</span> much, and they go pretty much as they please. The camp, though not
+in the least disorderly, was confused and irregular&mdash;stores, firewood,
+horses, cattle, and tents strewn about the enormous veldt, almost
+haphazard, though the districts were kept fairly well separate.
+Provisions were plenty, but the cooking was bad. It took three days to
+get bread made, and some detachments had to eat their meat raw. I think
+there were not more than 10,000 or less than 7,000 men in the camp at
+that time, but the commandeered trains crawled up every two or three
+hours with their new loads.</p>
+
+<p>By a piece of good fortune we succeeded in crossing the frontier in an
+open coal-truck. The border-line runs about six miles north of Majuba
+and Laing's Nek, the last Boer village being Volksrust, and Charlestown
+the first English. The scenery changes rapidly; the high, bare veldt of
+the Southern Transvaal is at once left behind, and we enter the broad
+valley of Natal, sloping steadily down to the sea and becoming richer
+and more tropical as it descends. All regular traffic had stopped three
+days before, but now and then a refugee train came up to the frontier
+and transhipped its miserable crowd. Fugitives of every nation have been
+hurrying to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>Pg 7</span> the railway in hopes of escape. The stations far down into
+Natal are constantly surrounded with patient groups, waiting, waiting
+for an empty truck. Hindoos from Bombay and Madras with their golden
+nose-rings and brilliant silks sit day and night waiting side by side
+with coal-black Kaffirs in their blankets, or "blue-blooded" Zulus who
+refuse to hide much of their deep chocolate skin, showing a kind of
+purple bloom like a plum. The patient indifference with which these
+savages will sit unmoved through any fortune and let time run over them,
+is almost like the solemn calm of nature's own laws. The whites are
+restless and probably suffer more. Many were in extreme misery. Three or
+four young children died on the journey. One poor woman became a mother
+in the train just after the frontier, and died, leaving the baby alive.
+At the border I found many English and Scotch families, who had driven
+across the veldt from Ermelo, surrendering all their possessions. All
+spoke of the good treatment the Boers had shown them on the journey,
+even when the waggon had outspanned for the night close to the Boer
+camp. I came down to Newcastle with a Caithness stonemason and his
+family. They had lost house, home, and liveli<span class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name="page8"></a>Pg 8</span>hood. They had even
+abandoned their horses and waggon on the veldt. The woman regretted her
+piano, but what really touched her most was that she had to wash her
+baby in cold water at the lavatory basin, and he had always been
+accustomed to warm. So we stand on the perilous edge and suffer
+variously.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name="page9"></a>Pg 9</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>AT THE BRITISH FRONT</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, NATAL, <i>Wednesday, October 11, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Ladysmith breathes freely to-day, but a week ago she seemed likely to
+become another Lucknow. Of line battalions only the Liverpools were
+here, besides two batteries of field artillery, some of the 18th
+Hussars, and the 5th Lancers. If Kruger or Joubert had then allowed the
+Boers encamped on the Free State border to have their own way, no one
+can say what might have happened. Our force would have been outnumbered
+at least four to one, and probably more. In event of disaster the Boers
+would have seized an immense quantity of military stores accumulated in
+the camp, and at the railway station. What is worse, they would have
+isolated the still smaller force lately thrown forward to Dundee,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name="page10"></a>Pg 10</span> so as
+to break the strong defensive position of the Biggarsberg, which cuts
+off the north of Natal, and can only be traversed by three difficult
+passes. Dundee was just as much threatened from the east frontier beyond
+the Buffalo River, where the Transvaal Boers of the Utrecht and Vryheid
+district have been mustered in strong force for nearly a fortnight now.
+With our two advanced posts "lapped up" (the phrase is a little musty
+here), our stores lost, and our reputation among the Dutch and native
+populations entirely ruined, the campaign would have begun badly.</p>
+
+<p>For the Boers it was a fine strategic opportunity, and they were
+perfectly aware of that. But "the Old Man," as they affectionately call
+the President, had his own prudent reasons for refusing it. "Let the
+enemy fire first," he says, like the famous Frenchman, and so far he has
+been able to hold the most ardent of the encamped burghers in check. "If
+he should not be able!" we kept saying. We still say it morning and
+evening, but the pinch of the danger is passed. Last Thursday night the
+1st Devons and the 19th Hussars began to arrive and the crisis ended.
+Yesterday before daybreak half the Gordons came. We have now a mountain
+battery and three batteries of field<span class="pagenum"><a id="page11" name="page11"></a>Pg 11</span> artillery, the 19th Hussars (the
+18th having gone forward to Dundee), besides the 5th Lancers (the "Irish
+Lancers"), who are in faultless condition, and a considerable mixed
+force of the Natal Volunteers. Of these last, the Carbineers are perhaps
+the best, and generally serve as scouts towards the Free State frontier.
+But all have good repute as horsemen, marksmen, and guides, and at
+present they are the force which the Boers fear most. They are split up
+into several detachments&mdash;the Border Mounted Rifles, the Natal Mounted
+Rifles (from Durban), the Imperial Light Horse, the Natal Police, and
+the Umvoti Mounted Rifles, who are chiefly Dutch. Then of infantry there
+are the Natal Royal Rifles (only about 150 strong), the Durban Light
+Infantry, and the Natal Field Artillery. As far as I can estimate, the
+total Natal Volunteer force will not exceed 2,000, but they are well
+armed, are accustomed to the Boer method of warfare, and will be watched
+with interest. Unhappily, many of them here are already suffering from
+the change of life and food in camp. That is inevitable when volunteers
+first take the field.</p>
+
+<p>But Ladysmith has an evil reputation besides. Last year the troops here
+were prostrated with<span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name="page12"></a>Pg 12</span> enteric. There is a little fever and a good deal
+of dysentery even now among the regulars. The stream by the camp is
+condemned, and all water is supplied in tiny rations from pumps. The
+main permanent camp is built of corrugated iron, practically the sole
+building material in South Africa, and quite universal for roofs, so
+that the country has few "architectural features" to boast of. The
+cavalry are quartered in the tin huts, but the Liverpools, Devons,
+Gordons, and Volunteers have pitched their own tents, and a terrible
+time they are having of it. Dust is the curse of the place. We remember
+the Long Valley as an Arcadian dell. Veterans of the Soudan recall the
+black sand-storms with regretful sighs. The thin, red dust comes
+everywhere, and never stops. It blinds your eyes, it stops your nose, it
+scorches your throat till the invariable shilling for a little glass of
+any liquid seems cheap as dirt. It turns the whitest shirt brown in half
+an hour, it creeps into the works of your watch and your bowels. It lies
+in a layer mixed with flies on the top of your rations. The white ants
+eat away the flaps of the tents, and the men wake up covered with dust,
+like children in a hayfield. Even mules die of it in convulsions. It was
+in this land that the ostrich<span class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>Pg 13</span> developed its world-renowned digestive
+powers; and no wonder.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 430px;">
+<a id="image02" name="image02"></a><a href="images/02large.jpg">
+<img src="images/02.jpg" width="430" height="600" alt="MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD" title="MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD" /></a>
+<span class="caption">MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The camp stands on a barren plain, nearly two miles north-west of the
+town&mdash;if we may so call the one straight road of stores and tin-roofed
+bungalows. Low, flat-topped hills surround it, bare and rocky. But to
+understand the country it is best to climb into the mountains of the
+long Drakensberg, which forms the Free State frontier in a series of
+strangely jagged and precipitous peaks, and at one place, by the
+junction with Basutoland, runs up to 11,000 feet. Last Sunday I went
+into the Free State through Van Reenen's Pass, over which a little
+railway has been carried by zigzag "reverses." The summit is 5,500 feet
+above the sea, or nearly 2,000 feet above Ladysmith. From the steep
+slopes, in places almost as green as the Lowlands or Yorkshire fells, I
+looked south-east far over Natal&mdash;a parched, brown land like the desert
+beyond the Dead Sea, dusty bits of plain broken up by line upon line of
+bare red mountain. It seemed a poor country to make a fuss about, yet as
+South Africa goes, it is rich and even fertile in its way. Indeed, on
+the reddest granite mountain one never fails to find multitudes of
+flowering plants and pasturage for thinnish sheep.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name="page14"></a>Pg 14</span> Across the main
+range, Van Reenen's is the largest and best known pass. The old farmer
+who gave it the name is living there still and bitterly laments the
+chance of war. But there are other passes too, any of which may suddenly
+become famous now&mdash;Olivier's Hoek, near the gigantic Mont aux Sources,
+Bezuidenhaut, Netherby, Tintwa, and (north of Van Reenen's) De Beer's
+Pass, Cundycleugh, Muller's, and Botha's, beyond which the range ends
+with the frontier at Majuba. Three or four of these passes are crossed
+by waggon roads, but Van Reenen's has the only railway. The frontier,
+marked by a barbed wire fence across the summit of the pass, must be
+nearly forty miles from Ladysmith, but from the cliffs above it, the
+little British camp can be seen like a toy through this clear African
+air, and Boer sentries watch it all day, ready to signal the least
+movement of its troops, betrayed by the dust. Their own main force is
+distributed in camps along the hills well beyond the nine-miles' limit
+ordained by the Convention. The largest camp is said to be further north
+at Nelson's Kop, but all the camps are very well hidden, though in one
+place I saw about 500 of the horses trying to graze. The rains are late,
+and the grass on the high plateau<span class="pagenum"><a id="page15" name="page15"></a>Pg 15</span> of the Free State is not so good as
+on the Natal slopes of the pass. The Boer commandoes suffer much from
+want of it. When all your army consists of mounted infantry, forage
+counts next to food.</p>
+
+<p>At present the Van Reenen Railway ends at Harrismith, an arid but
+cheerful little town at the foot of the great cliffs of the Plaatburg.
+It boasts its racecourse, golf-links, musical society, and some
+acquaintance with the German poets. The Scotch made it their own, though
+a few Dutch, English, and other foreigners were allowed to remain on
+sufferance. Now unhappily the place is almost deserted, and Burns
+himself would hardly find a welcome there. In the Free State every
+resident may be commandeered, and I believe forty-eight hours counts as
+"residence." You see the advantage of an extended franchise. The penalty
+for escape is confiscation of property, and five years' imprisonment or
+&pound;500 fine, if caught. The few British who remained have had all their
+horses, carts, and supplies taken. Some are set to serve the ambulance;
+a few will be sent to watch Basutoland; but most of them have abandoned
+their property and risked the escape to Natal, slipping down the railway
+under bales or built up<span class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name="page16"></a>Pg 16</span> in the luggage vans like nuns in a brick wall.
+In one case the Boers commandeered three wool trucks on the frontier.
+Those trucks were shunted on to a siding for the night, and in the
+morning the wool looked strangely shrunk somehow. Yet it was not wool
+that had been taken out and smuggled through by the next train. For Scot
+helps Scot, and it is Scots who work the railway. It pays to be a Scot
+out here. I have only met one Irishman, and he was unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>But for the grotesque side of refugee unhappiness one should see the
+native train which comes down every night from Newcastle way, and
+disappears towards Maritzburg and safety. Native workers of every
+kind&mdash;servants, labourers, miners&mdash;are throwing up their places and
+rushing towards the sea. The few who can speak English say, "Too plenty
+bom-bom!" as sufficient explanation of their panic. The Government has
+now fitted the open trucks with cross-seats and side-bars for their
+convenience, and so, hardly visible in the darkness, the black crowd
+rolls up to the platform. Instantly black hands with pinkish palms are
+thrust through all the bars, as in a monkey-house. Black heads jabber
+and click with excitement. White teeth suddenly appear from nowhere. It
+is for bread<span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>Pg 17</span> and tin-meats they clamour, and they are willing to pay.
+But a loaf costs a shilling. Everything costs a shilling here, unless it
+costs half-a-crown; and Natal grows fat on war. A shilling for a bit of
+bread! What is the good of Christianity? So the dusky hands are
+withdrawn, and the poor Zulu with untutored maw goes starving on. But if
+any still doubt our primitive ancestry, let them hear that Zulu's
+outcries of pain, or watch the fortunate man who has really got a loaf,
+and gripping it with both hands, gnaws it in his corner, turning his
+suspicious eyes to right and left with fear.</p>
+
+<p>The air is full of wild rumours. A boy riding over Laing's Nek saw 1,000
+armed Boers feeding their horses on Manning's farm. The Boers have been
+seen at a Dutch settlement this side Van Reenen's. Yesterday a section
+of the Gordons on their arrival were sent up to look at them in an
+armoured train. It is thought that war will be proclaimed to-day. That
+has been thought every day for a fortnight past, and the land buzzes
+with lies which may at any moment be true.</p>
+
+<p>Half the Manchesters have just marched in to trumpet and drum. When I
+think of those ragged camps of peasants just over the border the pomp
+and circumstance seem all on one side.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>Pg 18</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Friday, October 13, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>So it has begun at last, for good or evil. Here we think it began
+yesterday, just at the very moment when Sir George White arrived. Late
+at night scouts brought news of masses of Boers crossing the Tintwa
+Pass, and going into laager with their waggons only fifteen miles away
+to the west. The men stood to their arms, and long before light we were
+marching steadily forward along the Van Reenen road. First came the
+Liverpools, then the three batteries of Field Artillery with a mountain
+battery, then the Devons and the Gordons. The Manchesters acted as
+rear-guard, and the Dublin Fusiliers, who were hurried down from Dundee
+by train, came late, and then were hurried back again. The column took
+all its stores and forage for five days in a train of waggons (horses,
+mules, and oxen) about two miles long. When day broke we saw the great
+mountains on the Basuto border, gleaming with snow like the Alps. Far in
+front the cavalry&mdash;the 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars with the Natal
+Volunteers&mdash;were sweeping over the patches of plain and struggling up
+the hills in search of that reported laager. But not a Boer of it was to
+be seen. At nine o'clock, having<span class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>Pg 19</span> advanced eight or nine miles, the
+whole column took up a strong position, with all its baggage and train
+in faultless order, and went to sleep. About one we began to return, and
+now just as the mail goes, we are all back again in camp for tea. And so
+ends the first day of active hostilities.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;">
+<a id="image03" name="image03">
+<img src="images/03.jpg" width="397" height="600" alt="GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B., G.C.S.I." title="GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B., G.C.S.I." /></a>
+<span class="caption">GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B., G.C.S.I.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name="page20"></a>Pg 20</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST WEEK'S WAR</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>Thursday, October 19, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is a week to-day since the Boers of the Transvaal and Free State
+began their combined invasion of Natal. So far all action has been on
+their side. They have crept down the passes with their waggons and
+half-organised bands of mounted infantry, and have now advanced within a
+short day's march of the two main British positions which protect the
+whole colony. It will be seen on a map that North Natal forms a fairly
+regular isoceles triangle, having Charlestown, Majuba, and Laing's Nek
+at the apex, the Drakensberg range separating it from the Free State on
+the one side, and the Buffalo River with its lower hills separating it
+from the Transvaal on the other. A base may<span class="pagenum"><a id="page21" name="page21"></a>Pg 21</span> be drawn a few miles below
+Ladysmith&mdash;say, from Oliver's Hoek Pass in the Drakensberg to the union
+of the Tugela River with the Buffalo. Newcastle will then lie about
+thirty miles from the apex of the triangle, nearly equi-distant from
+both sides. Dundee is about twelve miles from the middle point of the
+right side, and Ladysmith about the same distance from the middle point
+of the base. Evidently a "tight place" for a comparatively small force
+when the frontiers to right and left are openly hostile and can pour
+large bodies of men through all the passes in the sides and apex at
+will. That is exactly what the Boers have spent the week in doing, and
+they have shown considerable skill in the process. They have occupied
+Charlestown, Newcastle, and all the north of Natal almost to within
+reach of the guns at Dundee on the west and Ladysmith on the east and
+centre. Yet as far as I can judge they have hardly lost a man, whereas
+they have gained an immense amount of stores, food and forage, which
+were exactly the things they wanted. "Slim Piet" is the universal
+nickname for old Joubert among friends and enemies alike, and so far he
+has well deserved it. For the Dutch "slim" stands half way between the
+German "schlimm"<span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>Pg 22</span> and our description of young girls, and it means
+exactly what the Cockney means by "artful." Artful Piet has managed
+well. He has given the Boers an appearance of triumph. Their flag waves
+where the English flag waved before. The effect on the native mind, and
+on the spirits of his men is greater than people in England probably
+think. Before the war the young Boers said they would be in Durban in a
+month, and the Kaffirs half believed it. Well, they have got nearly a
+third of the way in a week.</p>
+
+<p>But to-day they are brought within touch of British arms, and the
+question is whether they will get any further. So far they have been
+unopposed. Their triumphs have been the bloodless capture of a passenger
+train, the capture of a few police, and the driving in of patrols who
+had strict orders to retire. So far we have sought only to draw them on.
+But here and at Dundee we must make a stand, and all yesterday and this
+morning we have thought only of one question: Will they venture to come
+on? They have numbers on their side&mdash;an advantage certainly of three to
+one, possibly more. The rough country with its rocky flat-topped lines
+of hill is just suited for their method of warfare&mdash;to lie behind stones
+and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page23" name="page23"></a>Pg 23</span> take careful shots at any one in range. Besides, if they are to do
+anything, they know they must be quick. The Basutos are chanting their
+war-song on the Free State frontier. The British reinforcements are
+coming, and all irregulars have a tendency to melt away if you keep them
+waiting. But on the other hand it is against Boer tradition to attack,
+especially entrenched positions. Their artillery is probably far
+inferior to ours in training and skill, and they don't like artillery in
+any case. Nor do they like the thought of Lancers and Hussars sweeping
+down upon their flanks wherever a little bit of plain has to be crossed.
+So the chances of attack seem about equally balanced, and only the days
+can answer that one question of ours: Will they come on?</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday it seemed as though they were coming. The advance of two main
+columns from the passes in the north-west had been fairly steady; and
+last night our outposts of the Natal Carbineers were engaged, as the 5th
+Lancers had been the night before. Heavy firing was reported at any
+distance short of fifteen miles. There was no panic. The few ladies who
+remain went riding or cycling along the dusty, blazing road which makes
+the town. The Zulu women in blankets and beads walked<span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>Pg 24</span> in single file
+with the little black heads of babies peering out between their
+shoulder-blades, and roasting in the sun. Huge waggon-loads of
+stores&mdash;compressed forage, compressed beef, jam, water-proof sheets,
+ammunition, oil, blankets, sardines, and all the other necessaries of a
+soldier's existence&mdash;came lumbering up from the station behind the long
+files of oxen urged slowly forward by savage outcries and lashes of
+hide. Orderlies were galloping in the joy of their hearts. The band of
+the Gloucesters were practising scales in unison to slow time. Suddenly
+a kind of feeling came into the air that something was happening. I
+noticed the waggon stopped; the oxen at once lay down in the dust; the
+music ceased and was packed away. I met the Gordons coming into town and
+asking for their ground. Riding up the mile or two to camp, I found the
+whole dusty plateau astir. Tents were melting away like snow. Kits lay
+all naked and revealed upon the earth. The men were falling in. The
+waggons were going the wrong way round. The very headquarters and staff
+were being cleared out. The whole camp was, in fact, in motion. It was
+coming down into the town. In a few hours the familiar place was bare
+and deserted. I went up this morning and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>Pg 25</span> stood on Signal Hill where the
+heliograph was working yesterday, just above the camp. The whole plain
+was a wilderness. Straw and paper possessed it merely, except that here
+and there a destitute Kaffir groped among the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> in hopes of
+finding a shiny tin pot for his furniture or some rag of old uniform to
+harmonise with his savage dress. In one corner of the empty iron huts a
+few of the cavalry were still trying to carry off some remnants of
+forage. It was a pitiful sight, and yet the rapidity of the change was
+impressive. If the Boers came in, they would find those tin huts very
+luxurious after their accustomed bivouacs. Is it possible that tin huts
+might be their Capua?</p>
+
+<p>The camp was thought incapable of defence. Artillery could command it
+from half a dozen hills. Whoever placed it there was neither strategist
+nor humanitarian. It is like the bottom of a frying-pan with a low rim.
+The fire is hot, and sand is frying. But, indeed, the whole of Ladysmith
+is like that. The flat-topped hills stand round it reflecting the heat,
+and in the middle we are now all frying together, with sand for
+seasoning. The main ambulance is on the cricket ground. The battalion
+tents are pitched among the rocks or<span class="pagenum"><a id="page26" name="page26"></a>Pg 26</span> by the river side, where Kaffirs
+bathe more often and completely than you would otherwise suppose. The
+river water, by the way, is a muddy yellow now and leaves a deep deposit
+of Afric's golden sand in your glass or basin. The headquarters staff
+has seized upon two empty houses, and can dine in peace. The street is
+one yelling chaos of oxen in waggons and oxen loose, galloping horses,
+sheep, ammunition mules, savages, cycles, and the British soldier. He,
+be sure, preserves his wonted calm, adapts himself to oxen as naturally
+as to camels, puts in a little football when he can, practises
+alliteration's artful aid upon the name of the Boers, and trusts to his
+orders to pull him through. His orders are likely to be all right now,
+for Colonel Ward has just been put in command of the whole town, and
+already I notice a method in the oxen, to say nothing of the mules. What
+is it all but a huge military tournament to be pulled together, and got
+up to time?</p>
+
+<p>This morning most people expected the attack would begin. I rode five
+miles out before breakfast to see what might be seen, but there were
+only a few Lancers pricking about by threes, and never a Boer or any
+such thing. So we have waited all day, and nothing has happened till
+this afternoon<span class="pagenum"><a id="page27" name="page27"></a>Pg 27</span> the rumour comes with authority that a train has been
+captured at Elands Laagte, about sixteen miles on the way to Dundee. The
+railway stopped running trains beyond there yesterday, and had better
+have stopped altogether. Anyhow, the line of communication between us
+and the splendid little brigade at Dundee is broken now. Dundee is
+pretty nearly fifty miles N.N.E. of this. The camp is happily on a
+stronger position than ours, and not mixed up with the town. But at
+present it is practically besieged, and no one can say how long the
+siege of Ladysmith also will be delayed. For the moment, it seems just
+possible that the great force, which we vaguely hear is coming out from
+England (all English news is hopelessly vague), will have to send the
+bulk of its troops to fight up Natal for our relief. But the south of
+Natal having few rocks is not suited for Boer warfare. When the Boers
+boasted they were coming to Durban, a wit replied: "Then you will have
+to bring the stones with you." For a Boer much prefers to have a
+comforting stone in front of him in the day of battle. In these
+districts every hill is for him a natural fortress. His hope is that we
+shall venture into the mountains; ours that he will venture down to the
+plains. So far hope's flattery has kept us<span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>Pg 28</span> fairly well apart. The day
+after to-morrow is now fixed by popular judgment for battle and attack.
+But only one thing is certain: we can stand still if we choose, and the
+Boers cannot.</p>
+
+<p>To be under martial law, as we now are, does not make much difference to
+the ordinary man, but to the ordinary criminal it appears slightly
+advantageous. For his case is very likely to be overlooked in the press
+of military offences, and it is doubtful if any civil suits can be
+brought. At all events, a legal quarrel I had with a farmer about some
+horses has vanished into thin air; and so, indeed, have the horses. The
+worst offenders now are possible spies. A few Dutch have been arrested,
+but the commonest cases are out-of-work Kaffirs, who are wandering in
+swarms over the country, coming down from Johannesburg and the
+collieries, and naturally finding it rather hard to give account of
+themselves. The peculiarity of the trials which I have attended has been
+that if a Kaffir could give the name of his father it was taken as a
+sufficient guarantee of respectability With one miserable Bushman, for
+instance&mdash;a child's caricature of man&mdash;it was really going hard till at
+last he managed to explain that his father's name was Nicodemus Africa,
+and then every one<span class="pagenum"><a id="page29" name="page29"></a>Pg 29</span> looked satisfied, and he left the court without a
+stain upon his character.</p>
+
+<p>So we live from day to day. The air is full of rumours. One can see them
+grow along the street. One traces them down. Perhaps one finds an atom
+of truth somewhere at the root of them. One puts that atom into a
+telegram. The military censor cuts it out with unfailing politeness, and
+a good day's work is done. Heat, dust, and a weekly deluge with
+stupendous thunder complete the scene.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page30" name="page30"></a>Pg 30</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>October 22, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fair morning yesterday, cool after rain, the thin clouds
+sometimes letting the sun look through. At half-past ten I was some six
+or seven miles out along the Newcastle road&mdash;a road in these parts being
+merely a worn track over the open veldt, distinguishable only by the
+ruts and mud. Close on the left were high and shapely hills, like Welsh
+mountains, but on the right the country was more open. A Mr. Malcolm's
+farm stood in the middle of a waving plain, with a few fields, aloe
+hedges, and poplars. The kraal of his Kaffir labourers was near it, and
+about a mile away the plain ended in a low ridge of rocky "kopjes,"
+which ran to join the mountainous ground on the left at a kind of "nek"
+or low pass<span class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>Pg 31</span> over which the railway runs. Beyond that low ridge lay
+Elands Laagte, an important railway station with a few collieries close
+by, a store, a hotel, and some houses.</p>
+
+<p>The Boers had occupied it two days before, had captured a train there,
+and torn up the rail in two places, making a number of prisoners and
+seizing 100 head of cattle and quantities of other private stores and
+the luggage going to Dundee. Early in the morning we had gone out with
+four companies of the Manchesters in an armoured train with an ordinary
+train behind it, a battery of Natal Field Artillery, and the Imperial
+Light Horse under Colonel Scott Chisholme, to reconnoitre with a view to
+repairing the line. They seized the station and released a number of
+prisoners, but were compelled to withdraw by three heavy Nordenfeldt
+guns, which the Boers had posted on a hill about 2,500 yards beyond the
+station. At half-past ten they had reached the point I describe, and
+were very slowly coming back towards Ladysmith, the trains moving
+backwards, and the cavalry walking on each side the line. The point is
+called Modder's Spruit, from some early Dutchman, and there is a little
+station there, the first out from Ladysmith<span class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>Pg 32</span> town. At that moment
+another train was seen coming up with the 1st Devons, and within an hour
+a fourth arrived with five companies of the Gordons. The 42nd Field
+Battery then came, and the 21st later; the 5th Lancers with a few 5th
+Dragoon Guards, and a large contingent of Natal mounted volunteers. That
+was our force. It took up a strong and fairly concealed position behind
+a rise in the road to the left of the railway and waited. Meantime the
+Boer scouts crept along that rocky ridge on our right front and down
+into the plain, firing into us at long range, quite without effect.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past one General French, who had taken command, sent out a few
+Lancers to watch our left, and a large force of mixed cavalry to the
+right. By a long circuit these swept up the whole length of the ridge
+and cleared out the Boer sharpshooters, who could be seen galloping away
+over the top. The infantry then detrained and advanced across the plain
+and up the ridge in extended order, half a battery meantime driving out
+a small Boer party, which was firing upon our Lancers on our left.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image04" name="image04"></a><a href="images/04large.jpg">
+<img src="images/04.jpg" width="600" height="469" alt="PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE" title="PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE" /></a>
+<span class="caption">PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When we reached the top of that long ridge, we found it broad as well as
+long, and we were<span class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name="page33"></a>Pg 33</span> moving rapidly across it when, with the usual whirr
+and crash and scream, one of the enemy's big shells fell in the midst of
+our right centre, killing two horses at a gun. It was at once followed
+by another, and a dozen or two more. They had our range exactly, and the
+art of knowing what was going on behind the hill, but though the shells
+burst all right and hot fragments or bullets went shrieking through the
+midst of us, I did not see anything but horses actually struck. I think
+six or seven horses were killed at that place, and later on I heard of a
+bugler having his head cut off, and two or three others killed by shell,
+but otherwise I believe the artillery did us no damage, though to most
+men it is more terrifying than rifle fire. When we reached the edge of
+the ridge we looked across a broad low valley, with one small wave in
+it, to the enemy's main position on some rocky hills nearly 4,000 yards
+away. The place was very strong and well chosen.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite our right ran a long high ridge covered with rocks and leading
+up to a rocky plateau. In their centre was a pointed hill, at the foot
+of which stood their camp, with tents and waggons. Opposite our left was
+a small detached kopje, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name="page34"></a>Pg 34</span> beyond that a fairly flat plain, with a
+river running through it, and the railway beyond Elands Laagte Station.
+Their three guns stood on the rocky ridge to our right of their
+camp&mdash;two together half-way down, one a little higher up.
+Flash&mdash;flash&mdash;they went, and then came the whirr, the crash, and the
+screaming fragments.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly our guns opened in answer from our right centre, and we could
+watch the shrapnel bursting right over their gunners' heads. They say
+the gunners were German. At all events, they were brave fellows, and
+worked the guns with extraordinary skill and courage. The official
+account admits that they returned several times to their posts after
+being driven out by our shell. The afternoon was passing, and if we were
+to take the place before dark we could not spare time to shake it with
+our artillery much longer. At about half-past four the infantry were
+ordered to advance, the Gordons and Manchesters on the right, the Devons
+on the left. They went down the long slope and across the valley with
+perfect intervals and line, much better than they go in the hollows of
+the old Fox Hills.</p>
+
+<p>In the advance the Gordons and Manchesters gradually changed direction
+half right and crept<span class="pagenum"><a id="page35" name="page35"></a>Pg 35</span> up towards that plateau on the right of the ridge,
+so as to take the enemy in flank. The Devons went straight forward,
+coming into infantry fire as they crossed that low wave of ground in the
+middle of the valley. On the further slope they were ordered to lie down
+and wait till the flanking movement was developed. Happily the slope, as
+is usual in South Africa, was thickly spotted over with great ant-hills,
+beneath which the ant-eater digs his den. Ant-heaps, hardened almost to
+brick, make excellent cover, and we lay down behind them on any bit of
+rock we could find, the fire being very hot, and the Mauser bullets
+making their unpleasant whiffle as they passed. I think the first man
+hit was a private, who got a ball through his head by the ear. He was
+carried away, but died before he got off the field. A young officer was
+struck soon afterwards, and then the bearers began to be busy. There
+were far too few of them, and no one could find the ambulance carts. As
+a matter of fact they had not left Ladysmith&mdash;twelve miles at least
+away. Most of the wounded tried to creep back out of fire. Some lay
+quite still. I heard only two or three call out for help. Meantime the
+rest were keeping up a steady fire, not by volleys,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page36" name="page36"></a>Pg 36</span> but as each could
+sight a Boer among the rocks, and my own belief is that very few Boers
+were hit that way.</p>
+
+<p>Climbing up a heap of loose stones a little to the right of the Devons,
+I could now see the Boers at the top of their position in the centre,
+moving about rapidly, taking cover, resting their rifles on the stones,
+and firing both at us and at the men who were pushing up the slope
+threatening their flank. Meantime the artillery pumped iron and lead
+upon them without mercy. Their own guns were quite silenced about this
+time, being unable to stand the combined shell and rifle fire. But the
+ordinary Boers&mdash;the armed and mounted peasants&mdash;still clung to their
+rocks as though nothing could drive them out.</p>
+
+<p>One big man in black I watched for what seemed a very long time. He was
+standing right against the sky line, sometimes waving his arm,
+apparently to give directions. Shells burst over his head, and bullets
+must have been thick round him. Once or twice he fell, as though
+slipping on the rocks, for the rain had begun again. But he always
+reappeared, till at last shrapnel exploded right in his face, and he
+sank together like a dropped rag. Just after that the Manchesters and
+Gordons began<span class="pagenum"><a id="page37" name="page37"></a>Pg 37</span> to force their way along the top of the ridge on the
+Boers' left. They had the dismounted Imperial Light Horse with them, and
+it was there that the loss was most terrible. Sometimes the advance
+hardly seemed to move, sometimes it rushed forward, and then appeared to
+swing back again. It was six o'clock, rain was falling in torrents, and
+it was getting dark. Perhaps the Gordons suffered most. Fourteen
+officers were killed and wounded there, and next day the killed men lay
+thick among the rocks. The Boer prisoners say the Gordon kilts made them
+easy marks. But the Light Horse lost, too&mdash;lost their Colonel, Scott
+Chisholme, who had been so eager for their success. Still the Boers kept
+up their terrible fire, and the attack crept forward, rock by rock. At
+the same time the Devons were called on to advance, and, getting up from
+the ant-hills without a moment's pause, they strode forward to the foot
+of the hill, keeping up an incessant fire as they went. Then we heard
+the bugler sounding the charge high up on our right, and we could just
+see the flank attack rushing forward and cheering. The Boers were
+galloping away or running from the top. The Devons also sounded the
+charge and rushed up the front of the position, but from<span class="pagenum"><a id="page38" name="page38"></a>Pg 38</span> that isolated
+hill on our left they met so obstinate a fire that the order for
+magazine firing was given, and for a few minutes the rifles rattled
+without a second's pause, in a long roar of fire. Then, with a wild
+cheer, the Devons cleared the position. It is due to them to say that
+they were first at the guns. Meantime, the "Cease Fire!" had sounded
+several times on the summit, but the firing did not cease. I don't know
+why it was. Perhaps the Boers were still resisting in parts. Certainly
+many of our men were drunk with excitement. "Wipe out Majuba!" was a
+constant cry. But the Boers had gone.</p>
+
+<p>The remnants of them were struggling to get away in the twilight over a
+bit of rocky plain on our left. There the Dragoon Guards got them, and
+three times went through. A Dragoon Guards corporal who was there tells
+me the Boers fell off their horses and rolled among the rocks, hiding
+their heads in their arms and calling for mercy&mdash;calling to be shot,
+anything to escape the stab of those terrible lances. But not many
+escaped. "We just gave them a good dig as they lay," were the corporal's
+words. Next day most of the lances were bloody.</p>
+
+<p>The victory was ours. We had gained a stony<span class="pagenum"><a id="page39" name="page39"></a>Pg 39</span> and muddy little hill
+strewn with the bodies of dead and wounded peasants, clerks, lawyers,
+and other kinds of men. Most were from Johannesburg. Nearly all spoke
+English like their native language. In one corner on the slope of the
+hill towards their little camp and waggons I counted fourteen dead
+together. In one of the tents were three dead men, all killed by the
+same shell, apparently whilst asleep. Yet I do not think there were more
+than thirty actually killed among the rocks in all. It is true that
+darkness fell rapidly, and the rain was blinding; but I was nearly two
+hours on the ground moving about. The wounded lay very thick, groaning
+and appealing for help. In coming down I nearly trod on the upturned
+white face of an old white-bearded man. He was lying quite silent, with
+a kind of dignity. We asked who he was. He said: "I am Kock, the father
+of Judge Kock. No, I am not the commandant. <i>He</i> is the commandant." But
+the old man was wrong. He himself had been in command, though instead of
+fighting he had read the Bible and prayed. One bullet had passed through
+his shoulder, another through his groin. So he lay still and read no
+more. Near him was a boy with a hand just a mixture of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page40" name="page40"></a>Pg 40</span> shreds and bones
+and blood. But he too was very quiet, and only asked for a handkerchief
+to bind it together. Others were gradually dying. Many were not found
+till daylight. The dead of both sides lay unburied till Monday.</p>
+
+<p>In the mud and stones just above the captured guns, General French stood
+giving directions for the bivouac, and dictating a message to Sir George
+White praising the troops, especially the infantry who had been
+commanded by Colonel Ian Hamilton. The assemble kept sounding over the
+hill, and Gordons tried to sift themselves from Manchesters, and Light
+Horse from Devons. All were shouting and questioning and calling to each
+other in the dark. Soon they settled down; the Boers had left scores of
+saddles, coats, and Kaffir blankets, provisions, too, water-bottles,
+chickens, and in one case a flask of carbolic disinfectant, which a
+British soldier analysed as "furrin wine." So, on the whole, the fellows
+made themselves fairly comfortable in spite of the cold and wet. Then I
+felt my way down over the rocks, taking care, if possible, not to tread
+on anything human, and then sought out the difficult twelve-mile track
+to Ladysmith over the veldt and hills, lighted towards midnight by a
+waning and clouded moon.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page41" name="page41"></a>Pg 41</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>BATTLE OF TINTA INYONI</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>October 27, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>If you want to "experience a shock," as the doctors say, be with the
+head of a column advancing leisurely along a familiar road only six
+miles from camp, and have a shell flung almost at your feet from a
+neighbouring mountain top. That was my fortune about the breakfast time
+of peaceable citizens last Tuesday morning. A squadron of Lancers and
+some of the Natal Carbineers were in front. Just behind me a battery was
+rumbling along. A little knot of the staff was close by, and we were all
+just preparing to halt. We stood on the Newcastle road, north of the
+town, not far from our first position at the Elands Laagte battle of the
+Saturday before. The road is close to the railway there, and I was
+watching an engine and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page42" name="page42"></a>Pg 42</span> truck going down with a white-flag flying,
+bringing back poor Colonel Chisholme's body for burial. Suddenly on the
+left from the top of a mountain side beyond a long rocky ridge I saw the
+orange flash of a big gun. The next moment came the familiar buzz and
+scream of a great shell, the crash, the squealing fragments, the dust
+splashing up all round us as they fell. I have never seen men and horses
+gallop faster than in our rapid right-wheel over the open ground towards
+a Kaffir kraal. I think only one horse was badly hurt, but at no
+military tournament have I seen artillery move in such excellent style.
+It was all over in a minute. The Boers must have measured the range to a
+yard, and just have kept that gun loaded and waiting.</p>
+
+<p>But in tactics jokes may be mistakes. That shot revealed the enemy's
+position. Within ten minutes our gunners had snipt the barbed wire
+fences along the railway, had dashed their guns across, and were
+dragging them up that low rocky ridge&mdash;say, 300ft. to 400ft. high&mdash;which
+had now so suddenly become our front and fighting position. Three field
+batteries went up, and close behind them came the Gloucesters on the
+right, a few companies of the second 60th (K.R.R.) the Liverpools<span class="pagenum"><a id="page43" name="page43"></a>Pg 43</span> and
+the Devons in order on the centre and left. On our right we had some of
+the 19th Hussars and 5th Lancers; on our left a large mixed force of the
+mounted Natal Volunteers, who were soon strongly engaged in a small
+valley at the end of the ridge, and suffered a good deal all day. But
+the chief work and credit lay with our guns. Till they got into
+position, found the range and began to fire, the enemy's shells kept
+dropping over the ridge and plumping into the ground. None were so
+successful as the first, and only few of them burst, but shells are very
+unpleasant, and it was a relief when at the second or third shot from
+our batteries we found the enemy's shells had ceased to arrive. We had
+destroyed the limber, if not the gun, and after that the shells were all
+on one side. Some say the Boers had two guns, but I only saw one myself,
+and I watched it as a mouse watches a cat. One does.</p>
+
+<p>The Boers, however, had many cats to watch. Climbing up the ridge
+towards its left end, I sat among the rocks with the Liverpools and
+Devons beside one of the batteries, and got a good view of the Boer
+position. They were in irregular lines and patches among the rocks of
+some low hills across a little valley in our front, and were<span class="pagenum"><a id="page44" name="page44"></a>Pg 44</span> stationed
+in groups upon the two higher mountains (as one may call them) upon our
+right and left. Both of these points looked down upon our position, and
+it was only by keeping close among the stones under the edge of our
+ridge that we got any cover, and that indifferent. But, happily, the
+range was long, and for hour after hour those two hills were simply
+swept by our shrapnel. On our right the long mountain edge, where the
+enemy's gun had been, is called Mattowan's Hoek. The great dome-like
+hill (really the end of a flat-topped mountain in perspective), on our
+left, was Tinta Inyoni.</p>
+
+<p>Our infantry lay along the ridge, keeping up a pretty constant fire, and
+sometimes volleying by sections, whenever they could get sight of their
+almost invisible enemy. Sometimes they advanced a little way down
+towards the valley. On the right the Gloucesters about eleven o'clock
+came over the ridge on to a flat little piece of grass land in front. I
+suppose they expected to get a better range or clearer view, but within
+a few minutes that patch of grass was spotted with lumps of khaki. Two
+officers&mdash;one their colonel&mdash;and six men were killed outright, and the
+official list of wounded runs to over fifty. When they had<span class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name="page45"></a>Pg 45</span> withdrawn
+again to the ridge the doctors and privates went out to bring the
+wounded back. Behind the cover of the rocks the dhoolies were waiting
+with their green-covered stretchers. In the sheltered corner on the flat
+ground below stood the ambulance waggons ready. All the ambulance
+service was admirably worked that day, but I think perhaps the highest
+credit remains with the mild Hindoos.</p>
+
+<p>By twelve o'clock the low hills in our front were burning from our
+shells, and the smoke of the grass helped still more to conceal this
+baffling enemy of ours. It was all very well for the gunners, with their
+excellent glasses, but the ordinary private could hardly see anything to
+aim at, and yet he was more or less under fire all the time. As to
+smoke, of course the smokeless powder gives the Boers an immense
+advantage in their method of fighting. It is hardly ever possible to
+tell exactly where the shots come from. But I noticed one man near the
+top of Tinta, who evidently had an old Martini which he valued much more
+than new-fangled things. Whenever he fired a little puff of grey smoke
+followed, and I always thought I heard the growl of his bullet
+particularly close, as though he steadily aimed at<span class="pagenum"><a id="page46" name="page46"></a>Pg 46</span> some officer near
+by. He sat under a bush, and had built himself a little wall of rocks in
+front. Shell after shell was showered upon that rocky hillside, for it
+concealed many other sharpshooters besides. But at each flash he must
+have thrown himself behind the stones, and when the shower of lead was
+over up he got, and again I saw the little puff of grey smoke and heard
+the growl of a bullet close by.</p>
+
+<p>The firing ceased about three. There was no apparent reason why it
+should. The Boers had killed a few of us. Probably we had killed more of
+them. But mere loss of life does not make victory or defeat, and to all
+appearance we were both on much the same ground as at first, except that
+the Boers had lost a gun, and were not at all comfortable on the
+positions they had held. Our withdrawal, however, was due to deeper
+reasons. A messenger had brought news of the column which had unhappily
+been driven from Dundee&mdash;whether by the Boers' 40-pounder, "Long Tom,"
+or by failing ammunition I will not try to decide. Anyhow, the messenger
+brought the news that the column was safe and returning unmolested on
+Ladysmith by the roundabout road eastward, near Helpmakaar. We had held
+back the enemy from<span class="pagenum"><a id="page47" name="page47"></a>Pg 47</span> intercepting them on their march. Our long and
+harassing fight, then, had been worth the sacrifice. It was a victory in
+strategy. Sir George White gave the order for the infantry to withdraw
+from the ridge by battalions and return to Ladysmith. By evening we were
+all in the town again.</p>
+
+<p>Next day I determined to meet the Dundee force on its way. They were
+reported to have halted about twenty-five miles off the night before,
+near Sunday's river, which, like all the rivers and spruits just here,
+runs southward through mountains into the Tugela and Buffalo. About six
+miles out we had a small force ready to give them assistance if they
+were pursued. Passing through that column halted by a stream, I went on
+into more open country, where there was an occasional farm with the
+invariable tin roof and weeping willows of South Africa. For many miles
+I saw small parties of our Lancers and Carbineers scouring the country
+on both sides of the track.</p>
+
+<p>Then soon after I had crossed a wide watershed I came down into broken
+and rocky country again, well suited for Boers, and there the outposts
+ended. I had a wide view of distant mountains, far away to the Zulu
+border on the east, and northwards to the Biggarsberg and Dundee, a
+terrible country to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page48" name="page48"></a>Pg 48</span> cross with a retiring column, harassed by three
+days' fighting. The few white farmers had gone, of course, but, happily,
+I came upon a Kaffir kraal, and a Kaffir chief himself came out to look
+at me. The Cape boy who was with me asked if he had seen any English
+troops that way. "Yes, there were many, many, many, hardly an hour's
+ride further on. But he was hungry, hungry&mdash;he, the chief&mdash;and so were
+his wives&mdash;four of them&mdash;all of them." He spoke the pretty Zulu
+language&mdash;it is something like Italian.</p>
+
+<p>We went on. The track went steep down hill to a spruit where the water
+lay in pools. And there on the opposite hill was that gallant little
+British Army, halted in a position of extreme danger, absolutely
+commanded on all sides but one, and preparing for tea as unconcernedly
+as if they were in a Lockhart's shop in Goswell Road. Almost as
+unconcernedly&mdash;for, indeed, some of the officers showed signs of their
+long anxiety and sleeplessness. When I came among them, some mounted men
+suddenly showed themselves in the distance. They took them for Boers. I
+could hardly persuade them they were only our own Carbineers&mdash;the
+outposts through whom I had just ridden. Three of our own scouts
+appeared<span class="pagenum"><a id="page49" name="page49"></a>Pg 49</span> across a valley, and never were Boers in greater peril of
+being shot. I think I may put their lives down to my credit.</p>
+
+<p>The British private was even here imperturbable as usual. He sat on the
+rocks singing the latest he knew from the music-halls. He lighted his
+fires and made his tea, and took an intelligent interest in the
+slaughter of the oxen, for all the world as if he were at manoeuvres on
+Salisbury Plain. He is really a wonderful person. Filthy from head to
+foot, drenched with rain, baked with sun, unshorn and unwashed for five
+days, his eyes bloodshot for want of sleep, hungry and footsore, fresh
+from terrible fighting, and the loss of many friends, he was still the
+same unmistakable British soldier, that queer mixture of humour and
+blasphemy, cheerfulness and grumbling, never losing that
+imperturbability which has no mixture of any other quality at all. The
+camping ground was arranged almost as though they were going to stay
+there for ever. Here were the guns in order, there the relics of the
+18th Hussars; there the Leicesters, the 60th, the Dublins, the Royal
+Irish Fusiliers, and the rest. The guards were set and sentries posted.
+But only two hours later the whole moved off again for three miles'
+further<span class="pagenum"><a id="page50" name="page50"></a>Pg 50</span> advance to get them well out of the mountains. Why, on that
+perilous march through unknown and difficult country, the Dutch did not
+spring upon them in some pass and blot them out is one of the many
+mysteries of this strange campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Among them I greeted many friends whom I had come to know at Dundee ten
+days before. But General Symons and Colonel Gunning, whom I had chosen
+out as the models of what officers should be, were not there. Nor was
+the young officer who had been my host&mdash;young Hannah of the
+Leicesters&mdash;who at his own cost came out in the ship with us rather than
+"miss the fun." A shell struck his head. I think he was the first killed
+in Friday's battle.</p>
+
+<p>I got back to Ladysmith late that night. Early next morning the column
+began to dribble in. They were received with relief. I cannot say there
+was much enthusiasm. The road by which I went to meet them is now
+swarming with Boers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page51" name="page51"></a>Pg 51</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE REVERSE AT NICHOLSON'S NEK</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>October 31, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday we were all astir for a big battle. But no village Sabbath in
+the Highlands could have been quieter, though it might have been more
+devotional. We rode about as usual, though our rides are very limited
+now, and the horse that took me forty miles last Wednesday is pining
+because the Boers have cut off his exercise. We sweated and swore, and
+suffered unfathomable thirst, but still there was no more battle than
+the evening hymn. Next day we knew it would be different. At night I
+heard the guns go out eastward along the Helpmakaar road to take up a
+position on our right. At three I was up in the morning darkness, and
+riding slowly northward with the brigade that was to form our centre,
+up<span class="pagenum"><a id="page52" name="page52"></a>Pg 52</span> the familiar Newcastle road. We had not far to go. The Boers save us
+a lot of exertion. A mile and a half&mdash;certainly less than two
+miles&mdash;from the outside of the town was our limit. But as we went the
+line of yellow behind our two nearest mountains, Lombard's Kop and
+Bulwan (Mbulwani, Isamabulwan&mdash;you may spell it almost as you like), was
+suddenly shot with red, and the grey night clouds showed crimson on all
+their hanging edges. The crimson caught the vultures soaring wide
+through the air, and then the sun himself came up with that blaze of
+heat which was to torture us all day long.</p>
+
+<p>The central rendezvous beside the Newcastle road was well protected by a
+high rocky hill, which one can only call a kopje now. There were the 5th
+Dragoon Guards, the Manchesters, the Devons, the Gordons, with their
+ambulance and baggage, some of the Natal Volunteers, and when the train
+from Maritzburg arrived about six the Rifle Brigade marched straight out
+of it to join us. I climbed the kopje in front of them, and from there
+could get a fine view of the whole position except the extreme flanks.</p>
+
+<p>At 5.10 the first gun sounded from a battery on the right of our
+centre&mdash;a battery that was to do<span class="pagenum"><a id="page53" name="page53"></a>Pg 53</span> magnificent work through the day. The
+enemy's reply was an enormous puff of smoke from a flat-topped hill
+straight in front of me. A huge shell shrieked through the air, and,
+passing high above my head, burst slap in the middle of the town behind
+me. Again and again it came. The second shot fell close to the central
+hospital; the third in a private garden, where the native servants have
+been busy digging for fragments ever since, as in a gold mine, not
+considering how cheap such treasure is now likely to become. The range
+was something over four miles. One of the shells passed so near the
+balloon that the officer in the car felt it like a gust of wind. (I
+ought to have told you about that balloon, by the way. We sent it up
+first on Sunday morning, our Zulu savages opening their mouths at it,
+beating their lips, and patting their stomachs with peculiar cries.)</p>
+
+<p>"Long Tom" had come. "Long Tom," the hero of Dundee, able to hurl his
+vast iron cylinder a clean six miles as often as you will. I saw him and
+his brother gun on trucks at Sand River Camp on the Transvaal border
+just before the war began. They say he is French&mdash;a Creusot
+gun&mdash;throwing, some say 40lbs., some 95lbs., each shot. Anyhow, the
+shell is quite big enough, whatever<span class="pagenum"><a id="page54" name="page54"></a>Pg 54</span> its weight, and it bangs into
+shops, chapels, ladies' bedrooms without any nice distinctions. I could
+see "Tom's" ugly muzzle tilted up above a great earthwork which the
+Boers had heaped near a tree on the edge of that flat-topped hill, which
+we may call Pepworth, from a little farm hard by.</p>
+
+<p>Our battery was at once turned on to him, and though short at first, it
+got the range, and poured the deadly shrapnel over that hill for hour
+after hour. But other guns were there&mdash;perhaps as many as six&mdash;and they
+replied to our battery, whilst "Tom" reserved his attention for the
+town. Often we thought him silenced, but always he began again, just
+when we were forgetting him, sometimes after over an hour's pause. The
+Boer gunners, whoever they may be, are not wanting in courage. So the
+artillery battle went on, hour after hour. I sat on the rocks and
+watched. At my side the Gordons on picket duty were playing with two
+little white kids. On the plain in front no one was to be seen but one
+lone and dirty soldier, who was steadily marching in across it, no one
+knew from where. He must have lost his way in the night, and now was
+making for the nearest British lines, hanging his rifle unconcernedly
+over his shoulder, butt behind.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>Pg 55</span></p>
+
+<p>So we watched and waited. At one moment Dr. Jameson came up to get a
+look at his old enemy. Then we heard heavy rifle fire far away on our
+left, where the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers had been sent out
+the night before, and were now on the verge of that terrible disaster
+which has kept us all anxious and uncertain to-day. The rumour goes that
+both battalions have disappeared, and what survives of them will next be
+found in Pretoria. At eight o'clock I saw a new force of Boers coming
+down a gully in a great mountain behind Pepworth Hill. But for my glass,
+I should have taken them for a black stream marked with white rocks. But
+they were horses and men, and the white rocks were horses too. Heavy
+firing began far away on our right. At nine the Manchesters were called
+off to reinforce. At half-past nine the Gordons followed, and I went
+with them. About a mile and a half from the centre we were halted again
+on the top of another rocky kopje covered with low bush and trees, out
+of which we frightened several little brown deer and some strange birds.</p>
+
+<p>From the top I could see the whole position of the right flank fairly
+well, but it puzzled me at first. The guns shelling Pepworth
+Hill&mdash;there<span class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name="page56"></a>Pg 56</span> were two batteries of them now&mdash;were still at their work,
+just in front of our left now and about half a mile away. Away to our
+right and further advanced, but quite exposed in the open, were two
+other batteries, shelling some distant kopjes on our right at the foot
+of the great mountain lump of Lombard's Kop. I heard afterwards they
+were shelling an empty and deserted kopje for hours, but I know that
+only from hearsay. Between the batteries and far away to the right the
+infantry was lying down or advancing in line, chiefly across the open,
+against the enemy's position. But what was that position? Take Ladysmith
+as centre and a radius of five miles, the Boers' position extended round
+a semicircle or more, from Lombard's Kop on the east to Walker's Hoek on
+the west, with Pepworth Hill as the centre of the arc on the north. I
+believe myself that the position was not a mile less than fifteen miles
+long, and for the most part it was just what Boers like&mdash;rocky kopjes
+and ridges, high and low, always giving cover and opportunity for
+surprise and ambuscade.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image05" name="image05">
+<img src="images/05.jpg" width="600" height="416" alt="LOMBARD&#39;S KOP" title="LOMBARD&#39;S KOP" /></a>
+<span class="caption">LOMBARD&#39;S KOP</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was against the left flank of that position that our right was now
+hurling itself. The idea, I suppose, was to roll their left back upon
+their centre and take Pepworth Hill and "Long Tom"<span class="pagenum"><a id="page57" name="page57"></a>Pg 57</span> in the confusion
+of retreat. That may or may not have been the General's plan, but from
+my post with the Gordons I soon saw something was happening to prevent
+it. On a flat piece of green in front of the rocky kopjes, where the
+enemy evidently was, I could see men, not running, but walking about in
+different directions. They were not crowded, but they seemed to be
+moving about like black ants, only in a purposeless kind of way. "They
+are Boers, and we've got them between our men and our battery," said a
+Gordon officer. But I knew his hope was a vain one. Very slowly they
+were coming towards us&mdash;turning and firing and advancing a little, one
+by one&mdash;but still coming towards us, till at last they began to dribble
+through the intervals in our batteries. Then we knew it was British
+infantry retiring&mdash;a terrible sight, no matter how small the loss or how
+wise the order given. Chiefly they were the 60th (K.R.R.) and the
+Leicesters. I believe the Dublins were there too. Behind them the enemy
+kept up the incessant crackle of their rifles.</p>
+
+<p>They came back slowly, tired and disheartened and sick with useless
+losses, but entirely refusing to hurry or crowd. With bullet and shell
+the enemy followed them hard. Our batteries did<span class="pagenum"><a id="page58" name="page58"></a>Pg 58</span> what they could to
+protect them, and Colonel Coxhead, in command of the guns, received the
+General's praise afterwards. The Natal Volunteers and Gordons, and at
+least part of the Manchesters were there to cover the retreat, but
+nothing could restore the position again. Battalions and ranks had got
+hopelessly mingled, and as soon as they were out of range the men
+wandered away in groups to the town, sick and angry, but longing above
+all things for water and sleep. The enemy's shells followed hard on
+their trail nearly into the town, plumping down in the midst whenever
+any body of men or horses showed themselves among the ridges of the
+kopjes. Seeing what was happening on the right the centre began to
+withdraw as well, and as their baggage train climbed back into the town
+up the Newcastle road a shell from "Long Tom" fell among them at a
+corner of the hill, blowing a poor ambulance and stretcher to pieces,
+and killing one of the Naval Brigade just arrived from the <i>Powerful</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Naval Brigade that saved the day, though, to be sure, a
+retirement like that is in itself a check, though no disaster. Captain
+Lambton had placed two of his Elswick wire guns on the road to the town,
+and sent shot after shot straight<span class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name="page59"></a>Pg 59</span> upon "Long Tom's" position four miles
+away. Only twelve-pounders, I believe, they were, but of fine range and
+precision, and at each successful shot the populace and Zulus standing
+on the rocks clapped their hands and laughed as at a music-hall. For a
+time, but only for a time, "Long Tom" held his tongue, and gradually the
+noise of battle ceased&mdash;the bang and squeal of the shells, the crackle
+of the rifle, the terrifying hammer-hammer of the enemy's two Krupp
+automatic guns. It was about half-past two and blazing hot. The rest of
+the day was quiet, but for rumours of the lamentable disaster of which
+one can hardly speak at present. The Gloucesters and Royal Irish
+prisoners&mdash;1,100 at least after all losses! They say two Boers were
+brought in blindfold last night to tell the General. This morning an
+ambulance party has gone out to bring in the wounded, and whilst they
+are gone with their flag of truce we have peace.</p>
+
+<p>I take the opportunity to write, hurriedly and without correction, for
+the opportunity is short. "Long Tom" sent two shells into us this
+morning as we were dressing (I should have said washing, only the water
+supply is cut), and at any moment he may begin again.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page60" name="page60"></a>Pg 60</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 1, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>I may add that the retirement of the battalions of the 60th, with the
+Leicesters, is the theme of every one's praise to-day. Its success was
+chiefly due to General Hunter, and the dogged courage of the men
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>But the second part of the despatch is after all the main point of
+interest. Such a disaster has, I suppose, seldom befallen two famous and
+distinguished battalions. After heavy loss they are prisoners. They are
+wiped out from the war. The Gloucesters and the Royal Irish
+Fusiliers&mdash;they join the squadron of the 18th Hussars in Pretoria gaols.
+Two Boers came in blindfolded to tell the news last night. All day long
+we have been fetching in the wounded. Their wounds are chiefly from
+Martini rifles, and very serious. I know the place of the disaster well,
+having often ridden there when the Boers were at a more respectful
+distance. It is an entangled and puzzling country, full of rocks and
+hills and hidden valleys. It was only some falling boulders that caused
+the ruin&mdash;a few casual shots&mdash;and the stampeding mules. That ammunition
+mule has always a good deal to bear, but now the burden put on him
+officially is almost too heavy for any four-legged thing.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page61" name="page61"></a>Pg 61</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>HEMMED IN</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>November 2, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Long Tom" opened fire at a quarter-past six from Pepworth Hill, and was
+replied to by the Naval Brigade. Just as I walked up to their big 4.7
+in. gun on the kopje close to the Newcastle road, a shell came right
+through our battery's earthwork, without bursting. Lieutenant Egerton,
+R.N., was lying close under the barrel of our gun, and both his legs
+were shattered. The doctors amputated one at the thigh, the other at the
+shin. In the afternoon he was sitting up, drinking champagne and smoking
+cigarettes as cheery as possible, but he died in the night. "Tom" went
+on more or less all day. In the afternoon Natal correspondents dashed
+down to the Censor with telegrams that he had been put out of action.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name="page62"></a>Pg 62</span>
+They had seen him lying on his side. I started to look for myself, and
+at the first 100 yards he threw a shell right into the off-side of the
+street, as though to save me the trouble of going further. Another
+rumour, quite as confidently believed by the soldiers, was that the
+Devons had captured him with the bayonet and rolled him down the hill. I
+heard one of them "chipping" a Gordon for not being present at the
+exploit. Now "Tom" is a 15-centimetre Creusot gun of superior quality.</p>
+
+<p>All morning I spent in the Manchesters' camp on the top of the long hill
+to the south-west, called C&aelig;sar's Camp. There had been firing from a
+higher flat-topped mountain&mdash;Middle Hill&mdash;about 3,000 yards beyond,
+where the Boers have taken up one of their usual fine positions,
+overlooking Ladysmith on one side and Colenso on the other. At early
+morning a small column under General Hunter had attacked a Boer commando
+on the Colenso road unawares and gave them a bad time, till an order
+suddenly came to withdraw. Sir George White had heard Boer guns to the
+west of their right rear, and was afraid of another disaster such as
+befell the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers. The men came back sick
+with disappointment, and more shaken than by defeat.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page63" name="page63"></a>Pg 63</span></p>
+
+<p>I found the Manchesters building small and almost circular sangars of
+stones and sandbags at intervals all along the ridge. The work was going
+listlessly, the men carrying up the smallest and easiest stones they
+could find, and spending most of the time in contemplating the scenery
+or discussing the situation, which they did not think hopeful. "We're
+surrounded&mdash;that's what we are," they kept saying. "Thought we was goin'
+to have Christmas puddin' in Pretoria. Not much Christmas puddin' we'll
+ever smell again!" A small mounted party rode past them, and the enemy
+instantly threw a shell over our heads from the front. Then the guns
+just set up on the long mountain of Bulwan, threw another plump into the
+rocks by the largest picket. "It's like that Bally Klarver," sighed a
+private, getting up and looking round with apprehension. "Cannon to
+right of 'em, cannon to left of 'em!" Then we went on building at the
+sangar, but without much spirit. They laughed when I told them how a
+shell from "Long Tom" fell into the Crown Hotel garden this morning, and
+all the black servants rushed out to pocket the fragments. But the only
+thing which really cheered them was the thought that they had only to
+"stick it out" till Buller's<span class="pagenum"><a id="page64" name="page64"></a>Pg 64</span> force went up to the Free State and drew
+the enemy off&mdash;that and a supply of cigarettes.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the afternoon I took my telegram to the Censor as usual, and
+after the customary wanderings and waste of time I found him&mdash;only to
+hear that the wires were bunched and the line destroyed. So telegrams
+are ended; mails neither come nor go. The guns fired lazily till
+evening, doing little harm on either side. A queer Boer ambulance, with
+little glass windows&mdash;something between a gipsy van and a penny
+peep-show&mdash;came in under a huge white flag, bringing some of our wounded
+to exchange for wounded Boers. The amenities of civilised slaughter are
+carefully observed. But one of the ambulance drivers was Mattey, "Long
+Tom's" skilled gunner, in disguise.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 3, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The bombardment continued, guns on Bulwan throwing shells into various
+camps, especially the Natal Volunteers. Many people chose the river bed
+as the most comfortable place to spend a happy day. They hoped the high
+banks or perhaps the water would protect them. So there they sat on the
+stones and waited for night. I don't know how many shells pitched into
+the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>Pg 65</span> town to-day&mdash;say 150, not more. Little harm was done, but people of
+importance had one grand shock. Just as lunch was in full swing at the
+Royal, where officers, correspondents, and a nurse or two congregate for
+meals in hope of staying their intolerable thirst&mdash;bang came a shell
+from "Long Tom" straight for the dining-room window. Happily a little
+house which served as bedroom to Mr. Pearse, of the <i>Daily News</i>, just
+caught it on its way. Crash it came through the iron roof, the wooden
+ceiling, into the brick wall. There it burst, and the house was in the
+past. Happily Mr. Pearse was only on his way to his room, and had not
+reached it. Some of the lunchers got bricks in their backs, and one man
+took to his bed of a shocked stomach.</p>
+
+<p>At the time I was away on the Maritzburg road, which starts west from
+the town and gradually curves southward. The picket on the ridge called
+Range Post is a relic of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, now in the
+show-ground at Pretoria. Major Kincaid was there, only returned the
+night before from the Boer camp behind "Long Tom." He had been ill with
+fever and was exchanged. He spoke with praise of the Boer treatment of
+our wounded and prisoners. When our fellows were worn out,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name="page66"></a>Pg 66</span> the Boers
+dismounted and let them ride. They brought them water and any food they
+had. Joubert came round the ambulance, commanding there should be no
+distinction between the wounded of either race. Major Kincaid had seen a
+good deal of the so-called Colonel Blake and his so-called Irish
+Brigade. He found that the very few who were not Americans were English.
+He had not a single real Irishman among them. Blake, an American, had
+come out for the adventure, just as he went to the Chili War.</p>
+
+<p>As we were talking, up galloped General Brocklehurst, Ian Hamilton, and
+the Staff, and I was called upon to give information about certain
+points in the country to our front&mdash;names and directions, the bits of
+plain where cavalry could act, and so on. The Intelligence Department
+had heard a large body of Free State Boers was moving westward from the
+south, as though retiring towards the passes. The information was false.
+The only true point about it was the presence of a large Boer force
+along a characteristic Boer position of low rocky hills about three
+miles to our front. There the General thought he would shell them out
+with a battery, and catch them as they retired by swinging cavalry<span class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name="page67"></a>Pg 67</span>
+round into the open length of plain behind the hills. So at 11 a.m. out
+trotted the 19th Hussars with the remains of the 18th. Then came a
+battery, with the 5th Dragoon Guards as escort In half an hour the guns
+were in full action against those low hills. The enemy's one gun there
+was silenced, but not before it had blown away half the head of a poor
+fellow among the Dragoon Guards. For an hour and a half we poured
+shrapnel over the rocks, till, except for casual rifle fire, there was
+no reply. Then another battery came up to protect the line to our rear,
+across which the Boers were throwing shells from positions on both
+sides, though without much effect. Soon after one, up cantered the
+Volunteers&mdash;Imperial Light Horse and Border Mounted Infantry&mdash;and they
+were sent forward, dismounted, to take the main position in front and
+occupy a steep hill on our left. To front and left they went gaily on,
+but they failed.</p>
+
+<p>At their approach the rocks we had so persistently shelled, crackled and
+hammered from end to end with rifle fire. The Boers had hidden behind
+the ridge, and now crept back again. Perhaps no infantry could have
+taken that position only from the front. I watched the Volun<span class="pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>Pg 68</span>teers
+advance upon it in extended lines across a long green slope studded with
+ant-hills. I could see the puffs of dust where bullets fell thick round
+their feet. It was an impossible task. Some got behind a cactus hedge,
+some lay down and fired, some hid behind ant-hills or little banks.
+Suddenly that moment came when all is over but the running. The men
+began shifting uneasily about. A few turned round, then more. At first
+they walked and kept some sort of line. Then some began to run. Soon
+they were all running, isolated or in groups of two or three. And all
+the time those puffs of dust pursued their feet. Sometimes there was no
+puff of dust, and then a man would spring in the air, or spin round, or
+just lurch forward with arms outspread, a mere yellowish heap, hardly to
+be distinguished from an ant-hill. I could see many a poor fellow
+wandering hither and thither as though lost, as is common in all
+retreats. A man would walk sideways, then run back a little, look round,
+fall. Another came by. The first evidently called out and the other gave
+him a hand. Both stumbled on together, the puffs of dust splashing round
+them. Then down they fell and were quiet. A complacent correspondent
+told me afterwards, with the condescending smile<span class="pagenum"><a id="page69" name="page69"></a>Pg 69</span> of higher light, that
+only seven men were hit. I only know that before evening twenty-five of
+the Light Horse alone were brought in wounded, not counting the dead,
+and not counting the other mounted troops, all of whom suffered.</p>
+
+<p>It was all over by a quarter-past three. The Dragoon Guards, who had
+been trying to cover the retreat, galloped back, one or two horses
+galloping riderless. Under the Red Cross flag the dhoolies then began to
+go out to pick up the results of the battle. For an hour or so that work
+lasted, the dead and dying being found among the ant-hills where they
+fell. Then we all trailed back, the enemy shelling our line of retreat
+from three sides, and we in such a mood that we cared very little for
+shells or anything else.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 4, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>This morning Sir George White sent Joubert a letter by Major Bateson,
+asking leave for the non-combatants, women and children to go down to
+Maritzburg. The morning was quiet, most people packing up in hopes of
+going. But Joubert's answer put an end to that. The wounded, women,
+children, and other non-combatants might be collected in some place
+about four miles from the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page70" name="page70"></a>Pg 70</span> town, but could go no further. All who
+remained would be treated as combatants. 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&mdash;the bushy spot fixed upon, five miles
+away&mdash;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. Amid shouts and cheers and waving parasols the people raised the
+National Anthem, and for once there was some dignity in that inferior
+tune. Everybody's life was in danger for "The Queen." The proposal to
+leave the town was flung back with defiance. Rather let our homes be
+flattened out!</p>
+
+<p>To-night my grey-haired Cape-boy and my Zulu came to me in silence and
+tears. They had hoped for escape. They longed for the peace of
+Maritzburg, and now, like myself, they were bottled up amid "pom-poms."
+Had I not pro<span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name="page71"></a>Pg 71</span>mised never to bring them into danger&mdash;always to leave
+them snug in the rear? They were devoted to my service. Others ran. Them
+no thought of safety could induce to leave me. But one had a wife and
+descendants, the other had ancestors. It was pitiful. Better savages
+never loomed out of blackness. In sorrow I promised a pension for the
+widow if the old man was killed. "But how if you get pom-pom too, boss?"
+he plaintively asked. I pledged the <i>Chronicle</i> to take over the
+obligation. The word "obligation" consoled him. The lady's name is Mrs.
+Louis Nicodemus, now of Maritzburg. For the Zulu's ancestry I promised
+no provision.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>Pg 72</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>TRAGEDY AND COMEDY</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, November 5, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The armistice lasted all day, except that the enemy threw two shells at
+a waggon going up the Helpmakaar road and knocked it to pieces, and, I
+hear, killed a man or two&mdash;I don't know why. The townspeople were very
+busy building shelters for the bombardment. The ends of bridges and
+culverts were closed up with sandbags and stones. Circular forts were
+piled in the safest places among the rocks. The Army Service Corps
+constructed a magnificent work with mealy-bags and corn-beef cases&mdash;a
+perfect palace of security. But, as usual, the Kaffirs were wisest. They
+have crept up the river banks to a place where it flows between two
+steep hills of rock, and there is no access but by a narrow footpath.
+There they lie with their blankets and bits of things, indifferent<span class="pagenum"><a id="page73" name="page73"></a>Pg 73</span> to
+time and space. Some sort of Zulu missionary is up there, too, and I saw
+him nobly washing a cooking-pot for his family, dressed in little but
+his white clerical choker and a sort of undivided skirt. A few white
+families have gone to the same place, and I helped some of them to
+construct their new homes in the rocks amidst great merriment. The boys
+were as delighted as children with a spade and bucket by the sea, and
+many an impregnable redoubt was thrown up with a dozen stones. What
+those homes will be like at the end of a week I don't know. A picnic
+where love is may be endurable for one afternoon, when there are plenty
+of other people to cook and wash up. But a hungry and unclean picnic by
+day and night, beside a muddy river, with little to eat and no one to
+cook, nowhere to sleep but the rock, and nothing to do but dodge the
+shells, is another story. "I tell you what," said a serious Tory soldier
+to me, "if English people saw this sort of thing, they'd hang that
+Chamberlain." "They won't hang him, but perhaps they'll make him a
+Lord," I answered, and watched the women trying to keep the children
+decent while their husbands worked the pick.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon the trains went out, bearing the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page74" name="page74"></a>Pg 74</span> wounded to their new
+camp across the plain at Intombi's Spruit. The move was not well
+organised. From dawn the ambulance people had been at work shifting the
+hospital tents and all the surgical necessities, but at five in the
+afternoon a note came back from the officer in camp urging us not to
+send any more patients. "There is no water, no rations," it said; "not
+nearly enough tents are pitched. If more wounded come, they will have to
+spend the night on the open veldt." But the long train was already made
+up. The wounded were packed in it. It was equally impossible to leave
+them there or to take them back. So on they went. In all that crowd of
+suffering men I did not hear a single complaint. Administration is not
+the strong point of the British officer. "We are only sportsmen," said
+one of them with a sigh, as he crawled up the platform, torn with
+dysentery and fever.</p>
+
+<p>In front of the wounded were a lot of open trucks for such townspeople
+as chose to go. They had hustled a few rugs and lumps of bedding
+together, and, sitting on these, they made the best of war. But not many
+went, and most of those had relations among the Boers or were Boers
+themselves.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page75" name="page75"></a>Pg 75</span></p>
+
+<p>When the trains had gone, Captain Lambton, of the <i>Powerful</i>, showed me
+the new protection which his men and the sappers had built round the
+great 4.7 in. gun, which is always kept trained on "Long Tom." The
+sailors call the gun "Lady Anne," in compliment to Captain Lambton's
+sister, but the soldiers have named it "Weary Willie"&mdash;I don't know why.
+The fellow gun on Cove Hill is called "Bloody Mary"&mdash;which is no
+compliment to anybody. The earthwork running round the "Lady Anne" is
+eighteen feet deep at the base. Had it been as deep the first day she
+came, Lieutenant Egerton would still be at her side.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 6, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>When the melodrama doesn't come off, an indignant Briton demands his
+money back. Our melodrama has not come off. We were quite ready to give
+it a favourable reception. The shops were shut, business abandoned. Many
+had taken secure places the night before, so as to be in plenty of time.
+Nearly all were seated expectant long before dawn. The rising sun was to
+ring the curtain up. It rose. The curtain never stirred. From whom shall
+we indignant Britons demand our money back?</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page76" name="page76"></a>Pg 76</span></p>
+
+<p>With the first glimmer of light between the stars over Bulwan, those few
+who had stayed the night under roofs began creeping away to the holes in
+the river bank or the rough, scrubby ground at the foot of the hills
+south-west of the town, where the Manchesters guard the ridge. Then we
+all waited, silent with expectation. The clouds turned crimson. At five
+the sun marched up in silence. Not a gun was heard. "They will begin at
+six," we said. Not a sound. "They are having a good breakfast," we
+thought. Eight came, and we began to move about uneasily. Two miserable
+shells whizzed over my head, obviously aimed only at the balloon which
+was just coming down. "Call that a performance?" we grumbled. We left
+our seats. We went on to the stage of the town. What was the matter? Was
+"Long Tom" ill? Had the Basutos overrun the Free State? Had Buller
+really advanced? Lieutenant Hooper, of the 5th Lancers, had walked
+through from Maritzburg, passing the Royal Irish sentries at 2 a.m. He
+brought news of a division coming to our rescue. Was that the reason of
+the day's failure? So speculation chattered. The one thing certain was
+that the performance did not come off, and there was no one to give us
+our money back.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image06" name="image06">
+<img src="images/06.jpg" width="600" height="418" alt="IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS" title="IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS" /></a>
+<span class="caption">IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page77" name="page77"></a>Pg 77</span></p>
+<p>So we spent the day wandering round the outposts, washing ourselves and
+our rags in the yellow river, trying to get the horses to drink the
+water afterwards, contemplating the picturesque, and pretending to cook.
+Perhaps the greatest interest was the work upon a series of caves in the
+river-bank, behind the Intelligence Office. They are square-topped, with
+straight sides, cut clean into the hard, sandy cliff. The Light Horse
+have made them for themselves and their ammunition. On the opposite side
+the Archdeacon has hollowed out a noble, ecclesiastical burrow. On the
+hills the soldiers are still at work completing their shelter-trenches
+and walls. I think the Rifle Brigade on King's Post (the signal hill of
+a month ago) have built the finest series of defences, for they have
+made covered pits against shrapnel. But perhaps they are more exposed
+than all the others except the Devons, who lie along a low ridge beside
+the Helpmakaar road, open to shell from two points, and perhaps to
+rifle-fire also. The Irish Fusiliers, under Major Churchill, have a very
+ingenious series of walls and covers. The main Manchesters' defences are
+circular like forts; so are the Gordons' and the K.R.R.'s. All are
+provisioned for fourteen days.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page78" name="page78"></a>Pg 78</span></p>
+
+<p>I spent the afternoon searching for a runner, a Kaffir the colour of
+night, who would steal through the Boer lines in the dark with a
+telegram. In my search I lost two hours through the conscientiousness of
+the 5th Lancers, who arrested me and sent me from pillar to post, just
+as if I was seeking information at the War Office. At last they took
+me&mdash;the Colonel himself, three privates with rifles and a mounted
+orderly with a lance&mdash;took me to the General Staff, and there the
+absurdity ended. But seriously, what is the good of having the very
+highest and most authoritative passes possible&mdash;one from the War Office
+and one from the head of the Intelligence Department here&mdash;if any
+conscientious colonel can refuse to acknowledge them, and drag a
+correspondent about amid the derision of Kaffirs and coolies, and of
+Dutchmen who are known perfectly well to send every scrap of
+intelligence to their friends outside? I lost two hours; probably I lost
+my chance of getting a runner through. I had complied with the
+regulations in every possible respect. My pass was in my hand; and what
+was the good of it?</p>
+
+<p>But after all we are in the midst of a tragedy. Let us not be too
+serious. Dishevelled women are peering out of their dens in the rocks
+and holes<span class="pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>Pg 79</span> in the sand. They crawl into the evening light, shaking the
+dirt from their petticoats and the sand from their back hair. They rub
+the children's faces round with the tails of their gowns. They tempt
+scraps of flame to take the chill off the yellow water for the
+children's tea. After sundown a steady Scotch drizzle settles down upon
+us.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 7, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>To-day the melodrama has begun in earnest. "Long Tom" and four or five
+smaller guns from Bulwan, and a nearer battery to the north-west, began
+hurling percussion shell and shrapnel upon the Naval batteries at
+half-past seven. Our "Lady Anne" answered, but after flinging shells
+into the immense earthworks for an hour or two without much effect, both
+sides got tired of that game. But the Boer fire was not quite without
+effect, for one of the smaller shells burst right inside the "Lady
+Anne's" private chamber and carried away part of the protecting gear,
+not killing any men. Then "Long Tom" was deliberately turned upon the
+town, especially upon the Convent, which stands high on the ridge, and
+is used as a hospital. His shells went crashing among the houses, but
+happily land is cheap in South Africa still, and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page80" name="page80"></a>Pg 80</span> houses, as a rule,
+are built on separate plots, so that as often as not the shells fall in
+a garden bush or among the clothes-lines. Only two Indian bearers were
+wounded and a few horses and cattle killed. Things went pretty quietly
+through the morning, except that there was a good deal of firing&mdash;shell
+and rifle&mdash;on the high ridge south-west, where the Manchesters are.
+About two o'clock I started for that position, and being fond of short
+cuts, thought I would ford the river at a break in its steep banks
+instead of going round by the iron bridge. Mr. Melton Prior was with me,
+for I had promised to show him a quiet place for sketching the whole
+view of the town in peace. As we came to the river a shell pitched near
+us, but we did not take much notice of it. In the middle of the ford we
+took the opportunity of letting the horses drink, and they stood
+drinking like the orphan lamb. Suddenly there was something more than
+the usual bang, crash, scream of a big shell, and the water was splashed
+with lumps and shreds of iron, my hat was knocked off and lay wrecked in
+the stream, and the horses were dashing this way and that with terror.
+"Are you killed?" shouted Mr. Prior. "I don't think so," I said. "Are
+you?" And then I had to lash my<span class="pagenum"><a id="page81" name="page81"></a>Pg 81</span> horse back to the place lest my hat
+should sail down-stream and adorn a Queen's enemy. There is nothing like
+shell-fire for giving lessons in horsemanship.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image07" name="image07">
+<img src="images/07.jpg" width="600" height="422" alt="THE DRIFT AND WATERING PLACE" title="THE DRIFT AND WATERING PLACE" /></a>
+<span class="caption">THE DRIFT AND WATERING PLACE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Manchesters had been having an uncomfortable time of it, and I found
+Sir George White and his staff up on their hill. As we walked about, the
+little puffs of dust kept rising at our feet. We were within rifle-fire,
+though at long range. Now and then a very peculiar little shell was
+thrown at us. One went straight through a tent, but we could not find it
+afterwards. It was a shell like a viper. I left the Manchesters putting
+up barbed-wire entanglements to increase their defence, and came back to
+try to find another runner. The shells were falling very thick in the
+town, and for the first time people were rather scared. As I write one
+bursts just over this little tin house. It is shrapnel, and the iron
+rain falls hammering on the roof, but it does not come through. Two
+windows only are broken. Probably it burst too high.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 8, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Fairly quiet day. The great event was the appearance of a new "Long Tom"
+on the Bulwan. He is to be called "Puffing Billy," from the vast<span class="pagenum"><a id="page82" name="page82"></a>Pg 82</span>
+quantity of smoke he pours out. Nothing else of great importance
+happened. Major Grant, of the Intelligence, was slightly wounded while
+sketching on the Manchesters' ridge. Coolies wandered about the streets
+all day with tin boxes or Asiatic bundles on their heads. Joubert had
+sent them in as a present from Dundee. They were refugees from that
+unhappy town, and after a visit to Pretoria, they are now dumped down
+here to help devour our rations. Some Europeans have come, too&mdash;guards,
+signalmen and shopkeepers&mdash;who report immense reinforcements coming up
+for the Boers. Is there not something a little medi&aelig;val in sending a
+crowd of hungry non-combatants into an invested town?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page83" name="page83"></a>Pg 83</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND REALITIES</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>November 9, 1899</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>A day of furious and general attack. Just before five I was wakened by a
+shell blustering through the eucalyptus outside my window, and bursting
+in a gully beyond. "Lady Anne" answered at once, and soon all the Naval
+Brigade guns were in full cry. What should we have done without the
+Naval guns? We have nothing else but ordinary field artillery, quite
+unable to reply to the heavy guns which the Boers have now placed in
+position round the town. Yet they only came up at the last moment, and
+it was a mere piece of luck they got through at all. Standing behind
+them on the ridge above my tin house, I watched the firing till nine
+o'clock, dodging<span class="pagenum"><a id="page84" name="page84"></a>Pg 84</span> behind a loose wall to avoid the splinters which buzz
+through the air after each shot, and are sometimes strangely slow to
+fall. Once after "Long Tom" had fired I stood up, thinking all was over,
+when a big fragment hummed gently above my head, went through the roof
+and ceiling of a house a hundred yards behind, and settled on a
+shell-proof spring mattress in the best bedroom. One of the little boys
+running out from the family burrow in the rocks was delighted to find it
+there, and carried it off to add to his collection of moths and birds'
+eggs. The estimate of "Long Tom's" shell has risen from 40lbs. to 96lbs.
+and I believe that to be the true weight. One of them to-day dug a
+stupendous hole in the pavement just before one of the principal shops,
+and broke yards of shutter and plate glass to pieces. It was quite
+pleasant to see a shop open again.</p>
+
+<p>So the bombardment went on with violence all the morning. The
+troglodytes in their burrows alone thought themselves safe, but, in
+fact, only five men were killed, and not all of those by shell. One was
+a fine sergeant of the Liverpools, who held the base of the Helpmakaar
+road where it leaves the town eastward. Sergeant Macdonald was his name,
+a man full of zeal, and always<span class="pagenum"><a id="page85" name="page85"></a>Pg 85</span> tempted into danger by curiosity, as
+most people are. Instead of keeping under shelter of the sangar when the
+guns on Bulwan were shelling the position, he must needs go outside "to
+have a look." The contents of a shell took him full in front. Any of his
+nine wounds would have been fatal. His head and face seemed shattered to
+bits; yet he did not lose consciousness, but said to his captain, "I'd
+better have stopped inside, sir." He died on the way to hospital.</p>
+
+<p>A private of the Liverpools was killed too. About twenty-four in all
+were wounded, chiefly by rifle fire, Captain Lethbridge of the Rifle
+Brigade being severely injured in the spine. Lieutenant Fisher, of the
+Manchesters, had been shot through the shoulder earlier in the day, but
+did not even report himself as wounded until evening.</p>
+
+<p>After all, the rifle, as Napoleon said, is the only thing that counts,
+and to-day we had a great deal of it at various points in our long line
+of defence. That line is like a horseshoe, ten to twelve miles round.</p>
+
+<p>The chief attacks were directed against the Manchesters in C&aelig;sar's Camp
+(we are very historic in South Africa) and against a mixed force on
+Observation Hill, two companies of the Rifle<span class="pagenum"><a id="page86" name="page86"></a>Pg 86</span> Brigade, two of the King's
+Royal Rifles, and the 5th Lancers dismounted. The Manchesters suffered
+most. Since the investment began the enemy has never left them in peace.
+They are exposed to shells from three positions, and to continual
+sniping from the opposite hill. It is more than a week since even the
+officers washed or took their clothes off, and now the men have been
+obliged to strike their tents because the shells and rifles were
+spoiling the stuff.</p>
+
+<p>The various companies get into their sangars at 3 a.m., and stay there
+till it is dark again. Two companies were to-day thrown out along the
+further edge of their hill in extended order as firing line, and soon
+after dawn the Boers began to creep down the opposite steep by two or
+three at a time into one of the many farms owned by Bester, a notorious
+traitor, now kept safe in Ladysmith. All morning the firing was very
+heavy, many of the bullets coming right over the hill and dropping near
+the town. Our men kept very still, only firing when they saw their mark.
+Three of them were killed, thirteen wounded. Before noon a field battery
+came up to support the battalion, and against that terrifying shrapnel
+of ours the Boers attempted no further advance. In the same way<span class="pagenum"><a id="page87" name="page87"></a>Pg 87</span> they
+came creeping up against Observation Hill (a barren rocky ridge on the
+north-west of the town), hiding by any tree or stone, but were
+completely checked by four companies of Rifles, with two guns and the
+dismounted Lancers. They say the Boer loss was very heavy at both
+places. It is hard to know.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon things were fairly quiet, but in walking along the low
+ridge held by the Liverpools and Devons, I was sniped at every time my
+head showed against the sky. At 4 p.m. there was a peculiar forward
+movement of our cavalry and guns along the Helpmakaar road, which came
+to nothing being founded on false information, such as comes in hourly.</p>
+
+<p>The great triumph of the day was certainly the Royal salute at noon in
+honour of the Prince of Wales. Twenty-one guns with shotted charge, and
+all fired slap upon "Long Tom"! It was the happiest moment in the Navy's
+life for many a year. One after another the shot flew. "Long Tom" was so
+bewildered he has not spoken since. The cheering in the camps was heard
+for miles. People thought the relief division was in sight. But we were
+only signifying that the Prince was a year older.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page88" name="page88"></a>Pg 88</span></p>
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 10, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Another morning of unusual quiet. People sicken of the monotony when
+shells are not flying. We don't know any reason for the calm, except
+that the Dutch are burying their dead of yesterday. But the peace is
+welcome, and in riding round our positions I found nearly all the men
+lying asleep in the sun. The wildest stories flew: General French had
+been seen in the street; his brigade was almost in sight; Methuen was at
+Colenso with overwhelming force. The townspeople took heart. One man who
+had spent his days in a stinking culvert since the siege began now crept
+into the sun. "They are arrant cowards, these Boers," he cried, stamping
+the echoing ground; "why don't they come on and fight us like men?" So
+the day wears. At four o'clock comes an African thunderstorm with a
+deluge of rain, filling the water tanks and slaking the dust, grateful
+to all but the men of both armies uncovered on the rocks.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 11, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>A soaking early morning with minute rain, hiding all the circle of the
+hills, for which reason there is no bombardment yet, and I have spent a
+quiet hour with Colonel Stoneman, arranging<span class="pagenum"><a id="page89" name="page89"></a>Pg 89</span> rations for my men and
+beasts, and taking a lesson how to organise supplies and yet keep an
+unruffled mind. The rest of the morning I sat with a company of the 60th
+(K.R.R.) on the top of Cove Hill (another of the many Aldershot names).
+The men had been lining the exposed edge of Observation Hill all night,
+without any shelter, whilst the thick cold rain fell upon them. It was
+raining still, and they lay about among the rocks and thorny mimosa
+bushes in rather miserable condition.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a good thing if the Army could be marched through Regent
+Street as the men look this morning. It would teach people more about
+war than a hundred pictures of plumed horsemen and the dashing charge.
+The smudgy khaki uniforms soaked through and through, stained black and
+green and dingy red with wet and earth and grass; the draggled
+great-coats, heavy with rain and thick with mud; the heavy sopping
+boots, the blackened, battered helmets; the blackened, battered faces
+below them, unwashed and unshaved since the siege began; the eyes heavy
+and bloodshot with sun and rain and want of sleep; the peculiar
+smell&mdash;there is not much brass band and glory about us now.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page90" name="page90"></a>Pg 90</span></p>
+
+<p>At noon the mist lifted, and just before one the Boer guns opened fire
+nearly all round the horseshoe, except that the Manchesters were left in
+peace. I think only one new gun had been placed in position, but another
+had been cleverly checked. As a rule, it has been our polite way to let
+the Boers settle their guns comfortably in their places, and then to try
+in vain to blow them out. Yesterday the enemy were fortifying a gun on
+Star Hill, when one of our artillery captains splashed a shell right
+into the new wall. We could see the Boer gunners running out on both
+sides, and the fort has not been continued.</p>
+
+<p>To-day "Long Tom's" shells were thrown pretty much at random about the
+town. One blew a mule's head off close to the bank, and disembowelled a
+second. One went into the "Scotch House" and cleared the shop. A third
+pitched close to the Anglican Church, and brought the Archdeacon out of
+burrow. But there was no real loss, except that one of the Naval Brigade
+got a splinter in the forehead. My little house had another dose of
+shrapnel, and on coming in I found a soldier digging up the bits in the
+garden; but the Scotch owner drove him away for "interfering with the
+mineral rights." At 3.30 the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page91" name="page91"></a>Pg 91</span> mist fell again, and there was very little
+firing after 4. Out on the flat beyond the racecourse our men were
+engaged in blowing up and burning some little farms and kraals which
+sheltered the Boer scouts. As I look towards the Bulwan I see the yellow
+blaze of their fires.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, November 12, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Amid all the estimable qualities of the Boer race there is none more
+laudable than their respect for the Sabbath day. It has been a calm and
+sunny day. Not a shot was fired&mdash;no sniping even. We feel like grouse on
+a pious Highland moor when Sunday comes, and even the laird dares not
+shoot. The cave dwellers left their holes and flaunted in the light of
+day. In the main street I saw a perambulator, stuffed with human young.
+Pickets and outposts stretched their limbs in the sun. Soldiers off duty
+scraped the clods off their boots and polished up their bayonets.
+Officers shaved and gloried over a leisurely breakfast. For myself, I
+washed my shirt and hung it on the line of fire to dry.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning one of the Irish Brigade rode in through the Liverpools'
+picket. He was "fed up" with the business, as the soldiers say. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="page92" name="page92"></a>Pg 92</span>
+reported that only about seventy of the Brigade were left. He also said
+the Boer commandants were holding a great meeting to-day&mdash;whether for
+psalms or strategy I don't know; probably both. We heard the usual
+rumours that the Boers were going or had gone. Climbing to the
+Manchesters' post for the view, I could see three Boer trains waiting at
+Modder's Spruit station, about six miles up the Newcastle line. Did they
+bring reinforcements, or were they waiting to take "Long Tom" home by
+return ticket? We shall know to-morrow. Over the valley where we
+repulsed Thursday's attack, the vultures flew as thick as swifts upon
+the Severn at twilight. Those were the only signs of war&mdash;those and the
+little forts which hid the guns. Otherwise the enormous landscape lay at
+peace. I have never seen it so clear&mdash;the precipitous barrier of the
+Basuto mountains, lined with cloud, and still touched with snow: the
+great sculptured mountains that mark the Free State border: and then the
+scenes which have become so familiar to us all&mdash;Elands Laagte, Tinta
+Inyoni, Pepworth Hill, Lombard's Kop, and the great Bulwan. Turning to
+the south we looked across to the nearer hills, beyond which lie
+Colenso, Estcourt, and the road to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page93" name="page93"></a>Pg 93</span> Maritzburg and the sea. It is from
+beyond those hills that our help is coming.</p>
+
+<p>The Boers have many estimable qualities. They are one of the few
+admirable races still surviving, and they conduct this siege with real
+consideration and gentlemanly feeling. They observe the Sabbath. They
+give us quiet nights. After a violent bombardment they generally give us
+at least one day to calm down. Their hours for slaughter are six to six,
+and they seldom overstep them. They knock off for meals&mdash;unfashionably
+early, it is true, but it would be petty to complain. Like good
+employers, they seldom expose our lives to danger for more than eight
+hours a day. They are a little capricious, perhaps, in the use of the
+white flag. At the beginning of the siege our "Lady Anne" killed or
+wounded some of "Long Tom's" gunners and damaged the gun. Whereupon the
+Boers hoisted the white flag over him till the place was cleared and he
+was put to rights again. Then they drew it down and went on firing. It
+was the sort of thing schoolboys might do. Captain Lambton complained
+that by the laws of war the gun was permanently out of action. But "Long
+Tom" goes on as before.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page94" name="page94"></a>Pg 94</span></p>
+
+<p>I think the best story of the siege comes from a Kaffir who walked in a
+few days ago. In the Boer camp behind Pepworth Hill he had seen the men
+being taught bayonet exercise with our Lee-Metfords, captured at Dundee.
+The Boer has no bayonet or steel of his own, and for an assault on the
+town he will need it. Instruction was being given by a prisoner&mdash;a
+sergeant of the Royal Irish Fusiliers&mdash;with a rope round his neck!</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 13, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Boer method of siege is quite inexplicable. Perhaps it comes of
+inexperience. Perhaps they have been studying the sieges of ancient
+history and think they are doing quite the proper thing in sitting down
+round a garrison, putting in a few shells and waiting. But they forget
+that, though the sieges of ancient history lasted ten years, nowadays we
+really can't afford the time. The Boers, we hope, have scarcely ten
+days, yet they loiter along as though eternity was theirs.</p>
+
+<p>To-day they began soon after five with the usual cannonade from "Long
+Tom," "Puffing Billy," and three or four smaller guns, commanding the
+Naval batteries. The answers of our "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" shook
+me<span class="pagenum"><a id="page95" name="page95"></a>Pg 95</span> awake, and, seated on the hill, I watched the big guns pounding at
+each other for about three hours, when there came an interval for
+breakfast. As far as I could make out, neither side did the other the
+least harm. It was simply an unlucrative exchange of so much broken iron
+between two sensible and prudent nations. The moment "Tom" or "Billy"
+flashed, "Anne" or "Mary" flashed too. Our shells do the distance about
+two and a-half seconds quicker than theirs, so that we can see the
+result of our shot just before one has to duck behind the stones for the
+crash and whiz of the enormous shells which started first. To-day most
+of "Tom's" shells passed over the batteries, and plunged down the hill
+into the town beyond. It is supposed that he must be wearing out. He has
+been firing here pretty steadily for over a fortnight, to say nothing of
+his work at Dundee. But I think his fire upon the town is quite
+deliberate. He might pound away at "Lady Anne" for ever, but there is
+always a chance that 96lbs. of iron exploding in a town may, at all
+events, kill a mule.</p>
+
+<p>So the bombardment went on cheerily through the early morning, till
+about 10.30 it slackened down in the inexplicable Boer fashion, and
+hardly<span class="pagenum"><a id="page96" name="page96"></a>Pg 96</span> one shot an hour was fired afterwards. The surmise goes that
+Joubert cannot get his men up to the attacking point. Their loss last
+Saturday was certainly heavy.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday the Boers, with fine simplicity, sent to our ambulance camp
+for some chlorodyne because they had run short of it, and were troubled
+with dysentery like ourselves. Being at heart a kindly people, we gave
+them what they wanted and a little brandy besides. The British soldier
+thereupon invents the satire that Joubert asked for some forage because
+his horses were hungry, and Sir George White replied: "I would very
+gladly accede to your request, but have only enough forage myself to
+last three years."</p>
+
+<p>The day passed, and we did not lose a single man. Yet the enemy must
+have enjoyed one incident. I was riding up to spend an hour in the
+afternoon with Major Churcher and the 200 Royal Irish Fusiliers left at
+Range Post, when on an open space between me and their little camp I saw
+a squadron of the 18th Hussars circling and doubling about as though
+they were practising for the military tournament. Almost before I had
+time to think, bang came a huge shell from "Puffing Billy" just over my
+head, and pitched between me<span class="pagenum"><a id="page97" name="page97"></a>Pg 97</span> and them. Happily, it fell short, but it
+gave the Dutch gunners a wonderful display of our cavalry's excellence.
+Even before I could come up men and horses had vanished into air.</p>
+
+<p>All day strange rumours have been afloat about the Division supposed to
+be coming to our relief. It was expected to-morrow. Now it is put off
+till Thursday. It is even whispered it will sit quiet at Estcourt, and
+not come to our relief at all. To-night is bitterly cold, and the men
+are chilled to the stomach on the bare hillsides.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 14, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The siege is becoming very tedious, and we are losing heart. Depression
+was to-day increased by one of those futile sorties which only end in
+retirement. In the early morning a large Boer convoy of waggons was seen
+moving along the road beyond Bluebank towards the north, about eight
+miles away. Ninety waggons were reported. One man counted twenty-five,
+another thirteen. I myself saw two. At all events, waggons were there,
+and we thought of capturing them. But it was past ten before even the
+nucleus of a force reached Range Post, and the waggons were already far
+away. Out trotted the 18th and 19th Hussars, three<span class="pagenum"><a id="page98" name="page98"></a>Pg 98</span> batteries, and the
+Imperial Light Horse on to the undulating plain leading up to the ridge
+of Bluebank, where the Boers have one gun and plenty of rocks to hide
+behind. That gun opened fire at once, and was supported by "Faith,"
+"Hope," and "Charity," three black-powder guns along Telegraph Hill,
+besides the two guns on Surprise Hill. In fact, all the Boer guns chimed
+in round the circle, and for two hours it was difficult to trace where
+each whizzing shell came from, familiar though we are with their
+peculiar notes.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime our batteries kept sprinkling shrapnel over Bluebank with their
+usual steadiness and perfection of aim. The enemy's gun was soon either
+silenced or withdrawn. The rifle fire died down. Not a Boer was to be
+seen upon the ridge, but three galloped away over the plains behind as
+though they had enough of it. The Light Horse dismounted and advanced to
+Star Point. All looked well. We expected to see infantry called up to
+advance upon the ridge, while our cavalry swept round upon the fugitives
+in the rear. But nothing of the kind happened.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the Light Horse walked back to their horses and retired. One by
+one the batteries retired at a walk. The cavalry followed. Before<span class="pagenum"><a id="page99" name="page99"></a>Pg 99</span> two
+o'clock the whole force was back again over Range Post. The enemy poured
+in all the shells and bullets they could, but our men just came back at
+a walk, and only four were wounded. I am told General Brocklehurst was
+under strict orders not to lose men.</p>
+
+<p>The shells did more damage than usual in the town. Three houses were
+wrecked, one "Long Tom" shell falling into Captain Valentine's
+dining-room, and disturbing the breakfast things. Another came through
+two bedrooms in the hotel, and spoilt the look of the smoking-room. But
+I think the only man killed was a Carbineer, who had his throat cut by a
+splinter as he lay asleep in his tent.</p>
+
+<p>Just after midnight a very unusual thing happened. Each of the Boer guns
+fired one shot. Apparently they were trained before sunset and fired at
+a given signal. The shells woke me up, whistling over the roof. Most of
+the townspeople rushed, lightly clad, to their holes and coverts. The
+troops stood to arms. But the rest of the night was quiet.' Apparently
+the Boers, contrary to their character, had only done it to annoy,
+because they knew it teased us.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>Pg 100</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>ENNUI ENLIVENED BY SUDDEN DEATH</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>November 15, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This drama is getting too long for the modern stage, and so far the
+Dutch have obeyed none of the dramatic rules. To-day was one monotony of
+rain, and may be blotted out from the memory of all but the men who lay
+hour after hour miserably soaking upon the edges of the hills. After the
+early morning not a shell was fired. The mist was too thick to allow
+even of wild shots at the town.</p>
+
+<p>I had another try at getting a Kaffir runner to carry a telegram through
+to Estcourt.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 16, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The sun came back to cheer us up and warm our bones. At the Liverpools'
+picket, on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>Pg 101</span> Newcastle road, the men at six o'clock were rejoicing in
+a glorious and soapy wash where the rain had left a pool in a quarry.
+The day passed very quietly, shells only falling on an average of one
+every half-hour. Unhappily a shrapnel scattered over the station,
+wounded three or four natives, and killed an excellent railway guard&mdash;a
+sharp fragment tearing through his liver and intestines. There was high
+debate whether the shell was thrown by "Silent Susan," or what other
+gun. Some even stuck out for "Long Tom" himself. But to the guard it
+makes no difference, and he was most concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Relief was to have come to us to-day for certain, but we hear nothing of
+it beyond vague rumours of troops at Estcourt and Maritzburg. We are
+slowly becoming convinced that we are to be left to our fate while the
+main issue is settled elsewhere. Colonel Ward has organised the
+provisions of the town and troops to last for eighty days. He is also
+buying up all the beer and spirits, partly to cheer the soldiers' hearts
+on these dreary wet nights; partly to prevent the soldier cheering
+himself too much.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening I sent off another runner with a telegram and quite a
+mail of letters from officers<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>Pg 102</span> and men for their mothers', wives, and
+lovers over seas. He was a bony young Kaffir, with a melancholy face,
+black as sorrow. At six o'clock I saw him start, his apish feet padding
+through the crusted slush. One pocket bulged with biscuits, one with a
+tin of beef. Between his black chest and his rag of shirt he had tucked
+that neat packet which was to console so many a woman, white-skinned and
+delicately dressed. Fetching a wide compass, he stole away into the
+eastern twilight, where the great white moon was rising, shrouded in
+electric cloud.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 17, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>A few shells came in early, and by nine o'clock there was so much firing
+on the north-west that I rode out to the main position of the 60th
+(King's Royal Rifles) on Cove Hill. I found that our field battery there
+was being shelled from Surprise Hill and its neighbour, but nothing
+unusual was happening. The men were in a rather disconsolate condition.
+Even where they have built a large covered shelter underground the wet
+comes through the roof and trickles down upon them in liquid filth. But
+they bear it all with ironic indifference, consoling themselves
+especially with<span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>Pg 103</span> the thought that they killed one Boer for certain
+yesterday. "The captain saw him fall."</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the open valley in front I came to the long ridge called
+Observation Hill. There the rifle fire hardly ever ceases. It is held by
+three companies of the K.R.R. and the 5th Lancers dismounted. It looks
+out over the long valley of Bell's Spruit; that scene of the great
+disaster where we lost our battalions, being less than three miles away
+at the foot of the rugged mountain beyond&mdash;Surprise Hill. Close in front
+is one of the two farms called Hyde's, and there the Boers find shelter
+at nights and in rain. The farm's orchard, its stone walls, the rocks,
+and all points of cover swarm with Boer sharpshooters, and whenever our
+men show themselves upon the ridge the bullets fly. An immense quantity
+of them are lost. In all the morning's firing only one Lancer had been
+wounded. As I came over the edge the bullets all passed over my head,
+but our men have to keep behind cover if they can, and only return the
+fire when they are sure of a mark. I found a detachment of Lancers, with
+a corporal, lying behind a low stone wall. It happened to be exactly the
+place I had wished to find, for at one end of the wall stood the Lancer
+dummy, whose<span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>Pg 104</span> fame has gone through the camp. There he stood, regarding
+the Dutch with a calm but defiant aspect, his head and shoulders
+projecting about three feet over the wall. His legs were only a sack
+stuffed with straw, but round his straw body a beautiful khaki tunic had
+been buttoned, and his straw head was protected by a regulation helmet,
+for which a slouch hat was sometimes substituted, to give variety and
+versimilitude. In his right hand he grasped a huge branch of a tree,
+either as rifle or lance. He was withdrawn occasionally, and stuck up
+again in a fresh attitude. To please me the corporal crept behind him
+and jogged him up and down in a life-like and scornful manner. The hope
+was that the Boers would send a bullet through that heart of straw. In
+the afternoon they did in fact pierce his hat, but at the time they were
+keeping their ammunition for something more definitely human, like
+myself. As I retired, after saluting the dummy for his courage, the
+bullets flew again, but the sights were still too high.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image08" name="image08">
+<img src="images/08.jpg" width="600" height="415" alt="BULWAN" title="BULWAN" /></a>
+<span class="caption">BULWAN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On my return to the old Scot's house, I found an excited little crowd in
+the back garden. They were digging out an enormous shell which had
+plumped into the grass, taking off the Scot's hat and knocking him down
+with the shock as it fell.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>Pg 105</span> The thing had burst in the ground, and it
+was as good as a Chinese puzzle to fit the great chunks of iron
+together. At first we could not find the solid base, but we dug it out
+with a pick from the stiff, black clay. It had sunk 3 ft. 8 in. down
+from the surface, and had run 7 ft. 6 in. from the point of contact. It
+was a 45-pounder, thrown by a 4.7 in. gun&mdash;probably one of the four
+howitzers which the Boers possess, standing half-way down Lombard's Kop,
+about four miles away, and is identical with "Silent Susan." But with
+smokeless powder it is almost impossible to say where a shot comes from.
+"Long Tom" and "Puffing Billy," with their huge volumes of smoke, are
+much more satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>Rain fell heavily for the rest of the day, and the bombardment ended,
+but it was bitter cold.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 18, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The bombardment was continued without much energy. The balloon reported
+that the Boers were occupied in putting up more guns on Bulwan. Rumour
+says there will be thirteen in all, a goodly number for a position which
+completely commands the town from end to end. All day the shells had a
+note of extra spite in them as they<span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>Pg 106</span> came plunging among the defenceless
+houses. But they did no great harm till evening. As a rule the Boers
+cease fire about half-past six, and some twenty of us then settled down
+to dinner at the hotel&mdash;one or two officers, some doctors, and most of
+the correspondents. We had hardly begun to-night when a shell from
+"Silent Susan" whistled just over the roof and burst in the yard. Within
+five minutes came the louder scream of another. It crashed over us,
+breaking its way through the hotel from roof to floor. We all got up and
+crowded to the main entrance on the street. The shell had struck a
+sidewall in the bar, and glanced off through the doorway without
+exploding. Dr. Stark, of Torquay, was standing at the door, waiting for
+a place at dinner, and talking to Mr. Machugh, of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>.
+The shell struck him full in the thigh, leaving his left leg hanging
+only by a piece of flesh, and shattering the right just at the knee.
+"Hold me up," he said, and did not lose consciousness. We moved him to
+the hospital, but he died within an hour. I have little doubt that the
+shells were aimed at the hotel, because the Boers know that Dr. Jameson
+and Colonel Rhodes are in the town. But the man killed was Dr. Stark, a
+strong opponent of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>Pg 107</span> the Chamberlain policy, and a vigorous denouncer of
+the war's injustice.</p>
+
+<p>The havoc of the siege is gradually increasing, and the prospect of
+relief grows more and more distant. Just after midnight the Boers again
+aroused us by discharging all their guns into the forts or the town, and
+again the people hurried away to their caves and culverts for
+protection. The long Naval guns replied, and then all was quiet.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, November 19, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Another day of rest, for which we thank the Fourth Commandment. After
+the Sabbath wash, I went up to C&aelig;sar's Camp for the view. On the way I
+called in upon the balloon, which now dwells in a sheltered leafy glade
+at the foot of the Gordons' hill, when it is not in the sky, surrounded
+by astonished vultures. The weak points of ballooning appear to be that
+it is hard to be sure of detail as distinguished from mass, and even on
+a clear day the light is often insufficient or puzzling. It is seldom,
+for instance, that the balloonist gets a definite view towards Colenso,
+which to us is the point of greatest interest. I found that the second
+balloon was only used as a blind to the enemy, like a paper kite flown
+over<span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>Pg 108</span> birds to keep them quiet. Going up to the Manchesters' position on
+the top of C&aelig;sar's Camp, I had a view of the whole country almost as
+good as any balloon's. The Boer laagers have increased in size, and are
+not so carefully hidden.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the railway at the foot of "Long Tom's" hill near Modder Spruit,
+there was quite a large camp of Boer tents and three trains as usual.
+They say the Boers have put their prisoners from the Royal Irish
+Fusiliers here, but it is unlikely they should bring them back from
+Pretoria. The tents of another large camp showed among the bushes on
+Lombard's Nek, where the Helpmakaar road passes between Lombard's Kop
+and Bulwan, and many waggon laagers were in sight beyond. At the foot of
+the flat-topped Middle Hill on the south-west, the Boers have placed two
+more guns to trouble the Manchesters further. But our defences along the
+whole ridge are now very strong.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon they buried Dr. Stark in the cemetery between the river
+and the Helpmakaar road. I don't know what has become of a kitten which
+he used to carry about with him in a basket when he went to spend the
+day under the shelter of the river bank.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>Pg 109</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 20, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said Sir George White to his Staff, "we have two things to
+do&mdash;to kill time and to kill Boers&mdash;both equally difficult." The siege
+is becoming intolerably tedious. It is three weeks to-day since "Black
+Monday," when the great disaster befell us, and we seem no nearer the
+end than we were at first. We console ourselves with the thought that we
+are but a pawn on a great chessboard. We hope we are doing service by
+keeping the main Boer army here. We hope we are not handed over for
+nothing to <i>ennui</i> enlivened by sudden death. But the suspicion will
+recur that perhaps the army hedging us in is not large after all. It is
+a bad look-out if, as Captain Lambton put it, we are being "stuck up by
+a man and a boy."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is so difficult to estimate as Boer numbers, and we never take
+enough account of the enemy's mobility. They can concentrate rapidly at
+any given point and gain the appearance of numbers which they don't
+possess. However, the balloon reports the presence of laagers of ten
+commandoes in sight. We may therefore assume about as many out of sight,
+and consider that we are probably doing our duty as a pawn.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>Pg 110</span></p>
+
+<p>This morning the Boers hardly gave a sign of life, except that just
+before noon "Puffing Billy" shelled a platelayer's house on the flat
+beyond the racecourse, in the attempt to drive out our scouts who were
+making a defended position of it.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I rode up to the Rifle Brigade at King's Post, above
+the old camp, and met Captain Paley, whom I last saw administering a
+province in Crete. Suddenly the Boer guns began firing from Surprise
+Hill and Thornhill's Kop, just north of us, and the shells passing over
+our heads, crashed right into the 18th Hussar camp beside a little
+bridge over the river below. Surprise Hill alone dropped five shells in
+succession among the crowded tents, horses, and men. The men began
+hurrying about like ants. Tents were struck at once, horses saddled,
+everything possible taken up, and the whole regiment sought cover in a
+little defile close by. Within half an hour of the first shell the place
+was deserted. The same guns compelled the Naval Brigade to shift their
+position last night. We have not much to teach the Boer gunners, except
+the superiority of our shells.</p>
+
+<p>The bombardment then became general; only three Gordons were wounded,
+but the town<span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>Pg 111</span> suffered a good deal. Three of "Long Tom's" shells pitched
+in the main street, one close in front of a little girl, who escaped
+unhurt. Another carried away the heavy stone porch of the Anglican
+Church, and, at dinner-time, "Silent Susan" made a mark on the hotel,
+but it was empty. Just before midnight the guns began again. I watched
+them flashing from Bulwan and the other hills, but could not mark what
+harm they did. It was a still, hot night, with a large waning moon. In
+the north-west the Boers were flashing an electric searchlight,
+apparently from a railway truck on the Harrismith line. The nation of
+farmers is not much behind the age. They will be sending up a balloon
+next.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 21, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The desultory bombardment went on as usual, except that "Long Tom" did
+not fire. The Staff is said to have lost heliographic communication with
+the south. To-day they sent off two passenger pigeons for Maritzburg.
+The rumour also went that the wounded Dublins, taken to Intombi Spruit,
+from the unfortunate armoured train, had heard an official report of
+Buller's arrival at Bloemfontein after heavy losses. Another rumour told
+that many Boer wives and daughters were<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>Pg 112</span> arriving in the laagers. They
+were seen, especially on Sunday, parading quite prettily in white
+frocks. This report has roused the liveliest indignation, which I can
+only attribute to envy. In our own vulgar land, companies would be
+running cheap excursions to witness the siege of Ladysmith&mdash;one shilling
+extra to see "Long Tom" in action.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning they buried a Hindoo bearer who had died of pneumonia.
+The grave was dug among the unmarked heaps of the native graveyard on
+the river bank. It took five hours to make it deep enough, and meantime
+the dead man lay on a stretcher, wrapped in a clean white sheet. His
+friends, about twenty of them, squatted round, almost motionless, and
+quite indifferent to time and space. In their midst a thin grey smoke
+rose from a brazen jar, in which smouldered scented wood, spices,
+lavender, and the fresh blossom of one yellow flower like an aster. At
+intervals of about a minute, one of the Hindoos raised a short, wailing
+chant, in parts of which the others joined. On the ground in front of
+him lay a sweetly-scented manuscript whose pages he never turned. It was
+written in the Oriental characters, which seem to tell either of Nirvana
+or of the nightingale's cry to the rose. At times<span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>Pg 113</span> the other friends
+tapped gently on three painted drums, hardly bigger than tea cups. The
+enemy, seeing from Bulwan the little crowd of us engaged upon a heathen
+rite, threw shrapnel over our heads. It burst and sprinkled the dusty
+ground behind us with lead. Not one of the Hindoos looked up or turned
+his face. That low chant did not pause or vary by a note. Close by, a
+Kaffir was digging a grave for a Zulu woman who had died in childbed. In
+the river beyond soldiers were bathing, Zulus were soaping themselves
+white, and one of the Liverpool Mounted Infantry was trying to prevent
+his horse rolling in four feet of water.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 22, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>A day only relieved by the wildest rumours and a few shells more
+dangerous than usual. Buller was reported as being at Hellbrouw; General
+French was at Dundee; and France had declared war upon England. Shells
+whiffled into the town quite indiscriminately. One pitched into the Town
+Hall, now the main hospital. In the evening "Long Tom" threw five in
+succession down the main street. But only one man was killed. A Natal
+policeman was cooking his dinner in a cellar when "Silent Susan's" shot
+fell upon him and he died. For<span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>Pg 114</span> myself, I spent most of the day on
+Waggon Hill west of the town, where the 1st K.R. Rifles have three
+companies and a strong sangar, very close to the enemy. I found that, as
+became Britons, their chief interest lay in sport. They had shot two
+little antelopes or rehbuck, and hung them up to be ready for a feast.
+Their one thought was to shoot more. From the hill I looked down upon
+one of Bester's farms. The owner-a Boer traitor-was now in safe keeping.
+A few days ago his family drove off in a waggon for the Free State.
+White were their parasols and in front they waved a Red Cross flag. On a
+gooseberry bush in the midst of the farm they also left a white flag,
+where it still flew to protect a few fat pigs, turkeys, and other fowl.
+The white flag is becoming a kind of fetish. To-day all our white tents
+were smeared with reddish mud to make them less visible. Beyond Range
+Post the enemy set up a new gun commanding the Maritzburg road as it
+crossed that point of hill. The Irish Fusiliers who held that position
+were shelled heavily, but without loss.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 23, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The schoolmaster's wife had a fine escape. She was asleep in her bedroom
+when a 45lb. shell came through the fireplace and burst towards the
+bed.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>Pg 115</span> The room was smashed to pieces, but she was only cut about the
+head, one splinter driving in the bone, but not making a very serious
+wound. Two days before she had given a soldier 10s. for a fragment. Now
+she had a whole shell for nothing. At five o'clock "Long Tom" threw
+seven of his 96lb. shells straight down the street in quick succession,
+smashing a few shops and killing some mules and cattle, but without
+further harm. We watched them from the top of the road. They came
+shrieking over our heads, and then a flare of fire and a cloud of dust
+and stones showed where they fell. At every explosion the women and
+children laughed and cheered with delight, as at the Crystal Palace
+fireworks.</p>
+
+<p>Both yesterday and to-day the Boers on Bulwan spent much time and money
+shelling a new battery which Colonel Knox has had made beside the river
+near the racecourse. It is just in the middle of the flat, and the enemy
+can see its six embrasures and the six guns projecting from them. The
+queer thing is that these guns never reply, and under the hottest fire
+their gunners neither die nor surrender. A better battery was never
+built of canvas and stick on the stage of Drury. It has cost the
+simple-hearted Boers something like &pound;300 in wasted shell.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>Pg 116</span></p>
+
+<p>All day waggons were reported coming down from the Free State and moving
+south. They were said to carry the wives and daughters of the Free
+Staters driven by Buller from their own country and content to settle in
+ours, now that they had conquered it. A queer situation, unparalleled in
+war, as far as I know.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening I heard the Liverpools and Devons were likely to be
+engaged in some feat of arms before midnight. So I stumbled out in the
+dark along the Helpmakaar road, where those two fine regiments hold the
+most exposed positions in camp, and I spent the greater part of the
+night enjoying the hospitality of two Devon officers in their
+shell-proof hut. Hour after hour we waited, recalling tales of Indian
+life and Afridi warfare, or watching the lights in the Boer laagers
+reflected on a cloudy sky. But except for a hot wind the night was
+peculiarly quiet, and not a single shell was thrown: only from time to
+time the sharp double knock of a rifle showed that the outposts on both
+sides were alert.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 24, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Though there was no night attack a peculiar manoeuvre was tried, but
+without success. On the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>Pg 117</span> sixty miles of line between here and Harrismith
+the Boers have only one engine, and it struck some one how fine it would
+be to send an empty engine into it at full speed from our side.
+Accordingly, when the Free State train was seen to arrive at the Boer
+rail-head some eight miles off, out snorted one of our spare
+locomotives. Off jumped the driver and stoker, and the new kind of
+projectile sped away into the dark. It ran for about two miles with
+success, and then dashed off the rails in going round a curve. And there
+it remains, the Boers showing their curiosity by prodding it with
+rifles. Unless it is hopelessly smashed up, the Free State has secured a
+second engine for the conveyance of its wives and daughters.</p>
+
+<p>It is a military order that all cattle going out to graze on the flats
+close to the town should be tended by armed and mounted drivers, but no
+one has taken the trouble to see the order carried out. The Empire in
+this country means any dodge for making money without work. All work is
+left to Kaffirs, coolies, or Boers. Two hundred cattle went out this
+morning beyond the old camp, accompanied only by Kaffir boys, who, like
+all herdsmen, love to sleep in the shade, or make the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>Pg 118</span> woods re-echo
+Amarylli's. Suddenly the Boers were among them, edging between them and
+the town, and driving the beasts further and further from defence. The
+Kaffirs continued to sleep, or were driven with the cattle. Then the
+Leicester Mounted Infantry came galloping out, and, under heavy rifle
+fire, gained the point of Star Hill, hoping to head the cattle back. At
+once all the guns commanding that bit of grassy plain opened on
+them&mdash;"Faith," "Hope," and "Charity"&mdash;from Telegraph Hill, the guns on
+Surprise Hill, and Thornhill Kopje, and the two guns now on Bluebank
+Ridge. Two horses were killed, and the party, not being numerous enough
+for their task, came galloping back singly. Meantime the Boers, with
+their usual resource, had invented a new method of calling the cattle
+home by planting shells just behind them. The whole enterprise was
+admirably planned and carried out. We only succeeded in saving thirty or
+forty out of the drove. The lowest estimate of loss is &pound;3,000, chiefly
+in transport cattle.</p>
+
+<p>But who knows whether by Christmas we shall not be glad even of a bit of
+old trek-ox? Probably the Dutch hope to starve us out. At intervals all
+morning they shelled the cattle near<span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>Pg 119</span> the racecourse, just for the sake
+of slaughter. To-day also they tried their old game of sending gangs of
+refugee coolies into the town to devour the rations. Happily, Sir George
+White turned at that, and sent out a polite note reminding the
+commandants that we live in a polite age. So in the afternoon the Boers
+adopted more modern methods. I had been sitting with Colonel Mellor and
+the other officers of the Liverpools, who live among the rocks close to
+my cottage, and they had been congratulating themselves on only losing
+two men by shell and one by enteric since Black Monday, when they helped
+to cover the retirement with such gallantry and composure. I had
+scarcely mounted to ride back, when "Puffing Billy" and other guns threw
+shells right into the midst of the men and rocks and horses. One private
+fell dead on the spot. Three were mortally wounded. One rolled over and
+over down the rocks. Several others were badly hurt, and the bombardment
+became general all over our end of the town.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 25, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Almost a blank as far as fighting goes. It is said that General Hunter
+went out under a flag of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>Pg 120</span> truce to protest against the firing upon the
+hospital. There were no shells to speak of till late afternoon. Among
+the usual rumours came one that Joubert had been wounded in the mouth at
+Colenso. The Gordons held their sports near the Iron Bridge, sentries
+being posted to give the alarm if the Bulwan guns fired. "Any more
+entries for the United Service mule race? Are you ready? Sentry, are you
+keeping your eye on that gun?" "Yes, sir." "Very well then, go!" And off
+the mules went, in any direction but the right, a soldier and a sailor
+trying vainly to stick on the bare back of each, whilst inextinguishable
+laughter arose among the gods.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, November 26, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Another day of rest. I heard a comment made on the subject by one of the
+Devons washing down by the river. Its seriousness and the peculiar
+humour of the British soldier will excuse it. "Why don't they go on
+bombardin' of us to-day?" said one. "'Cos it's Sunday, and they're
+singin' 'ymns," said another. "Well," said the first, "if they do start
+bombardin' of us, there ain't only one 'ymn I'll sing, an' that's 'Rock
+of Ages, cleft for me, Let me 'ide myself in thee.'" It<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>Pg 121</span> was spoken in
+the broadest Devon without a smile. The British soldier is a class
+apart. One of the privates in the Liverpools showed me a diary he is
+keeping of the war. It is a colourless record of getting up, going to
+bed, sleeping in the rain with one blanket (a grievance he always
+mentions, though without complaint), of fighting, cutting brushwood, and
+building what he calls "sangers and travises." From first to last he
+makes but one comment, and that is: "There is no peace for the wicked."
+The Boers were engaged in putting up a new 6 in. gun on the hills beyond
+Range Post, and the first number of the <i>Ladysmith Lyre</i> was published.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 27, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The great event of the day was the firing of the new "Long Tom." The
+Boers placed it yesterday on the hill beyond Waggon Hill, where the 60th
+hold our extreme post towards the west. The point is called Middle Hill.
+It commands all the west of the town and camp, the Maritzburg road from
+Range Post on, and the greater part of C&aelig;sar's Camp, where the
+Manchesters are. The gun is the same kind as "Long Tom" and "Puffing
+Billy"&mdash;a 6 in. Creusot, throwing a shell<span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>Pg 122</span> of about 96lbs. The Boers
+have sixteen of them; some say twenty-three. The name is "Gentleman
+Joe." He did about &pound;5 damage at the cost of &pound;200. From about 8 to 9 a.m.
+the general bombardment was rather severe. There are thirty-three guns
+"playing" on us to-day, and though they do not concentrate their fire,
+they keep one on the alert. This morning a Kaffir was working for the
+Army Service Corps (being at that moment engaged in kneading a pancake),
+when a small shell hit him full in the mouth, passed clean through his
+head, and burst on the ground beyond. I believe he was the only man
+actually killed to-day.</p>
+
+<p>A Frenchman who came in yesterday from the Boer lines was examined by
+General Hunter. He is a roundabout little man, who says he came from
+Madagascar into the Transvaal by Delagoa Bay, and was commandeered to
+join the Boer army. He came with a lot of German officers, who drank
+champagne hard. On his arrival it was found he could not ride or shoot,
+or live on biltong. He could do nothing but talk French, a useless
+accomplishment in South Africa. And so they sent him into our camp to
+help eat our rations. The information he gave was small. Joubert
+believes he<span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>Pg 123</span> can starve us out in a fortnight. He little knows. We could
+still hold out for over a month without eating a single horse, to say
+nothing of rats. It is true we have to drop our luxuries. Butter has
+gone long ago, and whisky has followed. Tinned meats, biscuits,
+jams&mdash;all are gone. "I wish to Heaven the relief column would hurry up,"
+sighed a young officer to me. "Poor fellow," I thought, "he longs for
+the letters from his own true love." "You see, we can't get any more
+Quaker oats," he added in explanation.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I took copies of the <i>Ladysmith Lyre</i> to some of the
+outlying troops. It is but a single page of four short columns, and with
+a cartoon by Mr. Maud. But the pathetic gratitude with which it was
+received, proved that to appreciate literature of the highest order, you
+have only to be shut up for a month under shell fire.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 28, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Hopeful news came of British successes, both at Estcourt and Mooi River.
+The relief column is now thought to be at Frere, not far below Colenso.
+A large Boer convoy, with 800 mounted men, was seen trending away
+towards the Free State passes, perhaps retiring. Everybody was much
+cheered<span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>Pg 124</span> up. The Boer guns fired now and then, but did little damage. At
+night we placed two howitzers on a nek in Waggon Hill, where the 60th
+have a post south-west of the town.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 29, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>A few more Kaffirs came through from Estcourt, but brought no later
+news. Their report of the fighting on the Mooi River was: "The English
+burnt the Dutch like paraffin. The Dutch have their ears down." Did I
+not say that Zulu was the future language of opera? Riding past the
+unfinished hospital I saw a private of the 18th Hussars cut down by a
+shell splinter&mdash;the only casualty to-day resulting from several hundred
+pounds' worth of ammunition. The two greatest events were, first, the
+attempt of our two old howitzers on Waggon Hill to silence the 6 in. gun
+on Middle Hill beyond them. They fired pretty steadily from 4 to 5 p.m.,
+sending out clouds of white smoke. For their big shells (6.3 in.) are
+just thirty years old, and the guns themselves have reached the years of
+discretion. They fired by signal over the end of Waggon Hill in front of
+them, and it was difficult to judge their effect. The other great event
+was the kindling of a great<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>Pg 125</span> veldt fire at the foot of Pepworth Hill, in
+such a quarter that the smoke completely hid "Long Tom" for two or three
+hours of the morning. Captain Lambton at once detected the trick, and
+sent two shells from "Lady Anne" to check it. But it was none the less
+successful. There could be little doubt "Long Tom" was on the move,
+"doing a guy," the soldiers said. We hoped he was packing up for
+Pretoria.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening Colonel Stoneman held the first of his Shakespeare
+reading parties, and again we found how keenly a month of shell-fire
+intensifies the literary sense.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>November 30, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>At night the Boer searchlight near Bester's, north-west of the town,
+swept the positions by Range Post, the enemy having been informed by
+spies (as usual) that we intended a forward movement before dawn. Three
+battalions with cavalry and guns were to have advanced on to the open
+ground beyond Range Post, and again attack the Boer position on
+Bluebank, where there are now two guns. The movement was to prepare the
+way for the approach of any relieving force up the Maritzburg road, but
+about midnight it was<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>Pg 126</span> countermanded. Accurately informed as the Boers
+always are, they apparently had not heard of this change from any of the
+traitors in town, and before sunrise they began creeping up nearer to
+our positions by the Newcastle road on the north. They hoped either to
+rush the place, or to keep us where we were. The 13th Battery, stationed
+at the railway cutting, opened upon them, and the pickets of the
+Gloucesters and the Liverpools checked them with a very heavy fire. As I
+watched the fighting from the hill above my cottage, the sun appeared
+over Bulwan, and a great gun fired upon us with a cloud of purple smoke.
+A few minutes after there came the sharp report, the screaming rush and
+loud explosion, which hitherto have marked "Long Tom" alone. Our
+suspicions of yesterday were true, and Pepworth Hill knows him no more.
+He now reigns on Little Bulwan, sometimes called Gun Hill, below
+Lombard's Kop. His range is nearer, he can even reach the Manchesters'
+sangars with effect, and he is far the most formidable of the guns that
+torment us.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image09" name="image09">
+<img src="images/09.jpg" width="600" height="422" alt="HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL" title="HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL" /></a>
+<span class="caption">HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>All day the bombardment was severe, as this siege goes. I did not count
+the shells thrown at us, but certainly there cannot have been less than
+250. They were thrown into all parts of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>Pg 127</span> town and forts. No one
+felt secure, except the cave-dwellers. Even the cattle were shelled, and
+I saw three common shell and a shrapnel thrown into one little herd. Yet
+the casualties were quite insignificant, till the terrible event of the
+day, about half-past five p.m. During the afternoon "Long Tom" had
+chiefly been shelling the Imperial Light Horse camp, the balloon, and
+the district round the Iron Bridge. Then he suddenly sent a shell into
+the library by the Town Hall. The next fell just beyond the Town Hall
+itself. The third went right into the roof, burst on contact, flung its
+bullets and segments far and wide over the sick and wounded below. One
+poor fellow&mdash;a sapper of the balloon section&mdash;hearing it coming, sprang
+up in bed with terror. A fragment hit him full in the chest, cut through
+his heart, and laid him dead. Nine others were hit, some seriously
+wounded. About half of them belonged to the medical staff. The shock to
+the other wounded was horrible. There cannot be the smallest doubt that
+the Boer gunners deliberately aimed at the Red Cross flag, which flies
+on the turret of the Town Hall, visible for miles. They have now hit
+twenty-one people in that hospital alone. This last shell has aroused
+more hatred<span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>Pg 128</span> and rage against the whole people than all the rest of the
+war put together. When next the Boers appeal for mercy, as they have
+often appealed already, it will go hard with them. Overcome with the
+horror of the thing, many good Scots have refused to take part in the
+celebration of St. Andrew's Day, although the Gordons held some sort of
+festival, and there was a drinking-concert at the Royal. But the dead
+were in the minds of all.</p>
+
+<p>About midnight we again observed flash-signaling over the star-lit sky.
+It came from Colenso way, and was the attempt of our General to give us
+news or instructions. It began by calling "Ladysmith" three times. The
+message was in cipher, and the night before a very little of it was made
+out. Both messages ended with the words "Buller, Maritzburg." It is said
+one of the Mountain Battery is to be hanged in the night for signalling
+to the enemy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>Pg 129</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>FLASHES FROM BULLER</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 1, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>A kaffir came in to-day, bringing the strange story that the old "Long
+Tom" of Pepworth Hill was hit full in the muzzle by "Lady Anne," that
+the charge inside him burst, the gun was shattered, and five gunners
+killed. The Kaffir swore he himself had been employed to bury them, and
+that the thing he said was true. If so, our "Lady Anne" has made the
+great shot of the war. The authorities are inclined to believe the
+story. The new gun on Gun Hill is perhaps too vigorous for our old
+friend, and the rifling on his shells is too clean. Whatever the truth
+may be, he gave us a lively time morning and afternoon. I think he was
+trying to destroy the Star bakery, about one hundred yards below my
+cottage. The shells<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>Pg 130</span> pitched on every side of it in succession. They
+destroyed three houses. A Natal Mounted Rifle riding down the street was
+killed, and so was his horse. In the afternoon shrapnel came raining
+through our eucalyptus trees and rattling on the roof, so I accepted an
+invitation to tea in a beautiful hole in the ground, and learnt the joys
+spoken of by the poet of the new <i>Ladysmith Lyre</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A pipe of Boer tobacco 'neath the blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A tin of meat, a bottle, and a few<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Choice magazines like <i>Harmsworth's</i> or the <i>Strand</i>&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">sometimes think war has its blessings too."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But one wearies of the safest rabbit-hole in an afternoon tea-time, and
+I rode to the other end of the town trying to induce my tenth or twelfth
+runner to start. So far, three have gone and not returned, one did not
+start, but lay drunk for ten days, the rest have been driven back by
+Boers or terror.</p>
+
+<p>As I rode, the shells followed me, turning first upon Headquarters and
+then on the Gordons' camp by the Iron Bridge, where they killed two
+privates in their tents. I think nothing else of importance happened
+during the day, but I was so illusioned with fever that I cannot be
+sure. Except "Long Tom," the guns were not so active as yesterday,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>Pg 131</span> but
+some of them devoted much attention to the grazing cattle and the
+slaughter-houses. We are to be harried and starved out.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 2, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>To me the day has been a wild vision of prodigious guns spouting fire
+and smoke from uplifted muzzles on every hill, of mounted Boers, thick
+as ants, galloping round and round the town in opposite directions, of
+flashing stars upon a low horizon, and of troops massed at night, to no
+purpose, along an endless road. But I am inspired by fever just now, and
+in duller moments I am still conscious that we have really had a fairly
+quiet day, as these days go.</p>
+
+<p>"Long Tom" occupied the morning in shelling the camp of the Imperial
+Light Horse. He threw twelve great shells in rapid succession into their
+midst, but as I watched not a single horse or man was even scratched.
+The narrowest escape was when a great fragment flew through an open door
+and cut the leg clean off a table where Mr. Maud, of the <i>Graphic</i>, sat
+at work. Two shells pitched in the river, which half encircles the camp,
+and for a moment a grand Trafalgar Square fountain of yellow water shot
+into the air. A house near the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>Pg 132</span> gaol was destroyed, but no damage to man
+or beast resulted.</p>
+
+<p>Soon afterwards, from the highest point of the Convent Hill, looking
+south-west over the Maritzburg road by Bluebank, I saw several hundred
+Boers cantering in two streams that met and passed in opposite
+directions. They were apparently on the move between Colenso and Van
+Reenen's Pass; perhaps their movements implied visits to lovers, and a
+pleasant Sunday. They looked just like ants hurrying to and fro upon a
+garden track.</p>
+
+<p>The reality of the day was a flash of brilliant light far away beyond
+the low gorge, where the river turns southward. My old Scot was the
+first to see it. It was about half-past three. The message came through
+fairly well, though I am told it is not very important. The important
+thing is that communication with the relieving force is at last
+established.</p>
+
+<p>About 8.30 p.m. there was a great movement of troops, the artillery
+massing in the main street, the cavalry moving up in advance, the
+infantry forming up. Being ill, I fell asleep for a couple of hours, and
+when I turned out again all the troops had gone back to camp.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>Pg 133</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, December 3, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Long before sunrise I went up to the examining post on the Newcastle
+road, now held by the Gloucesters instead of the Liverpools. The
+positions of many regiments have been changed, certain battalions being
+now kept always ready as a flying column to co-operate with the
+relieving force. Last night's movement appears to have been a kind of
+rehearsal for that. It was also partly a feint to puzzle the Boers and
+confuse the spies in the town.</p>
+
+<p>Signalling from lighted windows has become so common among the traitors
+that to-day a curfew was proclaimed&mdash;all lights out at half-past eight.
+Rumours about the hanging and shooting of spies still go the round, but
+my own belief is the authorities would not hurt a fly, much less a spy,
+if they could possibly help it.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly all day the heliograph was flashing to us from that far-off hill.
+There is some suspicion that the Boers are working it as a decoy. We
+lost three copies of our code at Dundee, and it is significant that it
+was a runner brought the good news of Methuen's successes on Modder
+River to-night. But at Headquarters the flash signals are now taken as
+genuine, and the sight of that star from the outer world cheers us up.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>Pg 134</span></p>
+
+<p>At noon I rode out to see the new home of the 24th Field Ambulance from
+India. It is down by the river, near Range Post, and the silent Hindoos
+have constructed for it a marvel of shelter and defence. A great rampart
+conceals the tents, and through a winding passage fenced with massive
+walls of turf you enter a chamber large enough for twenty patients, and
+protected by an impenetrable roof of iron pipes, rocks, and mounds of
+earth. As I admired, the Major came out from a tent, wiping his hands.
+He had just cut off the leg of an 18th Hussar, whose unconscious head,
+still on the operating table, projected from the flaps of the tent door.
+The man had been sitting on a rock by the river, washing his feet, while
+"Long Tom" was shelling the Imperial Light Horse, as I described
+yesterday. Suddenly a splinter ricocheted far up the valley, and now,
+even if he recovers, he will have only one foot to wash.</p>
+
+<p>A civilian was killed yesterday, working in the old camp. The men on
+each side of him were unhurt. So yesterday's shelling was not so
+harmless as I supposed.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the afternoon I met Mr. Lynch, known as one of the <i>Daily
+Chronicle</i> correspondents in Cuba last year. He was riding his famous
+white<span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>Pg 135</span> horse, "Kruger," which we captured after the fight at Elands
+Laagte. One side of this bony animal is dyed khaki colour with Condy's
+fluid, as is the fashion with white horses. But the other side is left
+white for want of material. Mr. Lynch showed me with pride a great white
+umbrella he had secured. Round it he had written, "Advt. Dept.
+<i>Ladysmith Lyre</i>" In his pocket was a bottle of whisky&mdash;a present for
+Joubert. And so he rode away, proposing to exchange our paper for any
+news the Boers might have. Eluding the examining posts, he vanished into
+the Boer lines under Bulwan, and has not re-appeared. Perhaps the Boers
+have not the humour to appreciate the finely Irish performance. They
+have probably kept him prisoner or sent him to Pretoria. On hearing of
+his disappearance, Mr. Hutton, of Reuter's, and I asked leave to go out
+to the Boer camp to inquire after him. But the General was wroth, and
+would not listen to the proposal.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 4, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>This morning the General offered the use of the heliograph to all
+correspondents in rotation by ballot. Messages were to be limited to
+thirty words. One could say little more than that we<span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>Pg 136</span> are doing as well
+as can be expected under the circumstances. But the sun did not come out
+all day, and not a single word got through.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I rode out to Waggon Hill, south-west of our position,
+to call upon the two howitzers. They are heavy squat guns about twenty
+years old, their shells being marked 1880, though they are said in
+reality to date from 1869. They were brought up from Port Elizabeth
+where the Volunteers used them, and certainly they have done fine
+service here. Concealed in the hollow of a hill, they are invisible to
+the enemy, and after many trials have now exactly got the range of the
+great 6 in. gun on Middle Hill. At any moment they can plump their
+shells right into his sangar, and the Boer gunners are frightened to
+work there. In fact, they have as effectually silenced that gun as if
+they had smashed it to pieces. They are worked by the Royal Artillery,
+two dismounted squadrons of the I.L.H. acting as escort or support. Them
+I found on picket at the extreme end of the hill. They told me they had
+seen large numbers of Boers moving slowly with cattle and waggons
+towards the Free State passes. The Boers whom I saw were going in just
+the opposite direction, towards Colenso. I<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>Pg 137</span> counted twenty-seven waggons
+with a large escort creeping steadily to the south along some invisible
+road. They were carrying provisions or the ammunition to fight our
+relieving column.</p>
+
+<p>We hear to-day there will be no attempt to relieve us till the 15th, if
+then. A Natal newspaper, with extracts from the Transvaal <i>Standard and
+Diggers' News</i>, brought in yesterday, exaggerates our situation almost
+as much as the Boers themselves. If all Englishmen now besieged were
+asked why most they desired relief, there is hardly one would not reply,
+"For the English mail!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>Pg 138</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NIGHT SURPRISE ON GUN HILL</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 5, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>We have now been shut up nearly five weeks. Some 15,000 people or more
+have been living on a patch of ground roughly measuring three miles each
+way. On that patch of ground at the lowest estimate 3,500 cases of
+explosive iron have been hurled at high velocity, not counting an
+incalculable number of the best rifle bullets. One can conceive the
+effect on a Londoner's mind if a shell burst in the city. If another
+burst next day, the 'buses would begin to empty. If a hundred a day
+burst for five weeks, people would begin to talk of the paralysis of
+commerce. Yet who knows? The loss of life would probably be small. The
+citizen might grow as indifferent to shells as he is to shooting stars.
+Here, for instance, the killed<span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>Pg 139</span> do not yet amount to thirty, the wounded
+may roughly be put down at 170, of whom, perhaps, twenty have died, and
+all except the confirmed cave-dwellers are beginning to go about as
+usual, or run for cover only when it shells particularly hard.</p>
+
+<p>To-day has not been hard in any sense. It opened with a heavy Scotch
+mist, which continued off and on, though for the most part the outlines
+of the mountains were visible. "Long Tom" of Gun Hill did not speak. The
+bombardment was almost entirely left to "Puffing Billy" and "Silent
+Susan." They worked away fairly steadily at intervals morning and
+afternoon, but did no harm to speak of.</p>
+
+<p>Again large numbers of Boers were seen moving along the south-west
+borders, and a Kaffir brought in the story of a great conference at
+Bester's on the Harrismith line. Whether the conference is to decide on
+some future course of action, or to compare the difference between the
+allied states, we do not know. Probably the Dutch will not abandon the
+siege without a big fight.</p>
+
+<p>On our side we contented ourselves with sending a shot or two from
+"Bloody Mary" to Bulwan, but the light was bad and the shells fell
+short.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>Pg 140</span> Sir George White now proposes to withdraw the curfew law, in
+hopes that any traitors may be caught red-handed. The Town Guard,
+consisting of young shop assistants with rifles and rosettes, are
+displaying an amiable activity. Returning from dinner last night, I was
+arrested four times in the half mile. I may mention that it is now
+impossible to procure anything stronger than lime-juice or lemonade.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 6, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Long Tom" of Gun Hill surprised us all by beginning a fairly rapid fire
+about 10 a.m. "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" replied within a few moments
+of each other, and the second of the two shots exploded right on the top
+of "Tom's" earthworks, but he fired again within a few minutes, aiming
+at the new balloon, the old one having been torn to pieces in a
+whirlwind nearly a week ago. When the balloon soared out of reach, he
+turned a few shots upon the town and camps, and then was silent.</p>
+
+<p>Since the siege began one farmer has steadily continued to plough his
+acres on the plain near the racecourse. He reminded one of the French
+peasant ploughing at Sedan. His three ploughs went backwards and
+forwards quite indifferent to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>Pg 141</span> unproductive war. But to-day the Boers
+deliberately shelled him at his work, the shells following him up and
+down the field, and ploughing up the earth all wrong. Neither the farmer
+nor his Kaffir labourers paid the least attention to them. The plough
+drove on, leaving the furrow behind, just as the world goes forward, no
+matter how much iron two admirable nations pitch at each other's heads.</p>
+
+<p>Of course percussion-fused shells falling on ploughed land seldom burst,
+as a boy here found by experiment. Having found an eligible little shell
+in the furrows, he carried it home, and put it to soak in his washing
+basin. When it had soaked long enough, he extracted the fuse and
+proceeded to knock out the powder with a hammer. Then the nasty thing
+exploded in his face, and he lost one eye and is otherwise a good deal
+cut about.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I rode out again to the howitzers on Waggon Hill. The 6
+in. gun which they command from their invisible station has not fired
+for six days. The Boer gunners dare not set it to work for fear of the
+85lb. shells which are fired the moment Boers are seen in the sangar.
+Two were fired just as I left.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>Pg 142</span></p>
+
+<p>From the end of the hill there was a magnificent view of the great
+precipices in Basutoland, but hardly a Boer could be seen. Ninety-seven
+waggons had been counted the evening before, moving towards the Free
+State passes, but now I saw hardly a dozen Boers. Yet if their big gun
+had sent a shrapnel over us, what a bag they would have made! Colonel
+Rhodes and Dr. Jameson were at my side, General Ian Hamilton, with Lord
+Ava and Captain Valentine were within six yards, to say nothing of
+Captain Clement Webb, of Johannesburg fame, and other Imperial Light
+Horse officers.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening the Natal Carbineers gave an open-air concert to a big
+audience. A good many women and girls came. As usual the sailors had the
+best of it in the comic songs, but the event of the evening was "The
+Queen." Though the Boers must have seen our lights, and perhaps heard
+the shout of "Send her victorious," they did not fire, not even when the
+balloon, fresh charged at the gas-works, stalked past us like a ghost.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 7, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>A glorious day for the heliograph, which flashed encouragement on us
+from that far-off mountain.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>Pg 143</span> But little else was done. The bombardment
+was only half-hearted. Some of the shells pitched about the town,
+smashing walls and windows, and two of the Irish Fusiliers were wounded
+by shrapnel. Towards evening a lot of children in white dresses were
+playing among the rocks opposite my window, when "Puffing Billy," of
+Bulwan, sent a huge shell over my roof right into the midst of them as
+it seemed. Fortunately it pitched a few yards too high. The poor little
+creatures scuttled away like rabbits. They are having a queer
+education&mdash;a kindergarten training in physical shocks.</p>
+
+<p>During the day I rode nearly all over the camp and outposts, even
+getting to Waggon Hill again to see the enemy at their old trick of
+calling the cattle home with shells. There I heard that the 6 in. gun on
+Middle Hill was removed last evening, and that was the cause of the two
+shots I had heard as I left. Our gunners detected the movement too late
+to prevent it, and the destination of the gun is unknown.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 8, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The brightest day of the siege so far. The secret was admirably kept.
+Outside three or four of the General Staff, not a soul knew what was to
+happen. At 10 p.m. on Thursday an officer left<span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>Pg 144</span> me for his bed; a
+quarter of an hour later he was marching with his squadron upon the
+unknown adventure. It was one of the finest and most successful things
+done in the war, but what I most admire about it is its secrecy. The
+honours go to the Volunteers. One regrets the exclusion of the Regulars
+after all their splendid service and cheery temper, but the Volunteers
+are more distinctly under Headquarter control, and it was thought best
+not to pass the orders through the brigades. Accordingly just after ten
+certain troops of the Imperial Light Horse, under Colonel Edwards, the
+Natal Carbineers, and Border Mounted Rifles, all under the command of
+Colonel Royston, suddenly received orders to march on foot along the
+Helpmakaar road. About 600 went, though only 200 of them actually took
+part in the final enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was quarter full, but clouded, giving just enough light to see
+the road and no more. The small column advanced in perfect silence. Not
+a whisper was heard or a light seen. After long weeks of grumbling under
+the steady control of Regular officers, the Volunteers are learning what
+discipline means. The Cemetery was passed, the gorge of Bell's Spruit,
+the series of impregnable<span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>Pg 145</span> defences built by the Liverpools and Devons
+along the Helpmakaar road. At the end of those low hills the Devons were
+found drawn up in support, or to cover retreat. General Hunter then took
+command of the whole movement, and the march went on. Three-quarters of
+a mile further the road enters rough and bushy ground, thinly covered
+with stunted thorns and mimosa. It rises gradually to the foot of the
+two great hills, Lombard's Kop and Bulwan, the road crossing the low
+wooded nek between them. Lombard's Kop, which is the higher, lies in the
+left. The kop itself rises to about 1,200 or 1,300 feet, in a
+square-topped pyramid; but in front of it, forming part of the same
+hill, stands a broad and widely-expanded base, perhaps not higher than
+600 or 700 feet. It is called Little Bulwan by the natives and Gun Hill
+by our troops. Near its centre on the sky-line the Boers placed the new
+"Long Tom" 6 in. Creusot gun, throwing a 96lb. shell, as I described
+before, and about 150 yards to the left was a howitzer generally
+identified with "Silent Susan." Those are the two guns which for the
+last fortnight have caused most damage to the troops and town. Their
+capture was the object of the night's adventure.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>Pg 146</span></p>
+
+<p>Leaving two-thirds of-his force in the bush nearly half-way up the
+slope, General Hunter took about 100 Light Horse, nearly 100 Carbineers
+and Mounted Rifles, with ten sappers under Captain Fowke, and began the
+main ascent. Major Henderson, of the Intelligence Department, acted as
+guide, keeping the extreme left of the extended line pretty nearly under
+the position of the big gun. So they advanced silently through the rocks
+and bushes under the uncertain light of the moon, which was just
+setting. It was two o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>The Boer sentries must have been fast asleep. There was only one
+challenge. An old man's voice from behind suddenly cried in Dutch:
+"Halt! who goes there?" One of the Volunteers&mdash;a Carbineer&mdash;answered,
+"Friend." "Hermann," cried the sentry. "Who's that? Wake up. It's the
+Red-necks" (the Boer name for English). "Hold your row!" cried the
+Carbineer, still in Dutch. "Don't you know your own friends?" The sentry
+either ran away, or was satisfied, and the line crept on. The first part
+of the slope is gentle, but the face of the hill rises steep with rocks,
+and must be climbed on hands and knees, especially in the dark. Up went
+the 200, keeping<span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>Pg 147</span> the best line they could, and spreading out well to
+the right so as to outflank the enemy when the top was reached. Within
+about 100 yards of the summit they came under rifle fire, the Boer guard
+having taken alarm. A picket in rear also began firing up at random. It
+was impossible to judge the number of the enemy. Anything between twenty
+and fifty was a guide's estimate at the time. The slope was so steep
+that the Boers were obliged to lean over the edge and show themselves
+against the sky as they fired. Some of our men returned their fire with
+revolvers. At sixty yards from the top they were halted for the final
+assault. The Volunteers, like the Boers, carry no bayonets. Their orders
+were not to fire, but to club the enemy with the butt if they stood. The
+orders were now repeated. Then some inspired genius (Major Carey-Davis
+[? Karri Davis], of the I.L.H., it is said) raised the cry: "Fix
+bayonets. Give 'em cold steel, my lads." All appreciated the joke, and
+the shout rang down the line, as the men rose up and rushed to the
+summit. Four bayonets were actually present, but I am not sure whether
+they were fixed or not.</p>
+
+<p>That shout was too much for the Boer gunners. They scattered and fled,
+heading across the broad<span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>Pg 148</span> top of the hill, even before our men had
+reached the edge. Swinging round from the right, our line rushed for the
+big gun. The Light Horse and the Sappers were first to reach it, Colonel
+Edwards himself winning the race. They found the splendid gun deserted
+in his enormous earthwork, the walls of which are 30 ft. to 35 ft.
+thick. One Boer was found dead outside it, shot in the assault.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Fowke and his sappers at once got to work. The breech-block was
+unscrewed and taken out, falling a prize to the Light Horse, who vied
+with each other in carrying it home (it weighs 137lbs.) Then gun-cotton
+was thrust up the breech into the body of the gun. A vast explosion told
+the Boers that "Tom" had gone aloft, and his hulk lay in the pit, rent
+with two great wounds, and shortened by a head. The sappers say it
+seemed a crying shame to wreck a thing so beautiful. The howitzer met
+the same fate. A Maxim was discovered and dragged away, and then the
+return began. It was now three o'clock, and by four daylight comes. The
+difficulty was to get the men to move. The Carbineers especially kept
+crowding round the old gun like children in their excitement. At last
+the party came scrambling down the hill, joined the supports, and all
+straggled<span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>Pg 149</span> back into camp together, with exultation and joy. They
+just, and only just, got in before the morning gave the enemy light
+enough to fire on their line of march.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image10" name="image10">
+<img src="images/10.jpg" width="600" height="419" alt="BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL" title="BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL" /></a>
+<span class="caption">BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The whole movement was planned and executed to perfection. One man was
+killed, three or four were slightly wounded. Our worse loss was Major
+Henderson, wounded in the shoulder and leg during the final advance. He
+went through the rest of the action, and returned with the party, but
+must now retire for a week or so to Intombi Camp, for the R&ouml;ntgen rays
+to discover the ball in his leg. It is thought to be a buckshot, or,
+rather, the steel ball of a bicycle bearing, fired from a sporting gun.</p>
+
+<p>General Hunter found a letter in the gun-pit. It is in Dutch, and
+half-finished, scribbled by a Boer gunner to his sister in Pretoria. I
+give a literal translation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"MY DEAR SISTER,&mdash;It is a month and seven days since we besieged
+Ladysmith, and I don't know what will happen further. We see the
+English every day walking about the town, and we are bombarding the
+place with our cannon. They have built breastworks outside the
+town. To<span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>Pg 150</span> attack would be very dangerous. Near the town they have
+set up two naval guns, from which we receive a very heavy fire we
+cannot stand. I think there will be much blood spilt before they
+surrender, as Mr. Englishman fights hard, and our burghers are a
+bit frightened. I should like to write more, but the sun is very
+hot, and, what's more, the flies are so troublesome that I don't
+get a chance of sitting still.&mdash;Your affectionate Brother."</p></div>
+
+<p>In the afternoon the General publicly congratulated the Volunteers on
+their achievement. The Boers added their generous praise&mdash;communicated
+to some doctors left behind to look after our wounded, who returned to
+us in the course of the day, after being given a good breakfast.
+Unhappily the above account is necessarily second-hand. No correspondent
+had a chance of going with the party. The only one who even started was
+sent back by General Hunter to await the column's return in a
+guard-room. I have been obliged to build up the story from my knowledge
+of the ground and from what has been told me by Major Henderson and
+other officers or privates who were present.</p>
+
+<p>Before that party returned in triumph another<span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>Pg 151</span> important movement was
+already in progress, of which, I believe, I was the only outside
+spectator. Just before four I was awakened by the trampling of cavalry
+going up the Newcastle road. They were the 5th Lancers, the 5th Dragoon
+Guards, and the 18th Hussars. The 19th Hussars had been out all night
+burning a kraal and distracting attention from Gun Hill. Just as the
+stars vanished, the 18th, followed by the others, galloped forward
+towards the Boer lines in the general direction of Pepworth Hill, though
+our main force was on the left of the direct line. General Brocklehurst
+was in command. It is described at Headquarters as a reconnaissance or
+demonstration. But there are rumours that more was originally
+intended&mdash;perhaps an attack on the Boer rail head, with its three heavy
+trains this side of Modder Spruit; perhaps the destruction of the Modder
+Spruit Bridge. If the object was only to discover whether the Boers are
+still in force, and to demonstrate the coolness of the British cavalry,
+the movement was entirely successful.</p>
+
+<p>Directly the cavalry advanced across the fairly open valley of Bell's
+Spruit, passing Brook's Farm and making for the left of Limit Hill on
+the main road, they were met by a tremendous rifle fire from<span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>Pg 152</span> every
+ridge and hillock and rock commanding the scene. At the same time, guns
+opened upon them from Surprise Hill on our left rear, and from some spot
+which I could not locate on our left front. Still they advanced,
+squadron after squadron sweeping across Bell's Spruit, and up into the
+tortuous little valleys and ravines beyond, towards Macpherson's Farm.
+That was the limit. It is about two and three-quarter miles (not more)
+from our picket on the Newcastle road, and lies not far from the left
+foot of Pepworth Hill. The 18th Hussars, through some mistake in orders,
+attempted to push still further forward towards the hill, but just
+before five a general retirement began.</p>
+
+<p>Except perhaps at the close of Elands Laagte fight, or in one brief
+assault of Turks upon a Greek position in Epirus, I have never heard
+anything to compare to the rifle fire under which the withdrawal was
+conducted. The range was long, but the roll of the rifle was incessant.
+The whole air screamed with bullets, and the dust rose in clouds over
+the grass as they fell. Then the 6 in. gun on Bulwan ("Puffing Billy")
+and an invisible gun on our right opened fire, throwing shells into the
+thick of our men wherever the ravines or rocks<span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>Pg 153</span> compelled them to crowd
+together. They came back fast, but well in hand, wheeling to right or
+left at word of command, as on parade. The B Squadron of the 18th had a
+terrible gallop for it, right across the front of fire along a ridge
+such as Boers rejoice in. Their loss was two killed and seventeen
+wounded. The others only lost three or four slightly wounded. It proves
+how lightly a highly-disciplined cavalry can come off where one would
+have said hardly any could survive.</p>
+
+<p>As we retired the Boers kept following us up, though with great caution.
+Riding along the valleys, dismounting, and creeping from kopje to kopje
+among the stones, a large body of them came up to Brooks Farm, and began
+firing at our sangars and outposts at ranges of 800 to 1,000 yards, the
+bullets coming very thick over our heads, even after we had reached the
+protection of the Gloucesters' walls and earthworks. There our infantry
+opened fire, while two guns of the 13th Battery near the railway
+cutting, and two of the 69th on Observation Hill, threw shrapnel over
+the kopjes, and checked any further advance.</p>
+
+<p>But the Boers still held their positions, pouring a tremendous fire into
+any of the cavalry who had still to pass within their range. As to
+their<span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>Pg 154</span> number, their magazine rifles, firing five shots in rapid
+succession, makes any estimate difficult. I have heard it put as low as
+600. Perhaps 1,000 is about right. I myself saw some 300 from first to
+last. By seven the whole of our force was again within the lines.
+Splendid as the behaviour of all the cavalry was, one man seemed to me
+conspicuous. Towards the end of the retirement he quietly cantered out
+across the most exposed bit of open ground, and went round among the
+kopjes as though looking for something. For a time he disappeared down a
+gully. Then he came cantering back again, and reached the high road
+along a watercourse, which gave a little cover. At least 300 bullets
+must have been fired at him, but he changed neither his pace nor
+direction. Whether he was looking for wounded or only went out for
+diversion I have not heard, but one could not imagine more complete
+disregard of death.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the day passed quietly. The Boers gathered in crowds on Gun
+Hill and stood around the carcass of "Long Tom" as though in
+lamentation. His absence gave us an unfamiliar sense of security. Some
+called it dull. "Lay it on where you like, there's no pleasing you,"
+said the gaoler.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>Pg 155</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 9, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Dutch left us pretty much alone. Sickness is becoming serious. The
+cases average thirty a day, chiefly enteric. A Natal newspaper only a
+week old was brought in by a runner. It contained a few details of
+Methuen's fight on Modder River, but hardly any English news. Captain
+Heath, of the balloon, told me he could see the Boers concentrating in
+much larger camps than before, especially about Colenso and at
+Springfield further up the Tugela.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>Pg 156</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, December 10, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Just as we were lazily washing our clothes and otherwise enjoying the
+Sabbath rest and security at about eight in the morning, "Puffing
+Billy," of Bulwan, began breaking the Fourth Commandment with
+extraordinary recklessness and rapidity. He sent nine of his shells into
+the town, as fast as he could fire them. "Bloody Mary" flung two over
+his head and one into his earthwork, but he paid no attention to her
+protests. The fact was, the 5th Dragoon Guards, trusting to Boer
+principles, had left their horses fully exposed to view instead of
+leading them away under cover as usual at sunrise. The gunners, probably
+Germans, thought this was presuming too much on their devotion to the
+Old<span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>Pg 157</span> Testament, and set their scruples aside for twenty minutes under
+the paramount duty of slaughtering men and horses. Happily no serious
+harm was done, and the rest of the day was as quiet as Sunday usually
+is.</p>
+
+<p>On our side we were engaged all day in preparing a new home for "Lady
+Anne" on Waggon Hill, south-west of the town. The position, as I have
+often described, gives a splendid view of the country towards Basutoland
+and the Free State mountains. It also commands some four miles of the
+Maritzburg road towards Colenso and the guns which the Boers have set up
+there to check the approach of a relieving force. By late afternoon the
+enormous sangar was almost finished. The gun will be carried over on a
+waggon at night. I watched the work in progress from Rifleman's Post, an
+important outpost and fort, held by the 2nd K.R.R. (60th). It also
+commands the beginning of the Maritzburg road, where it passes across
+the "Long Valley," between Range Post and Bluebank.</p>
+
+<p>The doctors and ambulance men who went out after the brief cavalry
+action on Friday morning report they were fired on while carrying the
+dead and wounded in the dhoolies. The Boers retaliate<span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>Pg 158</span> with a similar
+charge against us in Modder River. Unhappily, there can be no doubt that
+one of our doctors was heavily fired on whilst dressing a man's wounds
+on the field.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 11, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Soon after two in the night I heard rifle-firing, then two explosions,
+and heavier rifle-firing again, apparently two or three miles away. It
+was too dark to see anything, even from the top of the hill, but in the
+morning I found we had destroyed another gun&mdash;the 4.7 in. howitzer on
+Surprise Hill. For weeks past it had been one of the most troublesome
+guns of the thirty-two that surround us. It had a long range and
+accurate aim. Its position commanded Observation Hill, part of the
+Newcastle road, Cove Hill, and Leicester Post, the whole of the old camp
+and all the line of country away to Range Post and beyond. It was this
+gun that shelled the 18th Hussars out of their camp and continually
+harassed the Irish Fusiliers. It was constantly dropping shells into the
+69th Battery and on the K.R.R. at King's Post. Surprise Hill is a
+square-topped kopje, from 500 feet to 600 feet high, between Thornhill's
+Kopje and Nicholson's Nek. It overlooks Bell's Spruit<span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>Pg 159</span> and the scene of
+"Mournful Monday's" worst disaster. From Leicester Post, where two guns
+were always kept turned on it, the distance is 4,100 yards&mdash;just the
+full range of our field guns. From Observation Hill it is hardly 2,500
+yards. The destruction of its gun was therefore of the highest
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o'clock last night four companies of the 2nd Rifle Brigade
+started from their camp on Leicester Post, with six sappers, under Mr.
+Digby Jones, and five gunners under Major Wing, of the 69th Battery. The
+whole was commanded by Colonel Metcalfe of the battalion. They marched
+across the fairly open grassland toward Observation Hill, and there
+halted because the half-moon was too bright. About midnight they again
+advanced, as the moon was far down in the west. They marched in fours
+towards the foot of the hill, but had to cross the Harrismith Railway
+two deep through a gap where the wire fences were cut with nippers. One
+deep donga and a shallower had to be crossed as well. At the foot of the
+hill two companies were left, extended in a wedge shape, the apex
+pointing up the hill. The remaining two companies began the ascent. The
+front of the hill is steep and covered with boulders, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>Pg 160</span> is greener
+than most South African hills. About half-way up half a company was left
+in support. The small assaulting party then climbed up in extended line.
+Not a word was spoken, and the Boers gave no sign till our men were
+within twenty yards of the top. Then a sentry cried, "Who's there? Who's
+there?" in English, and fired. Our men fixed swords and charged to the
+top with a splendid cheer. They made straight for the sangar and formed
+in a circle round it, firing outwards without visible target. To their
+dismay they found the gun-pit empty. The gun had been removed perhaps
+for security, perhaps for the Sabbath rest. But it was soon discovered a
+few yards off, and the sappers set to work with their gun-cotton.
+Meantime a party was sent to the corner of the hill on the left to clear
+out a little camp, where the Boer gunners slept and had their meals
+under a few little trees. They fired into it, and then carried
+everything away, some of the men bringing off some fine blankets, which
+they are very proud of this morning. The great-coats were in such a
+disgusting condition that the soldiers had to leave them.</p>
+
+<p>The fuse was long in going off. Some say the first fuse failed, some
+that it was very slow. Any<span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>Pg 161</span>how, the party was kept waiting on the
+hill-top almost half an hour, when the whole thing ought to have been
+done in a quarter. Those extra fifteen minutes cost many lives. At last
+the shock of the explosion came. Two great holes were made in the gun's
+rifling near the muzzle, and the breech was blown clean out, the screw
+being destroyed. Major Wing secured the sight, the sponge, and an old
+wideawake, which the gunner used always to wave to him very politely
+just before he fired. Some say there was a second explosion, and I heard
+it myself, but it may have been a Boer gun which threw one round of
+shrapnel high over the hill, the bullets pattering down harmlessly, and
+only making a blue bruise when they hit. As soon as the sappers and
+gunners had made sure the gun was destroyed, the order to retire was
+given, and the line began climbing down in the darkness. The half
+company in support was taken up, the two companies at the foot were
+reached by some, when a heavy fire flashed out of the darkness on both
+sides. The Boers, evidently by a preconcerted scheme, were crowding in
+from Thornhill's farm on our left&mdash;Mr. Thornhill, by the way, was acting
+as our guide&mdash;and from Bell's farm on our right. They came creeping
+along the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>Pg 162</span> dongas, right into the midst of our men, as well as cutting
+off retreat. Then it was that we wanted that quarter of an hour lost by
+the fuse. The men hastily formed up into their four companies and began
+the retirement in succession. Each company had simply to fight its way
+through with the sword-bayonet. They did not fire much, chiefly for fear
+of hitting each other, which unfortunately happened in some cases. The
+Boers took less precaution, and kept up a tremendous fire from both
+flanks, many of the bullets probably hitting their own men. Under
+shelter of the dongas some got right among our companies and fired from
+a few yards' distance.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the horror of a war between two nations familiar with the same
+language. "Second R.B.! Second R.B.!" shouted our fellows as a watchword
+and rallying-cry. "Second R.B.!" shouted every Boer who was challenged
+or came into danger. "B Company here!" cried an officer. "B Company
+here!" came the echo from the Dutch. "Where's Captain Paley?" asked a
+private. "Where's Captain Paley?" the question passed from Boer to Boer.
+In the darkness it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The
+only way was to stoop down till you<span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>Pg 163</span> saw the edge of a broad-brimmed
+hat. Then you drove your bayonet through the man, if he did not shoot
+you first. Many a poor fellow was shot down by some invisible figure who
+was talking to him in English and was taken for a friend. One Boer fired
+upon a private at two or three yards&mdash;and missed him! The private sprang
+upon him. "I surrender! I surrender!" cried the Boer, throwing down his
+rifle. "So do I," cried the private, and plunged his bayonet through the
+man's stomach and out at his back.</p>
+
+<p>One by one the companies cut their way into the open ground by the
+railway, and to Observation Hill, where the enemy dare not pursue. By
+half-past three a.m. the greater part were back at Leicester Post again.
+It was a triumph, even for the Rifle Brigade: as fine and gallant an
+achievement as could be done. But the cost was heavy.</p>
+
+<p>Eleven were dead, including one or perhaps two officers. Six are
+prisoners. Forty-three are wounded, some severely. The ambulance was out
+all the morning bringing them in. Again they complained that the Boers
+fired on them and wanted to keep them prisoners. Nothing has so
+embittered our troops against the enemy as this<span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>Pg 164</span> continual firing on the
+wounded and hospitals. It was sad in any case to see the stretchers
+coming home this morning. Meeting a covered dhoolie, I asked the bearers
+who was in it. "Captain Paley," they said, and put him down for water.
+He had been reported missing. In fact, he had stayed behind to look
+after some of his men who were down or lost. He is known for his
+excellent government of a district in Crete. I gave him the water. He
+recognised me at once and was conscious, but his singularly blue eyes
+looked out of a deadly yellow and bloodless face, and his hands seemed
+to have the touch of death on them. When I said I was sorry, he
+answered, "But we got the gun." He was shot through the chest, though,
+as he pointed out, he was not spitting blood. Another bullet had entered
+the left hip and passed out, breaking the right hip-bone. That is the
+dangerous wound. He said he did not feel much pain.</p>
+
+<p>The wounded were taken down to the tents set up in the ravine of the
+Port Road between the Headquarters and the old camp. That is the main
+hospital (11th and 18th) since the wounded were shifted out of the Town
+Hall, because the Boers shelled it so persistently. Since the Geneva
+flag<span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>Pg 165</span> was removed from the hall's turret not a single shell has been
+fired near the building. The ravine&mdash;"kloof" is the word here, like
+"cleft"&mdash;is fairly safe from shells, though the Bulwan gun has done its
+best to get among the tents ever since spies reported the removal.</p>
+
+<p>It is fully exposed to those terrible dust storms which I described in
+an earlier letter. In the afternoon we had one of the worst I have seen.
+The sand and dust and dry filth, gathered up by the hot west wind from
+the plain of the old camp, swept in a continuous yellow cloud along the
+road and down into the ravine. It blotted out the sun, it blinded horses
+and men, it covered the wounded with a thick layer. I have described its
+horrible effects before. Imagine what it is like to have a hospital
+under such conditions, practically unsheltered&mdash;to extract bullets, to
+staunch blood, to amputate. One admires the Boers as a race fighting for
+their freedom, soon to be overthrown on behalf of a mongrel pack of
+speculators and other scoundrels. But I did not like them any better
+when I saw our wounded in the dust-storm to-day, and remembered why they
+were there.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon a white woman was killed by a shell as she was washing
+clothes in the river. She<span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>Pg 166</span> is the first woman actually killed, though
+others have died from premature child birth. I don't know which gun
+killed her, but parts of the town and river hitherto safe were to-day
+exposed to fire from the 6 in. gun which was removed from Middle Hill a
+few days ago, and is now set up on Thornhill's farm, due west of the
+town. It commands a very wide district&mdash;the old camp, the Long Valley
+which the Maritzburg road crosses, the Great Plain behind Bluebank, and
+most of our western positions. It began firing early in the morning and
+continued at intervals all day. For an hour or two people were surprised
+at seeing a free balloon sailing away towards Bulwan. It turned out to
+be one of Captain Heath's dummies, which had got away. He tells me it
+will be entirely useless to the enemy in any case.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 12, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>I was so overcome with fever that again my aspect of things was not
+quite straight. After dawn the Bulwan gun shelled the Star bakery, close
+to my cottage, and the stones and earth splashing on my roof woke me up
+too early. Another cottage was wrecked. The heat was intense, but the
+sun so splendid that I have hopes<span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>Pg 167</span> my heliograph message got through at
+last. None have gone yet, but I took up my sixth version in faith to the
+signal station near the Convent. On inquiry about Captain Paley I found
+he had been sent down to Intombi Camp with other serious cases, but the
+doctors think he has a chance. Lieut. Bond, who has a similar wound,
+went with him. Lieut. Fergusson, who died, had four bad wounds, three
+from bullets and one from a small shell of the automatic "pom-pom,"
+which shattered his thigh. The rest of the day was a delirium of fever
+till the evening, when the wind suddenly changed to east, and it became
+cool and then bitterly cold. At half-past eight the proposed Flying
+Column, which is to co-operate with the relieving force, had a kind of
+dress rehearsal, all turning out with field equipment and transport for
+three days' rations. The Irish Fusiliers under Major Churcher formed the
+head of the column at Range Post, a body of Natal Volunteers coming
+next, followed by the Gordons. I waited at Range Post in the eager and
+refreshing wind till the column gradually dissolved into its camps, and
+all was still. By eleven the rehearsal was over and I rode back to my
+end of the town. To-night the civilians of the Town Guard went on picket
+by the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>Pg 168</span> river, and bore their trials boldly, though one of them got a
+crick in the neck.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 13, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The early part of the day was distinguished by a violent fire from the
+big gun of Bulwan upon the centre of the town and the riverside camps.
+"Lady Anne" answered, for she has not yet been removed to her destined
+station on Waggon Hill. In the intervals of their fire we could
+distinctly hear big guns far away near Colenso and the Tugela River.
+They were chiefly English guns, for the explosion followed directly on
+the report, proving they were fired towards us. The firing stopped about
+10 a.m.</p>
+
+<p>All morning our two howitzers, which have been brought down from Waggon
+Hill, pounded away at their old enemy, the 6 in. gun now placed on
+Telegraph Hill as I described. They are close down by the Klip River,
+west of the old camp. Their object is to drive the gun away as they
+drove him before, and certainly they gave him little rest. He had hardly
+a chance of returning the fire; but when he had his shot was terribly
+effective, coming right into the top of our earthworks. Equally
+interesting was the behaviour<span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>Pg 169</span> of two Boers who crept down from
+Thornhill's farm among the rocks and began firing into our right rear. I
+detected them by the little puffs of white smoke, for both had
+Martini's. But no one took the trouble to shoot them, though they
+harassed our gunners. If there had been 50 instead of two they might
+have driven out our handful of men and tumbled the guns into the river.
+For we had no support nearer than the steep top of King's Post. Happily
+Boers do not do such things.</p>
+
+<p>A Kaffir brought in a newspaper only two days old. It said Gatacre had
+suffered a reverse on the Free State frontier. There was nothing about
+the German Emperor, and no football news.</p>
+
+<p>In the late afternoon I rode up to the Manchesters' lines on C&aelig;sar's
+Camp, our nearest point to Colenso. But they knew no more than the rest
+of us, except that an officer had counted the full tale of guns fired in
+the morning&mdash;137. The view on all sides was as varied and full of
+growing association as usual, but had no special interest to-day, and I
+hurried back to inquire again after Mr. George Steevens, who is down
+with fever, to every one's regret.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>Pg 170</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 14, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>After the high hopes of the last few days we seem to be falling back,
+and to get no nearer to the end. Very little firing was heard from
+Colenso. The Bulwan gun gave us his morning salute of ten big shells in
+various parts of the town. They made some troublesome pits in the roads,
+and one destroyed a house, but nobody was killed.</p>
+
+<p>The howitzers and the Telegraph Hill Gun pounded away at each other
+without much effect. Sickness is now our worst enemy. Next to sickness
+comes want of forage for the horses. The sick still average thirty a
+day, and there were 320 cases of enteric at Intombi Camp last night. Mr.
+Steevens has it, and his friends were busy all morning, moving him to
+better quarters. Major Henderson is about again. The R&ouml;ntgen Rays did
+not discover the bicycle shot in his leg, and the doctors have decided
+to leave it there.</p>
+
+<p>It was disappointing to hear that the Kaffir runner I sent with an
+account of the night attack on Surprise Hill had been captured by the
+Boers and robbed of his papers. I had hopes of that boy; he wore no
+trousers. But it is perhaps unsafe to judge character from dress alone.
+This runner business is heart-breaking. I tried to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>Pg 171</span> make up by getting
+another short heliogram through, but the sun was uncertain, and the
+receivers on the distant mountain sulky and wayward. They showed one
+faint glimmer of intelligence, and then all was dark again.</p>
+
+<p>In the heat of the day a four-wheeled hooded cart drove from the Boer
+lines under a white flag bringing a letter for the General. The envoy
+was a Dutchman from Holland. He was met outside our lines by Lieutenant
+Fanshawe, of the 19th Hussars, who conversed with him for about two
+hours, till the answer returned. Seated under the shade of the cart, he
+enjoyed the enemy's hospitality in brandy and soda, biltong, and Boer
+biscuit. "But for that white rag," said the Dutchman, "we two would be
+trying to kill each other. Very absurd!" He went on to repeat how much
+the Boers admired the exploits of the night attacks. "If you had gone
+for the other guns that first night, you would have got them all." He
+said the gunners on Gun Hill were all condemned to death. He examined
+the horse and its accoutrements, thinking them all very pretty, but
+maintaining the day for cavalry was gone. He was perfectly intimate with
+the names and character of all the battalions here. Of the Boer<span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>Pg 172</span> army he
+said it contained all nationalities down to Turks and Jews. He had no
+doubt of their ultimate success, and looked forward to Christmas dinner
+in Ladysmith. What we regard as our victories, he spoke of as our
+defeats. Even Elands Laagte he thought unsuccessful. Finally, after all
+compliments, he drove away, bearing a private letter from Mr. Fanshawe
+to be posted through Delagoa Bay and Amsterdam.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 15, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>In my own mind I had always fixed to-day as the beginning of our
+deliverance from this grotesque situation. It may be so still. Very
+heavy firing was heard down Colenso way from dawn till noon. Colonel
+Downing, commanding the artillery, said some of it was our field-guns,
+and it seemed nearer than two days ago.</p>
+
+<p>The Bulwan gun gave us his customary serenade from heaven's gate. He did
+rather more damage than usual, wrecking two nice houses just below my
+cottage. One was a boarding house full of young railway assistants, who
+had narrow escapes. The brother gun on Telegraph Hill was also very
+active, not being so well suppressed by our howitzers as before. When I
+was waiting at Colonel Rhodes'<span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>Pg 173</span> cottage by the river, it dropped a shell
+clear over Pavilion Hill close beside it. Otherwise the Boer guns
+behaved with some modesty and discretion.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I rode up to Waggon Hill, and found that "Lady Anne" had
+at last arrived there, and was already in position. She was hauled up in
+the night in three pieces, each drawn by two span of oxen. Some thirty
+yards in front of her, in an emplacement of its own, stands the 12lb.
+naval gun which has been in that neighbourhood for some days. Both are
+carefully concealed, even the muzzles being covered up with earth and
+stones. They both command the approach to the town across the Long
+Valley by the Maritzburg road, as well as Bluebank or Rifleman's Ridge
+beyond, and Telegraph Hill beyond that.</p>
+
+<p>While I was on the hill I saw one mounted and four dismounted Boers
+capture five of our horses which had been allowed to stray in grazing.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon a South African thunderstorm swept over us. In a few
+minutes the dry gully where the main hospital tents are placed, as I
+described, became a deep torrent of filth. The tents were three feet
+deep in water, washing over the sick. "Sure it's hopeless, hopeless!"
+cried unwearying Major Donegan, the medical officer<span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>Pg 174</span> in charge. "I've
+just seen me two orderlies swimmin' away down-stream." The sick, wet and
+filthy as they were, had to be hurried away in dhoolies to the chapels
+and churches again. They will probably be safe there as long as the
+Geneva flag is not hoisted.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 16, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>This is Dingaan's Day, the great national festival of the Boers. It
+celebrates the terrible battle on the Blood River, sixty-one years ago,
+when Andreas Pretorius slaughtered the Zulus in revenge for their
+massacre of the Dutch at Weenen, or Lamentation. In honour of the
+occasion, the Boers began their battle earlier than usual. Before
+sunrise "Puffing Billy" of Bulwan exploded five 96lb. shells within
+fifty yards of my humble cottage, disturbing my morning sleep after a
+night of fever. I suppose he was aiming at the bakery again, but he
+killed nobody and only destroyed an outbuilding. Farther down the town
+unhappily he killed three privates. He also sent another shell into the
+Town Hall, and blew Captain Valentine's horse's head away, as the poor
+creature was enjoying his breakfast. After seven o'clock hardly a gun
+was fired all day. Opinion<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>Pg 175</span> was divided whether the Boers were keeping
+holiday for that battle long ago, or were burying their dead after
+Buller's cannonade of yesterday. But raging fever made me quite
+indifferent to this and all other interests.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>Pg 176</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, December 17, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>We are sick of the siege. Enteric and dysentery are steadily increasing.
+Food for men and horses is short and nasty. Ammunition must be used with
+care. The longing for the English mail has almost become a disease. Only
+two days more, we thought, or perhaps we could just stick it out for
+another week. Now we are thrown back into vague uncertainty, and seem no
+nearer to the end.</p>
+
+<p>All the correspondents were summoned at noon to the Intelligence Office.
+That the Intelligence should tell us anything at all was so
+unprecedented that we felt the occasion was solemn. Major Altham then
+read out the General Order, briefly stating that General Buller had
+failed in "his first attack at Colenso," and we could not be<span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>Pg 177</span> relieved
+as soon as was expected. All details were refused. We naturally presume
+the situation is worse than represented. Each of us was allowed to send
+a brief heliogram, balloting for turn. Then we came away. We were told
+it was our duty to keep the town cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>The suffering among the poor who had no stores of their own to fall back
+upon is getting serious. Bread and meat are supplied in rations at a
+fair and steady price. Colonel Ward and Colonel Stoneman have seen to
+that, and as far as possible they check the rapacity of the Colonial
+contractor. But hundreds have no money left at all. They receive
+Government rations on a mere promise to pay. Outside rations, prices are
+running up to absurdity. Chickens and most nice things are not to be
+obtained. But in the market last week eggs were half a guinea a dozen,
+potatoes 1s. 6d. a pound, carrots 5s., candles 1s. each, a tin of milk
+6s., cigarettes 5s. a dozen. Nothing can be bought to drink, except
+lemonade and soda-water, made with enteric germs. The Irishman drinks
+the rinsings of his old whisky bottles. One man gave &pound;5 yesterday for a
+bottle of whisky, but then he was a contractor, and our necessity is his
+opportunity. Of our necessity the Colonial store<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>Pg 178</span>keepers and dealers of
+all kinds are making their utmost. Having spent their lives hitherto in
+"besting" every one on a small scale, they are now besting the British
+nation on the large. Happily their profit is not so easily made now as
+in the old days of the Zulu war, when a waggon-load of food would be
+sold three times over on the way to the front and never reached the
+troops at all in the end. A few days ago one contractor thought the Army
+would have to raise its price for mealies (maize) to 30s. a sack. He at
+once bought up all the mealies in the town at 28s., only to discover
+that the army price was 25s. So, under the beneficent influence of
+martial law he was compelled to sell at that price, and made a fine
+loss. The troops received this morning's heavy news with cheerful
+stoicism; not a single complaint, only tender regrets about the whisky
+and Christmas pudding we shall have to do without.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 18, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>How is one to treat an indeterminate situation? The siege is already too
+long for modern literature. It was all very well when we thought it must
+end by Christmas at the furthest. But since last Sunday we are thrown
+back into the infinite,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>Pg 179</span> and can fix no limit on which hope can build
+even a rainbow. So now the only way to make this account of our queer
+position readable will be to dwell entirely in the glaring events of
+adventure or bloodshed, and let the flat days slide, though the sadness
+and absurdity of any one of them would fill a paper.</p>
+
+<p>We have had such luck in escaping shells that we grow careless. The
+Bulwan gun began his random fire, as usual, before breakfast. He threw
+about fifteen shells, but most of us are quite indifferent to the 96lb.
+explosive thunder-bolts dropping around us. Indeed, fourteen of them did
+little harm. But just one happened to drop in the Natal Carbineer lines
+while the horses were being groomed. Two men were killed outright and
+three mortally wounded. A sapper was killed 200 yards away. Three others
+were wounded. Eleven horses were either killed or hopelessly disabled.
+All from one chance shell, while fourteen hit nobody! One man had both
+legs cut clean off, and for a time continued conscious and happy. Five
+separate human legs lay on the ground, not to speak of horses' legs. The
+shell burst on striking a horse, they say (it was shrapnel), and threw
+forwards. While the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>Pg 180</span> Carbineers were carrying away one of their dead
+another shell burst close by. They rightly dropped the body and lay
+flat. The only fragment which struck at all almost cut the dead man in
+half. Another shell later in the day killed a Kaffir woman and her
+husband in a back garden off the main street. Several women have died
+from premature childbirth owing to shock.</p>
+
+<p>Most of my day was again spent in trying to get a Kaffir runner for a
+telegram, but none would go. My last two had failed. All are getting
+frightened. In the evening I rode out to Waggon Hill and found "Lady
+Anne" and the 12lb. naval gun had gone back to their old homes. They are
+not wanted to keep open the approach for Buller now, and perhaps Captain
+Lambton was afraid the position might be rushed.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 19, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Another black day. Details of Buller's defeat at Colenso began to leak
+out and discouraged us all. It would be much better if the truth about
+any disaster, no matter how serious, were officially published. Now
+every one is uncertain and apprehensive. We waste hours in questions and
+speculations. To-day there was something like<span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>Pg 181</span> despair throughout the
+camp. The Boers are putting up new guns on Gun Hill in place of those we
+destroyed. Through a telescope at the Heliograph Station I watched the
+men working hard at the sangar. Two on the face of the hill were
+evidently making a wire entanglement. On Pepworth Hill the sappers think
+they are putting up one of the 8.7 in. guns, four of which the Boers are
+known to have ordered, though it is not certain whether they received
+them. They throw a 287lb. shell. We are all beginning to feel the pinch
+of hunger. Bit by bit every little luxury we had stored up has
+disappeared. Nothing to eat or drink is now left in any of the shops;
+only a little twist tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>What is even worse, the naval guns have too little ammunition to answer
+the enemy's fire; so that the Boers can shell us at ease and draw in
+nearer when they like. The sickness increases terribly. Major Donegan
+sent out thirty-six cases of enteric to Intombi Camp from the divisional
+troops' hospital alone. Probably over fifty went in all. Everything now
+depends on Buller's winning a great victory. It seems incredible that
+two British armies should be within twenty miles of each other and
+powerless to move.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>Pg 182</span></p>
+
+<p>I cannot induce a Kaffir runner to start now. Even the Intelligence
+Officer cannot do it. The heliograph has failed me, too. Sunday's
+message has not gone, and this afternoon was clouded with storms and
+rain. The temperature fell 30&deg;. Yesterday it was 102&deg;; the day before
+106&deg; in the shade.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 20, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>From dawn till about seven the mutter of distant guns was heard near
+Colenso. But no news came through, for the sky was clouded nearly all
+day long. The new 4.7 in. howitzer which the Boers have put up on
+Surprise Hill opened fire in the morning, and will be as dangerous as
+its predecessor which we blew up. From every point of the compass it
+shelled hard nearly all day. I connect this feverish activity with the
+apparition of a chaise and four seen driving round the Boer outposts,
+and to-day quite visible on the Bulwan. Four outriders accompany it, and
+queer little flags are set up where it halts. Can the black-coated old
+gentleman inside be Oom Paul himself? It is significant that the big gun
+of Bulwan did some extraordinary shooting during the day. It threw one
+shell right into the old camp; another sheer over the Irish at Range<span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>Pg 183</span>
+Post; both were aimed at nothing but simply displayed the gun's full
+range; another pointed out the position of the Naval battery, and whilst
+I was at lunch in the town, another whizzed past and carried away one
+side of the Town Hall turret. I envy the gunner's feelings, though for
+the moment I thought he had killed my horse at the door. The Town Hall
+is now really picturesque, just the sort of ruin visitors will expect to
+see after a bombardment. With a little tittifying it will be worth
+thousands to the Colonials.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image11" name="image11">
+<img src="images/11.jpg" width="600" height="420" alt="A PICTURESQUE RUIN." title="A PICTURESQUE RUIN." /></a>
+<span class="caption">A PICTURESQUE RUIN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The day was cool and cloudy; fair shelling weather, but bad for
+heliographs. So my Christmas message is still delayed. A certain
+lieutenant (whom I know, but may not name) went out under flag of truce
+with a letter to the Boer General, and was admitted even into Schalk
+Burger's tent. The Boer gave him some details of Buller's disaster last
+Friday, and of the loss of the ten guns, which they said came up within
+heavy rifle fire and were disabled. They especially praised one officer
+who refused to surrender, fired all his revolver' cartridges, drew his
+sword, and would have fallen had not the Boers attacked him only with
+the butt, determined to spare the life of so brave a man. I give the
+story: its truth will be known by this time.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>Pg 184</span></p>
+
+<p>Sickness continues. There are 900 cases of enteric in Intombi. A sister
+from the camp came and besought Colonel Stoneman with tears to stop the
+shameful robbery of the sick which goes on in the camp. The blame, of
+course, does not lie with him or the authorities here. The supplies are
+sent out regularly day by day. It is in the careless or corrupt
+distribution that the sick are robbed and murdered by a mob of cowardly
+Colonials of the rougher class, who had not enough courage to stay in
+the town, and now turn their native talent for swindling to the plunder
+of brave men who are suffering on their behalf.</p>
+
+<p>A deputation of mayor and town councillors waited on Colonel Ward
+to-day. The petitioners humbly prayed that the bathing parties of
+soldiers below the town on Sundays might be stopped, because they
+shocked the feelings of the women. For a mixture of hypocrisy and
+heartlessness I take that deputation to be unequalled. The soldiers are
+exposed all the week long, day and night, to sun and cold and dirt, on
+rocks and hill-tops where it is impossible even to dip their hands in
+water. On Sunday the Boers seldom fire. The men are marched down in
+companies under the officers to bathe, and to any decent man or<span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>Pg 185</span> woman
+the sight of their pleasure is one of the few joys of the campaign. But
+those who think nothing of charging a soldier 6d. for a penny bottle of
+soda-water, or 2s. for twopenn'orth of cake, tremble for the feelings of
+their wives and daughters. Why do the women go to look? as Colonel Ward
+asked, in his indignant refusal even to listen to the petition. Sunday
+is the one day when they can stay at home with safety, and leave their
+husbands to skulk in the river holes if they please.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 21, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, distinguished himself this morning by
+sending one shot into Colonel Ward's house and the next into the
+general's just beyond. In Colonel Ward's was a live Christmas turkey,
+over which a sentry is posted day and night. At first the rumour spread
+that the bird was mortally wounded; its thigh fractured, its liver
+penetrated. But about midday public alarm was allayed by the news that
+the invaluable creature could be seen strutting about and stiffening its
+feathers as usual. It had not even suffered from shock. The second shot
+went through Sir Henry Rawlinson's office, which he had just left, and
+shattered the Headquarters'<span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>Pg 186</span> larder, depriving the Staff of butter for
+the rest of the siege. It has made a model ruin for future sightseers.
+Unhappily the general was ill in bed with slight fever, and had to be
+carried to another house up the hill in a dhoolie. This may have
+encouraged the Boers to think they had killed him.</p>
+
+<p>It was again a bad day for the heliograph, and the Boers have purposely
+kindled a veldt fire across the line of light. But I think I got through
+my thirty words of Christmas greeting to the <i>Chronicle</i>. I tried in
+vain all day for a Kaffir runner, but in the late afternoon I rode away
+over the plain, past the racecourse, and through the thorns at the foot
+of C&aelig;sar's Camp, till I almost came in touch with the enemy's piquets at
+Intombi. I saw a flock of long-billed waders, like small whimbrel, a
+great variety of beautiful little doves, and many of that queer bird the
+natives call Sakonboota, whose tail grows so long in the breeding season
+that his little wings can hardly lift it above the ground, and he
+flutters about in the breeze like a badly made kite. Riding back at
+sunset over the flat I felt like Montaigne when he desired to wear away
+his life in the saddle. The difference is that in the end I may have
+to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>Pg 187</span> eat my own horse. The shells from four guns kept singing their
+evening hymn above my head as I cantered along.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image12" name="image12">
+<img src="images/12.jpg" width="600" height="417" alt="HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL" title="HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL" /></a>
+<span class="caption">HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 22, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The morning opened with one of those horrible disasters which more than
+balance our general good luck. The Bulwan gun began his morning shell
+rather later than usual. His almost invariable programme is to fire five
+or six shots at the bakery or soda-water shed beside my cottage; then to
+give a few to the centre of the town, and to finish off with half a
+dozen at the Light Horse and Gordons down by the Iron Bridge. Having
+earned his breakfast, he usually stops then, and cools down a bit. The
+performance is so regular that when he has finished with our end of the
+town the men cease to take precautions even at the sound of the whistle
+or bugle which gives notice of danger whenever the special sentry sees
+the gun flash.</p>
+
+<p>But this morning the routine was changed. Having waked me up as usual
+with the crash of shells close by on my left, the gun was turned down
+town, smashed into a camp or two without damage, and then suddenly
+whipped round on his pivot and sent a shell straight into the
+Gloucester<span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>Pg 188</span> lines, about 300 yards away to my right. It pitched just on
+the top of a traverse at the foot of the low hill now held by the
+Devons. The men were quite off their guard, busy with breakfast and
+sharing out the kettles. In an instant five lay dead and twelve were
+wounded. The shell burst so close that three of the dead were horribly
+scorched. One got covered by a tarpaulin, and was not found at first.
+His body was split open, one leg was off, his head was burnt and smashed
+to pulp. The cries of the wounded told me at once what had happened.
+Summoned by telephone, the dhoolies came quickly up and bore them away,
+together with the remains of the dead. Three of the wounded died before
+the night. Eight dead and nine wounded&mdash;it is worse than the disaster to
+the King's (Liverpools) almost exactly on the same spot a few weeks ago.
+In the middle of the morning much the same thing nearly happened to the
+5th Lancers. The 6 in. gun on Telegraph Hill, usually more noisy than
+harmful, was banging away at the Old Camp and the Naval battery on Cove
+Hill, when one of the shells ricocheted off the hill-top, and plunged
+into the Lancers' camp at the foot. Four officers were hit, including
+the colonel, who had a bit of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>Pg 189</span> finger blown off, and a segment through
+both legs. A sergeant lost an eye. One officer ducked his head and got a
+fragment straight through his helmet. The shell was a chance shot, but
+that made it no better. The men are sick of being shot at like rabbits,
+and sicker still of running into rabbit holes for shelter. The worst of
+all is that we can no longer reply for fear of wasting ammunition.</p>
+
+<p>There was no sound of Buller's guns all day. I induced another Kaffir to
+make the attempt of running the Boer lines. Mr. McCormick, a Colonial
+correspondent, also started. I should go myself, but have no wish to be
+shut up in Pretoria for the rest of the campaign, cut off from all
+letters, and more useless even than I am here. So I spent the afternoon
+with others, building a sand-bag fort round the tent where Mr. Steevens
+is to be nursed, beside the river bank. The five o'clock shells came
+pretty close, pitching into the Light Horse camp and the main watering
+ford. But the tent itself is fairly safe. The feeding of the horses is
+our greatest immediate difficulty. Every bit of edible green is being
+seized and turned to account. I find vine-leaves a fair substitute for
+grass, but my horses are terribly hungry all the same.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>Pg 190</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 23, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The bombardment was violent at intervals, and some hundreds of shells
+must have been thrown at us. But there was no method or concentration in
+the business.</p>
+
+<p>Buller's guns were heard for about two hours in the morning, and wild
+rumours filled the air. Roberts and Kitchener were coming out. Buller
+was across the Tugela. Within the week our relief was certain. At night
+the 18th Hussars gave another concert among the rocks by the riverside.
+In the midst of a comic song on the inner meaning of Love came a sound
+as of distant guns. The inner meaning of Love was instantly forgotten.
+All held their breaths to listen. But it was only some horses coming
+down to water, and we turned to Love again, while the waning moon rose
+late beside Lombard's Kop, red and shapeless as a potsherd.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 24, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Nothing disturbed the peace of Christmas Eve except three small shells
+thrown into the town about five o'clock tea-time, for no apparent
+reason. The main subject of interest was the chance of getting any
+Christmas dinner. Yesterday twenty-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>Pg 191</span>eight potatoes were sold in the
+market for 30s. A goose fetched anything up to &pound;3, a turkey anything up
+to &pound;5. But the real problem is water. The river is now a thick stream of
+brown mud, so thick that it cannot be filtered unless the mud is first
+precipitated. We used to do it with alum, but no alum is left now. Even
+soda-water is almost solid.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 25, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Boer guns gave us an early Christmas carol, and at intervals all day
+they joined in the religious and social festivities. Our north end of
+the town suffered most, and we beguiled the peaceful hours in digging
+out the shells that had nearly killed us. They have a marketable value.
+One perfect specimen of a 96lb. shell from Bulwan fell into a soft
+flower bed and did not burst or receive a scratch. I suppose it cost the
+Boers about &pound;35, and it would still fetch &pound;10 as a secondhand article. A
+brother to it pitched into a boarding house close by us, and blew the
+whole gable end sky high. Unhappily two of the inmates were wounded, and
+a horse killed.</p>
+
+<p>But such little contretemps as shells did not in the least interfere
+with the Christmas revels. About 250 children are still left in the town
+or<span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>Pg 192</span> river caves (where one or two have recently been born), and it was
+determined they should not be deprived of their Christmas tree. The
+scheme was started and organised by Colonel Rhodes and Major "Karri"
+Davis, of the Imperial Light Horse. Four enormous trees were erected in
+the auction rooms and decked with traditional magnificence and toys
+ransacked from every shop. At half-past eight p.m. fairyland opened. A
+gigantic Father Christmas stalked about with branches of pine and snowy
+cap (the temperature at noon was 103deg. in the shade). Each child had a
+ticket for its present, and joy was distributed with military precision.
+When the children had gone to their dreams the room was cleared for a
+dance, and round whirled the khaki youths with white-bloused maidens in
+their arms. It was not exactly the Waterloo Ball with sound of revelry
+by night, but I think it will have more effect on the future of the
+race.</p>
+
+<p>Other festivities, remote from the unaccustomed feminine charm, were a
+series of mule races, near the old camp, for soldiers and laughing
+Kaffir boys. The men's dinner itself was enough to mark the day. It is
+true everything was rather skimped, but after the ordinary short rations
+it<span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>Pg 193</span> was a treat to get any kind of pudding, any pinch of tobacco, and
+sometimes just a drop of rum.</p>
+
+<p>Almost the saddest part of the siege now is the condition of the
+animals. The oxen are skeletons of hunger, the few cows hardly give a
+pint of milk apiece, the horses are failing. Nothing is more pitiful
+than to feel a willing horse like mine try to gallop as he used, and
+have to give it up simply for want of food. During the siege I have
+taught him to talk better than most human beings, and his little
+apologies are really pathetic when he breaks into something like his old
+speed and stops with a sigh. It is the same with all.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>Pg 194</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>SICKNESS, DEATH, AND A NEW YEAR</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>December 26, 1899</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Good news came through the heliograph about General Gatacre's force at
+Dordrecht. There were rumours about Lord Methuen, too, for which Dr.
+Jameson was quoted as authority. But the best evidence for hope was the
+unusual violence of the bombardment. It began early, and before the
+middle of the afternoon the Boers had thrown 178 shells at us. They were
+counted by a Gordon officer on Moriden's Castle, and the total must have
+reached nearly 200 before sunset. Such feverish activity is nearly
+always a sign of irritation on the part of the Dutch, and one can always
+hope the irritation is due to bad news for them.</p>
+
+<p>I have not heard of any loss in town or camp.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>Pg 195</span> Our guns, with the
+exception of the howitzers and Major Wing's field guns, which can just
+reach the new howitzer on Surprise Hill, have hardly replied at all.</p>
+
+<p>The milk question was the most serious of the day. I saw a herd of
+thirty-five cows which had only yielded sixteen pints at milking time.
+It is now debated whether we shall not have to feed the cows and starve
+the horses; or kill the thinnest horses and stew them down into broth
+for the others. The reports about the condition of Intombi Camp were
+particularly horrible to-day. But General Hunter will not allow any one
+to visit the camp, and it is no good repeating secondhand reports.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 27, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The side of Tunnel Hill, at the angle of the Helpmakaar road, where
+Liverpools and Gloucesters have suffered in turn, was to-day the scene
+of an exactly similar disaster to the Devons.</p>
+
+<p>The great Bulwan gun began shelling us later than usual. It must have
+been past eight. The Devon officers had long finished breakfast, and
+after inspecting the lines were gathered for orderly room in their mess.
+It is a fairly large shed on a platform of beaten earth, levelled in the
+side of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>Pg 196</span> hill. The roof, of corrugated iron and earth, covered with
+tarpaulin, would hardly even keep out splinters, and is only supported
+on rough wooden beams. It is impossible to construct sufficient head
+shelter. The ground is so rocky that all you can do with it is to build
+walls and traverses. Along one side of the mess tent a great traverse
+runs, some eight or ten feet thick, and about as high. When the sentry
+blows the warning whistle at the flash of a big gun, officers are
+supposed to come under the shelter of this traverse, till the shell has
+passed or declared its direction. At the first shot this morning I heard
+no whistle blow, but it was sounded at the second and third. It was the
+third that did the damage. Striking the top of the traverse, it plunged
+forward in huge fragments into the messroom, tearing an enormous hole in
+the tarpaulin screen. Unhappily Mr. Dalzell, a first lieutenant with
+eight years' service, had refused to come under the wall, and was
+sitting at the table reading. The main part of the shell struck him full
+on the side of the face, and carried away nearly all his head. He passed
+painlessly from his reading into death. The state of the messroom when I
+saw it was too horrible to describe. The wounds of the other officers
+prove<span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>Pg 197</span> that the best traverse is insufficient unless accompanied by head
+shelter. Though their backs were against the wall, seven were wounded,
+and three others badly bruised. Two cases are serious: Lieutenant P.
+Dent had part of his skull taken off, and Lieutenant Caffin had a
+compound fracture of the shoulder-blade. Lieutenant Cane, an "orficer
+boy," who only joined on Black Monday, was also wounded in the back. The
+dhoolies quickly came and bore the wounded away to the Wesleyan Chapel.
+Mr. Dalzell was buried in the afternoon. "Well, well," sighed the old
+gravedigger, "I never thought I should live to bury a man without a
+head."</p>
+
+<p>To-day, for the first time, we heard that Lord Roberts had lost his only
+son at Colenso. The whole camp was sad about it. The scandal over the
+robbery of the sick by the civilians at Intombi has grown so serious
+that at last General Hunter is sending out Colonel Stoneman to
+investigate. I have myself repeatedly endeavoured to telegraph home
+known facts about the corruption and mismanagement, but all I wrote has
+been scratched out by the Censorship. One such little fact I may mention
+now. The 18th Hussar officers at Christmas gave up a lot of little
+luxuries, such as cakes<span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>Pg 198</span> and things, which count high in a siege, and
+sent them down to their sick at Intombi. Not a crumb of it all did the
+sick ever receive. Everything disappeared <i>en route</i>&mdash;stolen by
+officials, or sold to greedy Colonials for whom the sick had fought. It
+is a small point, but characteristic of the whole affair.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 28, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>The night was wet and pitchy dark. Only by the help of the lightning I
+had stumbled and plunged home to bed, when at about eleven a perfect
+storm of rifle-fire suddenly swept along the ridges at our end of the
+town. Rushing out I saw the edges of the hills twinkle with lines of
+flashes right away to Gun Hill and Bulwan. Alarmed at the darkness, and
+hearing strange sounds in the rain the Boers had taken a scare and were
+blazing away at vacancy, in terror of another night attack. The uproar
+lasted about five minutes. Then all was quiet until, as dawn was
+breaking, "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" shook me off my camp bed with
+the crash of seven reports in quick succession just over my roof. For
+some days it had been an idea of Captain Lambton's to catch the Boer
+gunners on Bulwan just as they were going up to their big gun, or<span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>Pg 199</span> were
+occupied with early breakfast. Five of our shells burst on the face of
+the hill where many Boers spend the night, probably to protect the gun.
+The two last fell on the top, close to the gun itself. The latter did
+not fire at all to-day, and I saw the Boers standing about it in groups
+evidently excited and disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>The bombardment continued much as usual in other parts, and I spent the
+afternoon with the 69th Battery on Leicester Post, watching Major Wing
+reply to the new howitzer on Surprise Hill. Rain fell heavily at times,
+and the Boers never like firing in the wet.</p>
+
+<p>The day was chiefly marked by Colonel Stoneman's visit to Intombi Camp
+to inquire into the reported scandals. He thinks that the worst of the
+corruption and swindling is already over, being killed by the very
+scandal. But he found a general want of organisation in the distribution
+of food and other stores. There are now 2,557 inhabitants of the camp,
+of whom 1,015 are sick and wounded soldiers. Of late the numbers have
+been increasing by forty or fifty a day, allowing for those who return
+or die. The graves to-day number eighty-three, and a gang of forty
+Kaffirs is always digging. Outside the military, the majority of the
+refugees<span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>Pg 200</span> are Kaffirs and coolies, the white civilians only numbering
+600 or 700. Colonel Stoneman had all, except the sick, paraded in
+groups, and assigned separate tasks to each&mdash;nursing for the whites,
+digging and sanitation for the Kaffirs, cooking and skilled labour for
+the coolies. One important condition he made&mdash;every one required to work
+is also required to take his day's wage. The medical authority has
+objected to certain improvements on the ground of expense, but, as
+Colonel Stoneman says, what will England care about a few thousands at
+such a crisis in her history? Or what would she say if we allowed her
+sick and wounded to die in discomfort for the want of a little money? By
+to-morrow all the sick will have beds and even sheets, food will be
+distributed on a better organised plan, and civilians will be raised
+from a two-months' slough of feeding, sleeping, grumbling, and general
+swinishness unredeemed even by shells.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image13" name="image13">
+<img src="images/13.jpg" width="600" height="419" alt="EFFECT OF A 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE" title="EFFECT OF A 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE" /></a>
+<span class="caption">EFFECT OF A 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At night the British flashlight from Colenso was throwing signals upon
+the cloudy sky, and it was amusing to watch the Boers trying to confuse
+the signals by flashing their two searchlights upon the same cloud. They
+have one light west of us near Bester's Station, and to-night they
+showed a very brilliant electric light on the top of Bulwan. When<span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>Pg 201</span> our
+signalling stopped, they turned it on the town, and very courteously
+lighted me home. It was like the clearest moonlight, the shadows long
+and black, but all else distinct in colourless brilliance. The top of
+Bulwan is four miles from our main street. To make up for yesterday the
+shells were particularly lively to-day. Before breakfast one fell on the
+railway behind our house, one into the verandah next door, and two into
+our little garden. Unhappily, the last killed one of our few remaining
+fowls&mdash;shivered it into air so that nothing but a little cloud of
+feathers was seen again. In the middle of the afternoon old "Puffing
+Billy" again opened fire with energy. I was at the tailor's on the main
+street, and the shells were falling just round his shop. "Thirty-eight,
+thirty-four," said the little Scot measuring. "There's the Dutch church
+gone. Forty-two, sixteen. There's the bank. Just hold the tape, mon,
+while I go and look. Oh, it's only the Town Hall!" Among other shells
+one came in painted with the Free State colours, and engraved "With the
+compliments of the season." It is the second thus adorned, but whereas
+the first had been empty, this was charged with plum-pudding. Can it be
+a Dutchman who has such a pleasant wit? The<span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>Pg 202</span> condition of the horses
+becomes daily more pitiful. Some fall in the street and cannot get up
+again for weakness. Most have given up speed. The 5th Lancers have
+orders never to move quicker than a walk. The horses are just kept alive
+by grass which Hindoos grub up by the roots. A small ration of ground
+mealies and bran is also issued. Heavy rain came on and fell all night,
+during which we heard two far-off explosions.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>December 30, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Going up to Leicester Post in the early morning, I found the K.R. Rifles
+drying themselves in the African sun, which blazed in gleams between the
+clouds. Without the sun we should fare badly. As it is, the rain,
+exposure, and bad food are reducing our numbers fast. Passing the 11th
+Field Hospital on my way up, I saw stretcher after stretcher moving
+slowly along with the sick in their blankets. "Dysentery, enteric;
+enteric, dysentery," were the invariable answers. All the thousands of
+shells thrown at us in the last two months count for nothing beside the
+sickness.</p>
+
+<p>On the top of the hill I found the two guns of Major Wing's battery
+trained on Surprise Hill as usual. In accordance with my customary good<span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>Pg 203</span>
+fortune all the enemy's guns opened fire at once. But only the howitzer,
+the automatic, and the Bluebank were actually aimed our way. The
+Bluebank was most effective.</p>
+
+<p>It was amusing to see the men of the 60th when a shell pitched among
+them to-day. How they regarded it as a busy man regards the intrusion of
+the housemaid&mdash;just a harmless necessary nuisance, and no more. The
+cattle took the little automatic shells in much the same spirit, but
+with an addition of wonder&mdash;staring at them and snuffing with bovine
+astonishment. The Kaffir herdsmen first ran yelling in every direction,
+and then rushed back to dig the shell up, amid inextinguishable
+laughter. The Hindoo grass-cutter neither ran nor laughed, but awaited
+destiny with resignation. By the way, there is a Hindoo servant in the
+19th Hussar lines, who at the approach of a "Long Tom" shell always
+falls reverently on his face and prays to it.</p>
+
+<p>At sundown, in hopes of adding to our starvation rations, I went out
+among the thorns at the foot of C&aelig;sar's Camp to shoot birds and hares.
+But the thorns are fast disappearing as firewood, and the appalling rain
+almost drowned me in the rush of the spruits. So we dined as usual on
+lumps of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>Pg 204</span> trek-ox thinly disguised. Talking of rain, I forgot to mention
+that the deluge on Friday night drowned six horses of the Leicester
+Mounted Infantry, carried away twenty-seven of their saddles, broke down
+the grand shelter-caves of the Imperial Light Horse, carried their
+bridge away to the blue, and flooded out half the poor homes of natives
+and civilians dug in the sand of the river banks.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, December 31, 1899.</i></p>
+
+<p>Most of my day was wasted in an attempt to get leave to visit Intombi.
+Colonel Exham (P.M.O.) and Major Bateson had asked me to go down and
+give a fair account of what I saw. General Hunter took my application to
+the Chief, but Sir George thought it contrary to his original agreement
+with Joubert, that none but medical and commissariat officers should
+enter the camp. So Intombi remains unvisited&mdash;a vision of my own. In
+high quarters I gather that, considering the great difficulties of the
+case, the camp is thought a successful piece of work, very creditable to
+the officers in charge. Otherwise the day was chiefly remarkable for the
+unusual amount of firing at the outposts, and the arrival by runner of
+a<span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>Pg 205</span> Natal newspaper with the news that Lord Roberts was coming out. As it
+was New Year's eve, we expected a midnight greeting from the Boer guns,
+and sure enough, between twelve and one, all the smaller guns in turn
+took one shot into vacancy and then were still.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 1, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Bulwan gun began the New Year with energy. He sent thirty of his
+enormous shells into the camps and town, eight or nine of which fell in
+quick succession among the Helpmakaar fortifications, now held by the
+Liverpools.</p>
+
+<p>Three or four houses in the town were wrecked by shells, the most
+decisive ruin being at Captain Valentine's. The shell went through the
+iron verandah, pierced the stone wall above the front door without
+bursting, and exploded against the partition wall of the passage and
+drawing-room. Throwing forward, it cleared away the kitchen wall, and
+swept the kitchen clean. Down a passage to the right the expansion of
+the air blew off a heavy door, and threw it across the bed of a wounded
+Rifle Brigade officer. He escaped unhurt, but a valued servant from the
+Irish Rifles got a piece of shell through back and stomach as<span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>Pg 206</span> he was
+preparing breakfast in the kitchen. He died in a few hours. His last
+words were, "I hope you got your breakfast all right, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The house had long been a death-trap. Perhaps the Boers aim at the
+telegraph-office across the road, or possibly spies have told them
+Colonel Rhodes goes there for meals. The General has now declared the
+place too dangerous for habitation.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon we were to have had a military tournament on the
+Islington model, but the General stopped it, because the enemy would
+certainly have thrown shells into our midst, and women and children
+would have been there. At night, however, the Natal Volunteers gave
+another open-air concert. In the midst we heard guns&mdash;real guns&mdash;from
+Colenso way. Between the reflected flash on the sky and the sound of the
+report one could count seventy-eight seconds, which Captain Lambton
+tells me gives a distance of about fifteen and a half miles. All day
+distant guns were heard from time to time. Some said the direction was
+changed, but I could hear no difference.</p>
+
+<p>The mayor and councillors relieve the monotony of the siege with
+domestic solicitude. To-day they are said to be preparing a deputation
+to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>Pg 207</span> General imploring that the first train which comes up after the
+relief shall be exclusively devoted&mdash;not to medical stuff for the
+wounded, not to food for the hungry troops and fodder for the starving
+horses, not to the much-needed ammunition for the guns&mdash;but to their own
+women.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 2, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Soon after daylight dropping bullets began to whiz past my window and
+crack upon the tin roof in quite a shower. The Boer snipers had crept up
+into Brooks's Farm, beyond the Harrismith railway, and were firing at
+the heads of our men on Junction Hill. Whenever they missed the edge of
+the hill the bullets fell on my cottage. At last some guns opened fire
+from our Naval battery on Cove Redoubt. Captain Lambton had permitted
+the Natal Naval Volunteers to blaze away some of their surplus
+ammunition at the snipers. And blaze they did! Their 3-pounders kept up
+an almost continuous fire all the morning, and hardly a sniper has been
+heard since. There was nothing remarkable about the bombardment.</p>
+
+<p>"Puffing Billy" gave us his four doses of big shell as usual. Whilst I
+was at the Intelligence Office a shell lit among some houses under the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>Pg 208</span>
+trees in front, killed two and wounded others. The action of another
+shell would seem incredible if I had not seen it. The thing burst among
+the 13th Battery, which stands under shelter of Tunnel Hill, in a
+straight line with my road, less than 300 yards away. I was just
+mounting my horse and stopped to see the burst, when a fragment came
+sauntering high through the air and fell with a thud in the garden just
+behind me. It was a jagged bit of outer casing about three inches thick,
+and weighing over 6 lbs. The extraordinary thing about it was that it
+had flung off exactly at right angles from the line of fire. Gunners say
+that melinite sometimes does these things.</p>
+
+<p>I rode south-west, over Range Post and a bit of the Long Valley to
+Waggon Hill, our nearest point to the relief column and the English
+mail. At no great distance&mdash;ten miles or so&mdash;I could see the hills
+overlooking the Tugela, where the English are. Far beyond rose the crags
+and precipices of the Drakensberg, illuminated by unearthly gleams of
+the setting sun, which found their way beneath the fringes of a purple
+thunder-shower and turned to amber-brown a cloud of smoke rising from
+the burning veldt.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>Pg 209</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 3, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The quiet hour before sunrise was again broken by the crash of our Naval
+guns. "Bloody Mary" (now politely called the "Princess Victoria") threw
+five shells along the top of Bulwan. A Naval 12-pounder sent three
+against the face of the hill. Again it was intended to catch the Boer
+gunners and guard as they were getting up and preparing breakfast.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 4, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>No news came in, and it was a day as dull as peace, but for some
+amenities of bombardment.</p>
+
+<p>The Surprise Hill howitzer tried a longer range. At lunch "Bulwan Billy"
+made some splendid shots close to our little mess and burst the tanks at
+Taylor's mineral water works. In the wet afternoon the big gun's work
+was less dignified. He threw five shrapnel over the cattle licking up
+what little grass was left on the flat, and did not kill a single cow.</p>
+
+<p>The guides boast that to-day they killed one Boer by strategy used for
+tigers in India. Two or three of them went out to Star Kopje and loosed
+two miserable old ponies, driving them towards the Boer lines to graze.
+A Boer or two came for the prize and one was shot dead.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>Pg 210</span></p>
+
+<p>At night the flash signals from Colenso were very brilliant on a black
+and cloudy sky. They only said, "Dearest love from your own Nance," or
+"Baby sends kisses," but the Bulwan searchlight tried hard to thwart
+their affectionate purpose by waving his ray quickly up and down across
+the flashing beam.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 5, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>There was little to mark the day beyond the steady shelling of snipers
+by the Natal Navals, and a great 96lb. shell from Bulwan which plunged
+through a Kaffir house, where black labourers live stuffed together,
+took off a Kaffir's foot, ricocheted over our little mess-room, just
+glancing off the roof, and fell gasping, but still entire, beside our
+verandah. I rode up to C&aelig;sar's Camp in the morning sun. It was a scene
+of sleepy peace, only broken by the faint interest of watching where the
+shells burst in the town far below.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>Pg 211</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GREAT ATTACK</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 6, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>It has been a commonplace of the war that the Boers could cling to a
+position of their own choosing from behind stones, but would never
+venture to attack a position or fight in the open. Like all the
+comforting commonplaces about the Boers, this is now overthrown. The
+untrained, ill-equipt farmers have to-day assaulted positions of
+extraordinary strength, have renewed the attack again and again, have
+rushed up to breastworks, and died at the rifle's mouth, and have only
+been repulsed after fifteen hours of hard and gallant fighting on the
+part of the defence.</p>
+
+<p>Waggon Hill is a long, high spur of C&aelig;sar's Camp, running out south-west
+between Long Valley and Bester's Farm. At the extremity, as I<span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>Pg 212</span> have
+described, are the great gun-pits prepared for "Lady Anne" and a Naval
+12-pounder some weeks ago. "Lady Anne" was for the second time being
+brought up into position there last night, and ought to have been fixed
+the night before, but was stopped half-way by the wet.</p>
+
+<p>The Boer attack was probably not merely an attempt on the gun, but on
+the position, and the gun is being taken back to her usual position
+to-night. Besides the gun-pits, the hill has no defences except a few
+low walls, only two or three stones high, piled up at intervals round
+the edge, as shelters from long-range fire. The place was held only by
+three dismounted squadrons of Imperial Light Horse, but the 1st K.R.R.
+(60th) were in support in a large sangar about three-quarters of a mile
+along the same ridge, separated from Waggon Hill proper by the low "nek"
+where the two howitzers used to stand. From the 60th the ridge turns at
+an angle eastward, and becomes the long tableland of C&aelig;sar's Camp, held
+by the Manchesters and 42nd Battery (Major Goulburn). The top is broad
+and flat, covered with grass and loose stones. The whole position
+completely overlooks the town to the north, and if it fell into the
+enemy's hands we should either have to retake it<span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>Pg 213</span> or quit the camps and
+town. The edge measures 4,000 yards, and the Manchesters had only 560
+men to hold it.</p>
+
+<p>At a quarter to three a.m., while it was still dark, a small party of
+Boer sharpshooters climbed up the further (south-east) face of Waggon
+Hill, just left of the "nek." They were picked men who had volunteered
+for the exploit. Nearly all came from Harrismith. We had posted a picket
+of eight at the point, but long security had made them careless, or else
+they were betrayed by a mistake which nearly lost the whole position.
+From the edge of the hill the whole face is "dead" ground. It is so
+steep that an enemy climbing up it cannot be seen. It was almost a case
+of Majuba again.</p>
+
+<p>The Dutch crept up quite unobserved. At last a sentry challenged, and
+was answered with "Friend." He was shot dead, and was found with rifle
+raised and still loaded. The alarm was given, but no one realised what
+had happened. Captain Long (A.S.C.), who was superintending the
+transport of "Lady Anne," told me he could not understand how it was
+that bullets kept whistling past his nose. He thought the firing was
+from our own sentries. But the Dutch had reached the summit, and were
+enfilading the "nek" and the whole<span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>Pg 214</span> extremity of the hill from our left.
+As light began to dawn it was impossible to show oneself for a moment on
+the open top. The furthest range was not over 300 yards, and the top of
+a helmet, the corner of an arm, was sufficient aim for those deadly
+marksmen. Unable to stand against the fire, the Light Horse withdrew
+behind the crest of the hill, whilst small parties continued a desperate
+defence from the two big gun-pits.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly all the officers present have been killed or wounded, and it is
+difficult to get a clear account of what happened from any eye-witness.
+Four companies from each battalion of the K.R. Rifles came up within the
+hour, but no one keeps count of time in such a struggle. The Boers were
+now climbing up all along the face of the hill, and firing from the
+edge. All day about half the summit was in their possession. Three times
+they actually occupied the gun-pits and had to be driven out again.
+Leaning their rifles over the parapets they fired into the space inside.
+It was so that Major Miller-Wallnutt, of the Gordons, was killed. Old De
+Villiers, the Harrismith commandant, shot him over the wall, and was in
+turn shot by Corporal Albrecht, of the Light Horse, who was himself shot
+by a Field-Cornet, who was in turn<span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>Pg 215</span> shot by Digby-Jones, the sapper. So
+it went on. The Boers advanced to absolutely certain death, and they met
+it without hesitation&mdash;the Boers who would never have the courage to
+attack a position! One little incident illustrates their spirit. A
+rugged old Boer finding one of the I.L.H. wounded on the ground, stopped
+under fire and bound him up. "I feel no hatred towards you," he said,
+"but you have no reason to fight at all. We are fighting for our
+country." He turned away, and a bullet killed him as he turned.</p>
+
+<p>Before six o'clock the defence was further reinforced by a party of
+Gordons from Maiden Castle. They did excellent work throughout the day,
+though they, too, were once or twice driven from the top. But the credit
+of the stand remains with the I.L.H. and a few sappers like Digby-Jones,
+who held one of the little forts alone for a time, killed three Boers
+with his revolver, and went for a fourth with the butt. He would have
+had the V.C. if he had not fallen. So perhaps would Dennis, of the
+Sappers, though I am told he was present without orders. Lord Ava,
+galloper to General Ian Hamilton, commanding the defences, was shot
+through the head early in the day, about six o'clock. Sent forward with
+a message to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>Pg 216</span> Light Horse, he was looking through glasses over a
+rock when the bullet took him. While I write he is still alive, but
+given up. A finer fellow never lived. "You'd never take him for a lord,"
+said an Irish sergeant, "he seems quite a nice gentleman." Equally sad
+was the loss of Colonel Dick-Cunyngham, of the Gordons. A spent bullet
+struck him in the back as he was leaving camp. The wound is mortal, and
+he had only just recovered from his wound at Elands Laagte.</p>
+
+<p>So the fight began. The official estimate of the Boers who gained the
+top is 600. Eye-witnesses put the number at anything between 100 and
+1,000. The struggle continued from 3 a.m. till nearly seven at night. It
+must be remembered that our men had nothing to eat from five the
+afternoon before, and got nothing till nine at night. Twenty-eight hours
+they were without food, and for about sixteen they were fighting for
+life and death. At 4 p.m. a tremendous thunderstorm with rain and hail
+came on, but the fire never slackened. The 21st and 67th Batteries were
+behind the position in front of Range Post, but were unable to give
+assistance for fear of killing our men. The 18th Hussars and 5th Dragoon
+Guards and some 5th Lancers came up dismounted to reinforce, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>Pg 217</span> still
+the enemy clung to the rocks, and still it was death to creep out on the
+narrow level of the summit.</p>
+
+<p>It was now evident that the position must be retaken at all costs, or
+the enemy would hold it all night. The General sent for three companies
+of the Devons. Up they came, tramping through the storm&mdash;that glorious
+regiment of Western Englishmen. Colonel Park and four other officers led
+them on. It was about six o'clock when they reached the summit. Keeping
+well to the left of the "nek," between the extremity held by the Light
+Horse and the 60th's sangar, they took open order under cover of the
+ridge. Then came the command to sweep the position with the bayonet.
+They fixed, and advanced at the quick till they reached the open. Then,
+under a steady hail of bullets, they came on at the double&mdash;180 men,
+with the steel ready. Colonel Park himself led them. The Boers kept up
+an incessant fire till the line was within fifteen yards. Then they
+turned and ran, leaping down the steep face of the hill, and
+disappearing in the dead ground. Their retreat was gallantly covered by
+their comrades, who swept the ridge with an oblique fire from both
+sides.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>Pg 218</span></p>
+
+<p>The Devons, edging a little to the right in their charge, got some cover
+from a low wall near the "nek" just quitted by the Boers. Even there the
+danger was terrible. It was there that four officers fell, three stone
+dead. It will be long before such officers as Lafone (already twice
+wounded in this war) and Field can be replaced. Lieutenant Masterson,
+formerly a private, and later a colour-sergeant in the Irish Fusiliers,
+was ordered back over the exposed space cleared by the first charge to
+bring up a small reinforcement further on the left. On the way he was
+shot at least three times, but staggered on and gave his order. He still
+survives, and is recommended for the Victoria Cross. He comes of a
+fighting Irish stock, and his great-grandfather captured the French
+Eagle at Barossa in the Peninsular War. He received his commission for
+gallantry in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>But the day was won. The position was cleared. That charge finished the
+business. The credit for the whole defence against one of the bravest
+attacks ever made rests with the Light Horse, the Gordons, and the
+Devons. Yet it is impossible to forget the unflinching self-devotion of
+the King's Royal Rifle officers. They suffered terribly, and the worst
+is they suffered almost in vain. At one<span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>Pg 219</span> moment, when the defenders had
+been driven back over the summit's edge, Major Mackworth (of the
+Queen's, but attached to the King's Royal Rifles) went up again, calling
+on the men to follow him. Just with his walking-stick in his hand he
+went up, and with the few brave men who followed him he died.</p>
+
+<p>The attack on the main position of C&aelig;sar's Camp was much the same in
+plan and result. At 3 a.m. the Manchester pickets along the extremity's
+left edge (<i>i.e.</i>, north-east) were surprised by the appearance of Boers
+in their very midst. Lieutenant Hunt-Grubbe, who was visiting the
+pickets, mistook them for volunteers. "Hullo! Boers!" he cried out. They
+laughed and answered, "Yes, burghers!" He was a prisoner in their hands
+for some hours. The whole of one section was shot dead at their post.
+The alarm was given, but the outlying sentries and piquets could not
+move from the little shelters and walls which alone protected them from
+the oblique fire from an unknown direction. Many were shot down. Some
+remained hidden at the bottom of their defence pits till late in the
+afternoon without being able to stir. Creeping up the dead ground on the
+cliffs face, which is covered with rocks and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>Pg 220</span> thick bushes, the Boers
+lined the left edge of the summit in great numbers. Probably about 1,000
+attacked that part alone, and about 200 advanced on to the top. They
+were all Transvaal Boers, chiefly volunteers from the commandoes of
+Heidelburg and Wakkerstroom. This main body was attempting to take our
+left (north) side of the hill in flank, and kept edging through the
+thorns and dongas near the foot. The Natal Police, supported by the
+Natal Mounted Rifles, had been set to prevent such a movement, but had
+left a gap of 500 yards between their right and three companies of
+Gordons stationed in front of "Fly" kraal on that side of the hill. At
+last, observing the enemy in a donga, they challenged, and were met by
+the answer, "For God's sake, don't fire; we're the Town Guard." At once
+they were undeceived by a volley which killed one of them and wounded a
+few others. How far they avenged this act of treachery I have not
+discovered. The Boers flanking movement was only checked by the 53rd
+Battery (Major Abdy), which was posted on the flat across the river from
+the show ground, and did splendid service all day. It shelled the side
+and top of the hill almost incessantly, though the big Bulwan gun kept
+pouring shrapnel and common<span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>Pg 221</span> shell right in front of it, making all the
+veldt look like a ploughed field.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the Boers on the summit held their ground. Their movement was
+backed by three field guns and two automatics across the Bester's valley
+at ranges of 2,000 yards and 4,000 yards. Their further advance along
+the edge was really checked by two Manchester privates, Scott and Pitts,
+who kept up an incessant fire from their little wall at the extremity
+after all their comrades were shot. Three companies of the Rifle Brigade
+at last came up to reinforce. Then the G Company of the Gordons, under
+Captain Carnegie. But for a long time no one knew where the gap in our
+line really was. About half-past nine one could see the enemy still
+thick among the rocks and trees on the left of the extremity, though the
+shrapnel was dropping all among them from the 53rd Battery. It was just
+before this that Lieutenant Walker, watching with a telescope from the
+signal station on the Convent, saw two Boers creeping along the edge
+alone for about 150 yards under tremendous fire. Suddenly a shrapnel
+took them, and both fell down. They were father and son. About half-past
+ten the first assault was repulsed, and for a time the Boers
+disappeared, but one<span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>Pg 222</span> could see reinforcements massing behind a hill
+called the "Red Kopje," across the deep stream of the Bester's valley.
+The second main attack was delivered about one, and the third during the
+storm at five. I think, after the first assault, the Boer line never
+advanced beyond the cover of the edge. But their incessant fire was
+supported by a storm of long-range bullets from the heights across the
+valley. The position was not finally cleared till nearly seven.</p>
+
+<p>The attack and the defence were equally gallant, as at Waggon Hill. Our
+guns were of far more service than theirs, but probably the loss by
+rifle fire was not so great, the range being longer. The total force of
+the attack on both positions was probably about 7,000. Some 2,000
+Volunteers led the way&mdash;old Boer farmers and picked men who came forward
+after a prayer meeting on Friday. For immovable courage I think it would
+be impossible to beat our gunners&mdash;especially of the 42nd and 53rd
+Batteries. All through the action they continued the routine of gunnery
+just as if they were out for exercise on the sands.</p>
+
+<p>By seven o'clock the main positions on the south side of our defences
+were safe. On the north, fighting had been going on all day also. At
+about<span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>Pg 223</span> 4 a.m. the artillery and rifle fire was so violent around
+Observation Hill that I thought the main attack was on that point.
+Originally the Boers no doubt intended a strong attack there. The hill
+has always been one of the weakest points of our defence.</p>
+
+<p>The Boers began their attack on Observation Hill just before dawn with a
+rapid fire of guns and rifles at long range. At first only our guns
+replied, the two of the 69th doing excellent work with shrapnel over the
+opposite ridges. By about six we could see the Boers creeping forward
+over Bell Spruit and making their way up the dongas and ridges in our
+front. At about eight there was a pause, and it seemed as if the attack
+was abandoned, but it began again at nine with greater violence. The
+shell fire was terrific. Every kind of shell, from the 45-pounder of the
+4.7 in. howitzer down to the 1-1/2-pounder of the automatic, was hurled
+against those little walls, while shrapnel burst almost incessantly
+overhead.</p>
+
+<p>It is significant for our own use of artillery that not a single man
+'was killed by shells, though the air buzzed with them. The loose stone
+walls were cover enough. But the demoralising effect of shell fire is
+well known to all who have stood it. A<span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>Pg 224</span> good regiment is needed to hold
+on against such a storm. But the Devons are a good regiment&mdash;perhaps the
+best here now&mdash;and, under the command of Major Curry, they held. At
+half-past nine the rifle fire at short range became terrible.</p>
+
+<p>Boers were crawling up over what little dead ground there was, and one
+group of them reached an edge from which they began firing into our
+breastwork at about fifteen yards. One or two of them sprang up as
+though to charge. With bayonets they might have come on, but, standing
+to fire, they were at once shot down. Among them was Schutte, the
+commandant of the force. He was killed on the edge, with about ten
+others. Then the attacking group fell back into the dead ground. Our men
+got the order not to fire on them if they ran away. It was the best
+means of clearing them off the hill, and they made off one by one. The
+long-range fire continued all day, but there was no further rush upon
+our works. Our loss was only two men killed and a few wounded. The Boer
+loss is estimated at fifty, but it is impossible to know.</p>
+
+<p>The King's (Liverpools), who now hold the works built by the Devons on
+the low Helpmakaar ridge, were also under rifle and shell fire all day.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>Pg 225</span>
+About 3 p.m. about eighty Boers came down the deep ravine or donga at
+the further end of the ridge. A mounted infantry picket of three men was
+away across the donga, watching the road towards Lombard's Nek. Instead
+of retiring, they calmly lay down and fired into the thick of the Boers
+whenever they saw them. Apparently the Boers had intended some sort of
+attack or feint, but, instead of advancing, they remained hidden in the
+donga, firing over the banks. At last Major Grattan, fearing the brave
+little picket might be cut off, sent out two infantry patrols in
+extended order, and the Boers did not await their coming; they hurried
+up the donga into the shelter of the thorns, which just now are all
+golden with balls of sweet-smelling blossom.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the sun set behind the storm of rain the fighting ceased. The
+long and terrible day was done. I found myself with the Irish Fusiliers
+at Range Post, where the road crosses to the foot of Waggon Hill. The
+stream of ambulance was incessant&mdash;covered mule-waggons, little
+ox-carts, green dhoolies carried by indomitable Hindoos, knee-deep in
+water, and indifferent to every kind of death. In the sixteen hours'
+fighting we have lost fourteen officers and 100 men killed,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>Pg 226</span> twenty-one
+officers and 220 men wounded. The victory is ours. Our men have done
+what they were set to do. But two or three more such victories, and
+where should we be?</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, January 7, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The men remained on the position all night under arms, soaked through
+and hardly fed. Rum was issued, but half the carts lost their way in the
+dark, because the officers in charge had preferred to go fighting on the
+loose and got wounded. The men lay in pools of rain among the dead.
+Lieutenant Haag, 18th Hussars, kept apologising to the man next him for
+using his legs as a pillow. At dawn he found the man was a Rifleman long
+dead, his head in a puddle of blood, his stiff arms raised to the sky.
+Many such things happened. Under the storm of fire it had been
+impossible to recover all the wounded before dark. Some lay out fully
+twenty-four hours without help, or food, or drink. One of the Light
+Horse was used by a Boer as a rest for his rifle. When I reached Waggon
+Hill about nine this morning the last of the wounded were being brought
+down. Nearly all the Light Horse dead (twenty of them) had been taken
+away separately, but at the foot of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>Pg 227</span> hill lay a row of the Gordons,
+bloody and stiff, their Major, Miller-Wallnutt, at their head,
+conspicuous by his size. The bodies of the Rifles were being collected.
+Some still lay curled up and twisted among the dripping rocks. Slowly
+the waggons were packed and sent off to the place of burial.</p>
+
+<p>The broad path up the hill and the tracks along the top were stained
+with blood. It lay in sticky pools, which even the rain could not wash
+out. It was easy to see where the dead had fallen. Most had lain behind
+some rock to fire and there met their end. On the summit some Kaffirs
+were skinning eight oxen which had been spanned to the "Lady Anne's"
+platform, and stood immovable during the fight. Four had been shot in
+the action, the others had just been killed as rations. Passing to the
+further edge where the Boers crept up I saw a Boer ambulance and an
+ox-waggon waiting. Bearded Boers in their slouch hats stood round them
+with an English doctor from Harrismith, commandeered to serve. Our men
+were carrying the Boer wounded and dead down the steep slope. The dead
+were laid out in line, and put in the ox-waggon. At that time there were
+seventeen of them waiting, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>Pg 228</span> eight others were still on the hill, and
+I found them where they fell. Most were grey-bearded men, rough old
+farmers, with wrinkled and kindly faces, hardened by a grand life in sun
+and weather. They were dressed in flannel shirts, rough old jackets of
+brown cloth, rough trousers with braces, weather-stained slouch hats,
+and every variety of boot. Only a few had socks. Some wore the yellow
+"veldt-shoes," some were bare-footed; their boots had probably been
+taken. They lay in their blood, their glazed blue eyes looking over the
+rocks or up to the sky, their ashen hands half-clenched, their teeth
+yellow between their pale blue lips.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the outer wall of "Lady Anne's" sangar, his head resting on its
+stones, lay a white-bearded man, poorly dressed, but refined in face. It
+was De Villiers, the commandant of the Harrismith district&mdash;a relation,
+a brother perhaps, of the Chief Justice De Villiers, who entertained me
+at Bloemfontein less than four months ago. Across his body lay that of a
+much younger man, with a short brown beard. He is thought to have been
+one of the old man's field cornets, and had fought up to the sangar at
+his side till a bullet pierced his eye and brain.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>Pg 229</span></p>
+
+<p>Turning back from the extremity of our position, I went along the whole
+ridge. The ground told one as much as men could tell. Among the rocks
+lay blood-stained English helmets and Dutch hats; piles of English and
+Dutch cartridge-cases, often mixed together in places which both sides
+had occupied; scraps of biltong and leather belts; handkerchiefs, socks,
+pieces of letters, chiefly in Dutch; dropped ball cartridges of every
+model&mdash;Lee-Metford, Mauser, Martini, and Austrian. I found a few
+hollow-nosed bullets, too, expanding like the Dum-Dum. The effect of
+such a bullet was seen on the hat of some poor fellow in the Light
+Horse. There was a tiny hole on one side, but the further side was all
+rent to pieces. I hear some "express" sporting bullets have also been
+taken to the Intelligence Office, but I have not seen them. Beside one
+Boer was found one of the old Martini rifles taken from the 52nd at
+Majuba.</p>
+
+<p>On the top of C&aelig;sar's Camp our dead were laid out for
+burial&mdash;Manchesters, Gordons, and Rifle Brigade together. The Boers
+turned an automatic Maxim on the burying party, thinking they were
+digging earthworks. In the wooded valley at the foot of the hill they
+themselves, under Geneva<span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>Pg 230</span> flags, were searching the bushes and dongas
+for their own dead, and disturbing the little wild deer beside the
+stream. On the summit parties of our own men were still engaged
+unwillingly in finding the Boer dead and carrying them down the cliff.
+Just at the edge of the summit, to which he had climbed in triumph, lay
+the body of a man about twenty. A shell had almost cut him in half....
+Only his face and his hands were untouched. Like most of the dead he had
+the blue eyes and light hair of the well-bred Boer. When first he was
+found, his father's body lay beside him, shattered also, but not so
+horribly. They were identified by letters from home in their pockets.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>Pg 231</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>A PAUSE AND A RENEWAL</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 8, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>All was ready to receive another attack, but the Boers made no sign
+beyond the usual bombardment. One of the wounded&mdash;a Harrismith man&mdash;says
+there is a strong party in favour of peace, men who want to get back to
+their farms and their families. We have heard that tale before, but
+still, here the Boers are fighting for freedom and existence if ever men
+did.</p>
+
+<p>To-day's bombardment nearly destroyed the tents and dhoolies of our
+field hospital, but did little else save beheading and mangling some
+corpses. The troops were changed about a good deal, half the K.R.R.
+being sent to the old Devon post on Helpmakaar road; half the Liverpools
+to King's Post, and the Rifle Brigade to Waggon Hill.</p>
+
+<p>At night there was a thanksgiving service in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>Pg 232</span> Anglican Church. I
+ought to have mentioned earlier that on the night before the attack the
+Dutch held a solemn supplication, calling on God to bless their efforts.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 9, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>One long blank of drenching rain unrelieved by shells, till at sunset a
+stormy light broke in the west, and a few shots were fired.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 10, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>In the night the authorities expected an attack on Observation Hill.
+They hurried out two guns of the 69th Battery to a position outside
+King's Post. The guns were dragged through the heavy slush, but when
+they arrived it was found no guns could live in such a place, fully
+exposed to all fire, and unsupported by infantry. So back came the weary
+men and horses through the slush again, getting to their camp between 2
+and 3 a.m.</p>
+
+<p>At intervals in the night the two mountain guns on Observation Hill kept
+firing star-shell to reveal any possible attack. But none came, and the
+rest of the day was very quiet. My time was occupied in getting off a
+brief heliogram, and sending out another Kaffir with news of Saturday's
+defence. Two have been driven back. The Boers now<span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>Pg 233</span> stretch wires with
+bells across the paths, and it goes hard with any runner caught.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 11, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The enemy was ominously quiet. Bulwan did not fire all day. From King's
+Post, whilst visiting the new fortifications and the guns in their new
+positions all about it, I watched the Boers dragging two field guns
+hastily southward along the western track, perhaps to Springfield Drift,
+over the Tugela. Then a large body&mdash;500 or 600&mdash;galloped hurriedly in
+the same direction.</p>
+
+<p>A sadness was thrown over the day by Lord Ava's death early in the
+afternoon. If he could have recovered the doctors say he would have been
+paralysed or have lost his memory. He was the best type of
+Englishman&mdash;Irish-English, if you will&mdash;excellently made, delighting in
+his strength and all kinds of sport, his eye full of light, his voice
+singularly beautiful and attractive. His courage was extraordinary, and
+did not come of ignorance. At Elands Laagte I saw him with a rifle
+fighting side by side with the Gordons. He went through the battle in
+their firing line, but he told me afterwards that the horror of the
+field had sickened him of war. In manner he was peculiarly<span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>Pg 234</span> frank and
+courteous. I can imagine no one speaking ill of him. His best epitaph
+perhaps is the saying of the Irish sergeant's which I have already
+quoted.</p>
+
+<p>The ration of sugar was increased by one ounce to-day, the mealies by
+two ounces, so as to give the men porridge in the morning. For a
+fortnight past all the milk has been under military control, and can
+only be obtained on a doctor's certificate. We began eating trek-oxen
+three days ago. Some battalions prefer horse-flesh, and get it.
+Dysentery and enteric are as bad as ever, but do not increase in
+proportion to the length of siege. There are 1,700 soldiers at Intombi
+sick camp now. A great many horses die every day, but not of the
+"horse-sickness." Their bodies are thrown on waste ground along the
+Helpmakaar road, and poison the air for the Liverpools and Rifles there.
+To-night the varied smell all over the town is hardly endurable.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 12, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>A quiet day again. Hardly a gun was fired. Wild rumours flew&mdash;the Boers
+were trekking north in crowds&mdash;they were moving the gun on Bulwan&mdash;all
+lies!</p>
+
+<p>I spent the whole day trying to induce a Kaffir to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>Pg 235</span> risk his life for
+&pound;15. A Kaffir lives on mealie-pap, varied by an occasional cow's head.
+He drinks nothing but slightly fermented barley-water. Yet he will not
+risk death for &pound;15! After four false starts, my message remains where it
+was. The last Kaffir who tried to get through the Boers with it was shot
+in the thigh by our pickets as he was returning. That does not encourage
+the rest.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 13, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Between seven and eight in the morning the Bulwan gun hurled three
+shells into our midst, and repeated the exploit in the afternoon. But
+somehow he seemed to have lost form. He was not the Puffing Billy whom
+we knew. We greeted him as one greets an enemy who has come down in the
+world&mdash;with considerate indulgence. The sailors think that his carriage
+is strained.</p>
+
+<p>A British heliograph began flashing to us from Schwarz Kop, a hill only
+one and a half miles over Potgieter's or Springfield Drift on the
+Tugela. It is that way we have always expected Buller's main advance.
+Can this be the herald of it? Most of us have agreed never to mention
+the word "Buller," but it is hard to keep that pledge.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>Pg 236</span></p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I was able to accompany Colonel Stoneman (A.S.C.) over
+the scene of battle on C&aelig;sar's Camp. His duties in organising the food
+supply keep him so tied to his office&mdash;one of the best shelled places in
+the town&mdash;that he has never been up there before. All was quiet&mdash;the
+mountains silent in the sunset. The Boers had been moving steadily
+westward and south. They had taken some of their guns on carts covered
+with brushwood. We had not more than half a dozen shots fired at us all
+round that ridge which had blazed with death a week ago. In his tent on
+the summit we found General Ian Hamilton. It was to his energy and
+personal knowledge of his men that last Saturday's success was
+ultimately due. Not a day passes but he visits every point in his
+brigade's defences.</p>
+
+<p>All in camp were saddened by the condition of Mr. Steevens, of the
+<i>Daily Mail</i>. Yesterday he was convalescent. To-day his life hangs by a
+thread. That is the way of enteric.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, January 14, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Absolute silence still from the Tugela. On a low black hill beyond its
+banks I could see the British heliograph flashing. On a spur beside it
+I<span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>Pg 237</span> was told a British outpost was stationed. In the afternoon we thought
+we heard guns again, but it was only thunder. With a telescope on
+Observation Hill I saw the Boers riding about their camps. On the Great
+Plain they were digging long trenches and stretching barbed wire
+entanglements. To-day all was peaceful. The sun set amid crimson
+thunder-clouds behind the Drakensberg; there was no sign of war save the
+whistle of a persistent sniper's bullet over my head. Our weather-beaten
+soldiers were trying to make themselves comfortable for the night in
+their little heaps of stones.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 15, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>This is the day I had fixed upon long ago for our relief. There were
+rumours of fighting by the Tugela, and some said they had seen squadrons
+of our cavalry and even Staff officers galloping on the further limits
+of the Great Plain. But beyond the wish, there is no need to believe
+what they said.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning Steevens, of the <i>Daily Mail</i>, was so much worse that we
+sent off a warning message to Mrs. Steevens by heliograph. At least I
+climbed to all the new signal stations in turn, trying to get it sent,
+but found the instruments<span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>Pg 238</span> full up with official despatches. Major
+Donegan (R.A.M.C.) was called in to consult with Major Davis, of the
+Imperial Light Horse, who has treated the case with the utmost patience
+and skill. Strychnine was injected, and about noon we recovered hope. A
+galloper was sent to stop the message, and succeeded. Steevens became
+conscious for a time, and Maud, of the <i>Graphic</i>, explained to him that
+now it was a fight for life. "All right," he answered, "let's have a
+drink, then." Some champagne was given him, and he seemed better. When
+warned against talking, he said, "Well, you are in command. I'll do what
+you like. We are going to pull through." Maud then went to sleep at
+last, and between four and five Steevens passed quietly from sleep into
+death.</p>
+
+<p>Everything that could possibly be done for him had been done. For five
+weeks Maud had nursed him with a devotion that no woman could surpass.
+Two days ago we thought him almost well. He talked of what it would be
+best to do when the siege was raised, so as to complete his recovery.
+And now he is dead. He was only thirty. What is to most distinguished
+men the best part of life was still before him. In eight working years
+he<span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>Pg 239</span> had already made a name known to all the Army and to thousands
+beyond its limits. Beyond question he had the touch of genius. The
+individuality of his power perhaps lay in a clear perception transfused
+with an imaginative wit that never failed him. The promise of that
+genius was not fulfilled, but it was felt in all he said and wrote. And
+beyond this power of mind he possessed the attractiveness of courtesy
+and straightforward dealing. No one ever knew him descend to the tricks
+and dodges of the trade. There was not a touch of "smartness" in his
+disposition. On the field he was too reckless of his life. I saw him
+often during the fighting at Elands Laagte, Tinta Inyoni, and Lombard's
+Kop. He was usually walking about close to the firing line, leading his
+grey horse, a conspicuous mark for every bullet. Veteran officers used
+to marvel that he was not hit. In the midst of it all he would stand
+quite unconcerned, and speak in his usual voice&mdash;slow, trenchant,
+restrained by a cynicism that came partly from youth and an English
+horror of fuss. How different from the voice of unconsciousness which I
+heard raving in his room only this morning!</p>
+
+<p>To-night we buried him. The coffin was not ready till half-past eleven.
+All the London cor<span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>Pg 240</span>respondents came, and a few officers, Colonel
+Stoneman (A.S.C.) and Major Henderson, of the Intelligence Department,
+representing the Staff. Many more would have come, but nearly the whole
+garrison was warned for duty. About twenty-five of us, all mounted,
+followed the little glass hearse with its black and white
+embellishments. The few soldiers and sentries whom we passed halted and
+gave the last salute. There was a full moon, covered with clouds, that
+let the light through at their misty edges. A soft rain fell as we
+lowered the coffin by thin ropes into the grave. The Boer searchlight on
+Bulwan was sweeping the half circle of the English defences from end to
+end, and now and then it opened its full white eye upon us, as though
+the enemy wondered what we were doing there. We were laying to rest a
+man of assured, though unaccomplished genius, whose heart had still been
+full of hopes and generosity. One who had not lost the affections and
+charm of youth, nor been dulled either by success or disappointment.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"From the contagion of the world's slow stain<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He is secure; and now can never mourn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A heart grown old, a head grown grey, in vain&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nor when the spirit's self has ceased to burn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn."<br /></span>
+</div></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>Pg 241</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 16, 1900</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A day of unfulfilled expectation, unrelieved even by lies and rumours.
+From the top of Observation Hill I again watched the Dutch in their
+clustered camps, fourteen miles away across the great plain, whilst our
+heliograph flashed to us from the dark hill beyond them. But there was
+no sound of the expected guns, and every one lost heart a little.</p>
+
+<p>At the market, eggs were a guinea a dozen. Four pounds of oatmeal sold
+for 11s. 6d. A four-ounce tin of English tobacco fetched 30s. Out of our
+original numbers of about 12,000 nearly 3,000 are now sick or wounded at
+Intombi, and there are over 200 graves there. More helpers are wanted,
+and to-day Colonel Stoneman summoned 150 loafers from their holes in the
+river-bank, and called for twenty volunteers. No one came, so he has
+stopped their rations till they can agree among themselves to produce
+the twenty ready to start.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 17, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The far-off mutter of Buller's guns began at half-past five a.m., and
+lasted nearly all day. From King's Post I watched the stretch of
+plain&mdash;Six Mile Flats, the official map calls it&mdash;leading away to
+Potgieter's Drift, where his troops are probably<span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>Pg 242</span> crossing. I could see
+three of the little Dutch camps, and here and there bodies of Boers
+moving over the country. Suddenly in the midst of the plain, just our
+side of the camp near "Wesse's Plantation," a great cloud of smoke and
+dust arose, and slowly drifted away. Beyond doubt, it was the bursting
+of a British shell. Aimed at the camp it overshot the mark, and landed
+on the empty plain. As a messenger of hope to us all it was not lost.
+The distance was only fourteen miles from where I stood&mdash;a morning's
+walk&mdash;less than an hour and a half's ride. Yet our relief may take many
+days yet, and it will cost hundreds of lives to cross that little space.
+The Boers have placed a new gun on the Bluebank ridge. It is disputed
+whether it faces us or Buller's line of approach over the Great Plain.
+The whole ridge is now covered from end to end with walls, traverses,
+and sangars.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 18, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>In the early morning the welcome sound of Buller's guns was not so
+frequent as yesterday. But it continued steadily, and between four and
+five increased to an almost unbroken thunder. From the extremity of
+Waggon Hill, I watched the great cloud of dust and smoke which rose from
+the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>Pg 243</span> distant plain as each shell burst. The Dutch camps were still in
+position, and we could only conjecture that the British were trying to
+clear the river-bank and the hills commanding it, so as to secure the
+passage of the ford.</p>
+
+<p>While I was there the enemy threw several shrapnel over the Rifle
+Brigade outpost. Major Brodiewald, Brigade Major to the Natal Volunteers
+under Colonel Royston, was sitting on the rocks watching Buller's shells
+like myself. A shrapnel bullet struck him in the mouth and passed out at
+the back of his neck. He was carried down the hill, his blood dripping
+upon the stones along the track. In the afternoon one of the bluejackets
+was also seriously wounded by shrapnel. The bombardment was heavy all
+day, the Bulwan gun firing right over Convent Hill and plunging shells
+into the Naval Camp, the Leicesters, and the open ground near
+Headquarters. It looks as if a spy had told where the General and Staff
+are to be found.</p>
+
+<p>The market quotations at this evening's auction were fluctuating. Eggs
+sprang up from a guinea to 30s. a dozen. Jam started at 30s. the 6lb.
+jar. Maizena was 5s. a pound. On the other hand, tobacco fell. Egyptian
+cigarettes were only 1s.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>Pg 244</span> each, and Navy Cut went for 4s. an ounce.
+During a siege one realises how much more than bread, meat, and water is
+required for health. Flour and trek-ox still hold out, and we receive
+the regulation short rations. Yet there is hardly one of us who is not
+tortured by some internal complaint, and many die simply for want of
+common little luxuries. In nearly all cases where I have been able to
+try the experiment I have cured a man with any little variety I had in
+store or could procure&mdash;rice, chocolate, cake, tinned fruit, or soups. I
+wonder how the enemy are getting on with the biltong and biscuit.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 19, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Before noon, as I rode round the outposts, I found the good news flying
+that good news had come. It was thought best not to tell us what, lest,
+like children, we should cry if disappointed. But it is confidently said
+that Buller's force has crossed the Tugela in three places&mdash;Wright's
+Drift eastward, Potgieter's Drift in the centre, and at a point further
+west, perhaps Klein waterfall, where there is a nine-mile plain leading
+to Acton Homes. The names of the brigades are even stated, and the
+number of losses. It is said the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>Pg 245</span> Boers have been driven from two
+positions. But there may not be one word of truth in the whole story.</p>
+
+<p>I was early on Observation Hill, watching that strip of plain to the
+south-west. No shells were bursting on it to-day, and the sound of guns
+was not so frequent. Our heliograph flashed from the far-off Zwartz Kop,
+and high above it, looking hardly bigger than a vulture against the pale
+blue of the Drakensberg precipices, rose Buller's balloon, showing just
+a point of lustre on its skin.</p>
+
+<p>The view from Observation Hill is far the finest, but the whiz of
+bullets over the rocks scarcely ever stops, and now and again a shell
+comes screaming into the rank grass at one's feet.</p>
+
+<p>To-day we enjoyed a further variety, well worth the risk. At the foot of
+Surprise Hill, hardly 1,500 yards from our position, the Boers have
+placed a mortar. Now and then it throws a huge column of smoke straight
+up into the air. The first I thought was a dynamite explosion, but after
+a few seconds I heard a growing whisper high above my head, as though a
+falling star had lost its way, and plump came a great shell into the
+grass, making a 3ft. hole in the reddish earth, and bursting with no end
+of a bang. We collected<span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>Pg 246</span> nearly all the bits and fitted them together.
+It was an eight or nine-inch globe, reminding one of those "bomb-shells"
+which heroes of old used to catch up in their hands and plunge into
+water-buckets. The most amusing part of it was the fuse&mdash;a thick plug of
+wood running through the shell and pierced with the flash-channel down
+its centre. It was burnt to charcoal, but we could still make out the
+holes bored in its side at intervals to convert it into a time-fuse.
+This is the "one mortar" catalogued in our Intelligence book. It was
+satisfactory to have located it. Two guns of the 69th Battery threw
+shrapnel over its head all morning; then the Naval guns had a turn and
+seem to have reduced it to silence.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon there was an auction of Steevens's horses and camp
+equipment. Many officers came, and the usual knot of greedy civilians on
+the look-out for a bargain. As auctioneer I had great satisfaction in
+running the prices up beyond their calculation. But in another way they
+got the best of the old country to-day. Colonel Stoneman, having
+discovered a hidden store of sugar, was selling it at the fair price of
+4d. a pound to any one who pledged his word he was sick and in need of
+it. Round clustered the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>Pg 247</span> innocent local dealers with sick and sorry
+looks, swearing by any god they could remember that sugar alone would
+save their lives, paid their fourpences, and then sold the stuff for 2s.
+outside the door.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 20, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Again I was on Observation Hill two or three times in the day. It is
+impossible to keep away from it long. The rumble of the British guns was
+loud but intermittent, but the Boer camps remain where they were. With
+us the bombardment continued pretty steadily. After a silence of two
+days "Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, threw one shell into the town and six
+among the Devons. His usual answer to the report that he has worn
+himself out or been carried away. Whilst he was firing I tried to get
+sight of a small mocking bird, which has learnt to imitate the warning
+whistle of the sentries. In the Gordons the Hindoo, Purriboo Singh, from
+Benares, stands on a huge heap of sacks under an umbrella all day and
+screams when he sees the big gun flash. But in the other camps, as I
+have mentioned, a sentry gives warning by blowing a whistle. The mocking
+bird now sounds that whistle at all times of the day, and what is even
+more perplexing, he is learning to imitate the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>Pg 248</span> scream and buzzle of the
+shell through the air. He may learn the explosion next. I mention this
+peculiar fact for the benefit of future ornithologists, who might
+otherwise be puzzled at his form of song.</p>
+
+<p>Another interesting event in natural history occurred a short time ago
+up the Port road. A Bulwan shell, missing the top of Convent Hill,
+lobbed over and burst at random with its usual din and circumstance.
+People rushed up to see what damage it had done, but they only found two
+little dead birds&mdash;one with a tiny hole in her breast, the other with an
+eye knocked out. Ninety-six pounds of iron, brass, and melinite, hurled
+four miles through the air, at unknown cost, just to deal a true-lovers'
+death to two sparrows, five of which are sold for one farthing!</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, January 21, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>After varying my trek-ox rations by catching a kind of barbel with a
+worm in the yellow Klip, I went again to Observation Hill, and with the
+greater interest because every one was saying two of the Boer camps were
+in flames. Of course it was a lie. The camps stood in their usual places
+quite undisturbed. But I saw one of our great<span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>Pg 249</span> shells burst high up the
+mountain side of Taba Nyama (Black Mountain) instead of on the plain at
+its foot, and with that sign of forward movement I was obliged to be
+content.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>Pg 250</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>"WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE"</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 22, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Twelve weeks to-day since Black Monday, when our isolation really began!
+A heliogram came from Buller to say all was going well, and in this
+evening's Orders we were officially informed that relief is "within
+measurable distance." I don't know about time, but in space that
+measurable distance is hardly more than fifteen miles. From Observation
+Hill I again watched the British shells breaking over the ridge above
+the ford. The Boers had moved one of their waggon laagers a little
+further back, but the main camps were unchanged. With a telescope I
+could make out where their hospital was&mdash;in a cottage by a wood&mdash;and I
+followed an ambulance waggon driving at a trot to three or four points
+on<span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>Pg 251</span> ridge and plain, gathering up the sick or wounded, and returning to
+hospital.</p>
+
+<p>The mass of Boers appeared to be lying under the shelter of Taba Nyama
+(or Intaba Mnyama&mdash;Black Mountain). It is a nine-mile range of hills
+running east and west, nearly parallel to the Tugela, and having
+Potgieter's Drift on its left. The left extremity, looking over the
+Drift, rises into double peaks, and is called Mabedhlane, or the Paps,
+by Zulus. The main Boer position appears to be halfway up these peaks
+and along the range to their right. To-day it is said that the relieving
+force intends to approach the mountain by parallels, sapping and mining
+as it goes, and treating the positions like a medi&aelig;val fortress, or one
+of those ramparted and turreted cities which "Uncle Toby" used to
+besiege on the bowling green.</p>
+
+<p>One's only fear is about the delay. The population at Intombi is now
+approaching 4,000, nearly 3,000 being sick. I doubt if we could put
+4,000 men in the field to-day. Men and horses crawl feebly about, shaken
+with every form of internal pain and weakness. Women suffer even more.
+The terror of the shells has caused thirty-two premature births since
+the siege began. It is<span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>Pg 252</span> true a heliogram to-day tells us there are
+seventy-four big waggons waiting at Frere for our relief&mdash;milk,
+vegetables, forage, eleven waggons of rum, fifty cases of whisky, 5,000
+cigarettes, and so on. But all depends upon those parallels, so slowly
+advancing against Taba Nyama, and our insides are being sapped and mined
+far more quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Towards noon a disaster occurred, which has depressed the whole town.
+Two of the <i>Powerful's</i> bluejackets have lately been making what they
+called a good thing by emptying unexploded Boer shells of their charges,
+so that the owners might display them with safety and pride when the
+siege is over. For this service they generally received 10s. each. It is
+only two days since they were in my cottage&mdash;chiselling out the melinite
+from a complete "Long Tom" shell which alighted in my old Scot's garden.
+I watched them accomplish that task safely, and this morning they set to
+work upon a similar shell by order of the Wesleyan minister, who wished
+to keep it in his window as a symbol of Christianity. One of the men was
+holding it between his knees, while the other was quietly chipping away,
+when suddenly it exploded. Fragments of one of the men strewed the
+minister's house&mdash;the other lay won<span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>Pg 253</span>dering upon the ground, but
+without his legs. Whilst I write he is still nominally alive, and keeps
+asking for his mate. One of his legs has been picked up near the Town
+Hall&mdash;about 150 yards away.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image14" name="image14">
+<img src="images/14.jpg" width="600" height="288" alt="SPECIMENS OF BOER SHELLS" title="SPECIMENS OF BOER SHELLS" /></a>
+<span class="caption">SPECIMENS OF BOER SHELLS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A lesser disaster this morning befel Captain Jennings Bramley, of the
+19th Hussars. Whilst on picket he felt something slide over his legs,
+and looking up he saw it was a snake over 5ft. long. The creature at
+once raised its head also, and deliberately spat in his face, filling
+both eyes with poison. That is the invariable defence of the "Spitting
+Snake" (<i>Rinkholz</i> in Dutch, and <i>Mbamba Twan</i> or child catcher in
+Zulu). The pain is agonising. The eye turns red and appears to run with
+blood, but after a day or two the poison passes off and sight returns.
+The snake is not otherwise poisonous, but apparently can count on
+success in its shots at men, leopards, or dogs.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 23, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Soon after dawn our own guns along the northern defences from Tunnel
+Hill to King's Post woke me with an extraordinary din. They could not
+have made more noise about another general attack, but there was no
+rifle fire. Getting<span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>Pg 254</span> up very unwillingly at 4.30 a.m., I climbed up
+Junction Hill and looked up the Broad valley, but not a single Boer was
+in sight. The firing went on till about six, and then abruptly ceased. I
+heard afterwards that Buller had asked us to keep as many Boers here as
+possible. I suppose we expended about 200 rounds of our precious
+ammunition. A cool and cloudy sky made the heliograph useless, but in
+the night the clouds had served to reflect the brilliance of Buller's
+searchlight.</p>
+
+<p>So far the Boers have passed us all round in strategy, but in
+searchlights they are nowhere, though Bulwan makes a grand attempt. All
+day from King's Post or Waggon Hill I watched the Great Plain of Taba
+Nyama as usual. Now and then we could see the shells bursting, but the
+Boer camps have not moved.</p>
+
+<p>The ration coffee has come to an end, except a reserve of 3 cwt, which
+would hardly last a day. The tea ration is again reduced. The flour
+mixed with mealy meal makes a very sour bread. The big 5th Lancers
+horses are so hungry that at night they eat not only their picket ropes
+but each other's manes and tails. They are so weak that they fall three
+or four times in an hour if the men ride them. Enteric is not quite so
+bad as it was,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>Pg 255</span> but dysentery increases. The numbers of military sick
+alone at Intombi, not counting all the sick in the camps and hospitals
+here, are 2,040 to-day.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 24, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The entire interest of the day was centred on Taba Nyama&mdash;that black
+mountain, commanding the famous drift in its front and the stretch of
+plain behind. It is fifteen miles away. From Observation Hill one could
+see the British shells bursting along this ridge all morning, as well as
+in the midst of the Boer tents half-way down the double peaks, and at
+the foot of the hill. The firing began at 3 a.m., and lasted with
+extreme severity till noon, the average of audible shells being at least
+five a minute. We could also see the white bursts of shrapnel from our
+field artillery. In the afternoon I went to Waggon Hill, and with the
+help of a telescope made out a large body of men&mdash;about 1,000 I
+suppose&mdash;creeping up the distant crest and spreading along the summit. I
+could only conjecture them to be English from their presence on the
+exposed ridge, and from their regular though widely extended formation.
+They were hardly visible except as a series of black points.
+Thunderclouds hung over the Drakensberg behind, and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>Pg 256</span> sun was
+obscured. Yet I had no doubt in my own mind that the position was won.
+It was five o'clock, or a little later.</p>
+
+<p>Others saw large parties of Boers fleeing for life up dongas and over
+plains, the phantom carriage-and-four driving hastily north-westward
+after an urgent warning, and other such melodramatic incidents, which
+escaped my notice. The position of the falling shells, and the movement
+of those minute black specks were to me enough of drama for one day's
+life.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening, I am told, the General received a signal from Buller:
+"Have taken hill. Fight went well." No one thought or talked of anything
+but the prospect of near relief. Yet (besides old Bulwan's violent
+bombardment of the station) there was one other event in the day
+deserving record. Hearing an unhappy case of an officer's widow left
+destitute, Colonel Knox, commanding the Divisional Troops, has offered
+twelve bottles of whisky for auction to-morrow, and hopes to make &pound;100
+by the sale. I think he will succeed, unless Buller shakes the market.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 25, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Before 6 a.m. I was on Observation Hill again, watching. One hopeful
+sign was at once obvious.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>Pg 257</span> The Boer waggon-laagers were breaking up. The
+two great lines of waggons between the plantations near Pinkney's farm
+were gone. By 6.30 they were all creeping away with their oxen up a road
+that runs north-west among the hills in the direction of Tintwa Pass. It
+was the most hopeful movement we had yet seen, but one large laager was
+still left at the foot of Fos Kop, or Mount Moriah.</p>
+
+<p>The early morning was bright, but a mist soon covered the sun. Rain
+fell, and though the air afterwards was strangely clear, the heliograph
+could not be used till the afternoon. We were left in uncertainty.
+Shells were bursting along the ridge of Taba Nyama, on the double peaks
+and the Boer tents below. Only on the highest point in the centre we
+could see no firing, and that in itself was hopeful. About 8 a.m. the
+fire slackened and ceased. We conjectured an armistice. Through a
+telescope we could see little black specks on the centre of the hill;
+they appeared to be building sangars. The Naval Cone Redoubt, having the
+best telescope, report that the walls are facing this way. In that case
+the black specks were probably British, and yet not even in the morning
+sun did we get a word of certainty. We hardly know what to think.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>Pg 258</span></p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon the situation was rather worse. We saw the shelling
+begin again, but no progress seemed to be made. About 4 p.m. we
+witnessed a miserable sight. Along the main track which crosses the
+Great Plain and passes round the end of Telegraph Hill, almost within
+range of our guns, came a large party of men tramping through the dust.
+They were in khaki uniforms, marched in fours, and kept step.
+Undoubtedly they were British prisoners on their way to Pretoria. Their
+numbers were estimated at fifty, ninety, and 150 by different look-out
+stations. In front and rear trudged an unorganised gang of Boers,
+evidently acting as escort. It was a miserable and depressing thing to
+see.</p>
+
+<p>At last a cipher message began to come through on the heliograph. There
+was immense excitement at the Signal Station. The figures were taken
+down. Colonel Duff buttoned the precious paper in his pocket. Off he
+galloped to Headquarters. Major De Courcy Hamilton was called to
+decipher the news. It ran as follows: "Kaffir deserter from Boer lines
+reports guns on Bulwan and Telegraph Hills removed!"</p>
+
+<p>It was dated a day or two back. To-day both guns mentioned have been
+unusually active. Their<span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>Pg 259</span> shells have been bursting thick among us, and
+the sound of their firing must have been quite audible below. Yet this
+was the message.</p>
+
+<p>Eggs to-night fetched 30s. 6d. per dozen; a sucking pig 35s.; a chicken
+20s. In little over a week we shall have to begin killing our horses
+because they will have nothing to eat.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 26, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Full of hopes and fears, I rode early up to Observation Hill as usual,
+and saw at once that the Boer waggon-laagers, which I watched departing
+yesterday, had returned in the night. Perhaps there were not quite so
+many waggons, and the site had been shifted a few hundred yards. But
+still there they stood again. Their presence is not hopeful, but it does
+not imply disaster. They may have gone in haste, and been recalled at
+leisure. Buller may have demanded their return under the conditions of a
+possible armistice. They may even have found the passes blocked by our
+men. Anyhow, there they are, and their return is the only important news
+of the day.</p>
+
+<p>No message or tidings came through. The day was cloudy, and ended in
+quiet rain. We saw a few shells fall on the plain at the foot of Taba<span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>Pg 260</span>
+Nyama, and what looked like a few on the summit. But nothing else could
+be made out, except that the Boer ambulances were very busy driving
+round.</p>
+
+<p>Among ourselves the chief event was the feverish activity of the
+Telegraph Hill big gun. Undeterred by our howitzers, he continued nearly
+all morning throwing shells at every point within sight. By one supreme
+effort, tilting his nose high up into the air, he threw one sheer up to
+the Manchesters on C&aelig;sar's Camp&mdash;a range of some 12,000 yards, the
+gunners say. Perhaps he was trying to make up for the silence of his
+Bulwan brother. It is rumoured that Pepworth Hill is to have a successor
+to the "Long Tom" of earlier and happier days. Six empty waggons with
+double spans of oxen were seen yesterday wending towards Bulwan.</p>
+
+<p>Our hunger is increasing. Men and horses suffer horribly from weakness
+and disease. About fifteen horses die a day, and the survivors gasp and
+cough at every step, or fall helpless.</p>
+
+<p>Biscuits are to be issued to-night instead of bread, because flour is
+running short. It is believed that not 500 men could be got together
+capable of marching five miles under arms, so prevalent are all diseases
+of the bowels. As to luxuries, even the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>Pg 261</span> cavalry are smoking the used
+tea-leaves out of the breakfast kettles. "They give you a kind of hot
+taste," they say.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 27, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>I was again on Observation Hill, watching. Nothing had changed, and
+there was no sign of movement. The Boers rode to and fro as usual, and
+their cattle grazed in scattered herds. Now and then a big gun fired,
+but I could see no bursting shells, and the sound seemed further away. I
+crossed the broad valley to Leicester Post. Our cattle and horses were
+trying to pick up a little grass there, while the howitzer and automatic
+"pom-pom" shelled them from Surprise Hill. "Pom-poms" are elegant little
+shells, about five inches long, and some with pointed heads were
+designed for the British Navy, but rejected. The cattle sniff at them
+inquisitively, and Kaffirs rush for a perfect specimen, which fetches
+from 10s. to 30s. For they are suitable presents for ladies, but
+unhappily all that fell near me to-day exploded into fragments.</p>
+
+<p>The telescope on Leicester Post showed me nothing new. Not a single man
+was now to be seen on Spion Kop or the rest of Taba Nyama. At two
+o'clock the evil news reached us. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>Pg 262</span> heliograph briefly told the
+story; the central hill captured by the British on Wednesday afternoon,
+recaptured at night by the Boers, and held by them ever since. Our loss
+about five hundred and some prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>It was the worst news we have yet received, all the harder to bear
+because our hopes had been raised to confidence. It is harder to face
+disappointment now than six weeks ago. Even on biscuit and trek-oxen we
+can only live for thirty-two days longer, and nearly all the horses must
+die. The worst is that in their sickness and pain the men could hardly
+resist another assault. The sickness of the garrison is not to be
+measured by hospital returns, for nearly every one on duty is ill,
+though he may refuse to "go sick." The record of Intombi Camp is not
+cheering. The total of military sick to-day is 1,861, including 828
+cases of enteric, 259 cases of dysentery, and 312 wounded. The numbers
+have slightly diminished lately because an average of fourteen a day
+have been dying, and all convalescents are hurried back to Ladysmith.
+The number of graves down there now is 282 for men and five for
+officers, but deaths increase so fast that long trenches are dug, and
+the bodies laid in two rows, one above the other.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>Pg 263</span> "You see," said the
+gravedigger, "I'm goin' to put Patrick O'Connor here with Daniel
+Murphy."</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, January 28, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>From my station on Observation Hill I could see a new Boer laager drawn
+up, about six miles away, at the far end of the Long Valley. Otherwise
+all remains quiet and unmoved. Three or four distant guns were heard in
+the afternoon, but that was all.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole the spirit of the garrison was much more cheerful. We began
+to talk again of possible relief within a week. The heliograph brought a
+message of thanks from Lord Roberts for our "heroic, splendid defence."
+Every one felt proud and happy. The words were worth a fresh brigade.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning a consultation was held on the condition of the cavalry
+horses. At first it was determined to kill three hundred, so as to save
+food for the rest, but afterwards the orders were to turn them out on
+the flat beyond the racecourse, and let them survive if they could. The
+artillery horses must be fed as long as possible. The unfortunate walers
+of the 19th Hussars will probably be among the first to go. Coming
+straight from<span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>Pg 264</span> India, they were put to terribly hard work on landing,
+and have never recovered. Walers cannot do on grass which keeps local
+horses and even Arabs fat enough. What the average horse is chiefly
+suffering from now is a kind of influenza, accompanied by a frightful
+cough. My own talking horse kept trying to lie down to-day, and said he
+felt languid and queer. When he endeavoured to trot or canter a cough
+took him fit to break his mother's heart.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>Pg 265</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>HOPE DEFERRED</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 29, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The only change to-day was the steady passage of Boers westward, to
+concentrate afresh round Taba Nyama. Their new laager up the Long Valley
+had disappeared. Large bodies of men had been seen coming up from
+Colenso. The crisis of the war in Natal is evidently near. Meantime
+Kaffir deserters brought in a lot of chatter about the recent fighting.
+On one point they generally agreed&mdash;that Kruger himself was with his
+men. It is very likely. The staunch old prophet and patriot would hardly
+stay away when the issue involves the existence of his people.</p>
+
+<p>But when the Kaffirs go on to say that Kruger, Joubert, and Steyn stood
+together on Mount<span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>Pg 266</span> Moriah (Loskop) to witness the battle, the addition
+may be only picturesque. It would be well if that were the worst fiction
+credulity swallowed. One of the head nurses from Intombi told me to-day
+that the Boers had bribed an old herbalist&mdash;she thought at Dundee or
+somewhere&mdash;to reveal a terrible poison, into which they dipped their
+cartridges, and even the bullets inside their shrapnel! To this she
+attributed the suppuration of several recent wounds. Of the garrison's
+unhealthy condition she took no account whatever. No, it was poison. She
+had heard the tale somewhere&mdash;from a railway official, she thought&mdash;and
+believed it with the assurance of the Christian verity. Nearly every one
+is like that, and the wildest story finds disciples.</p>
+
+<p>Rations are again reduced to-day to the following quantities: tinned
+meat 1/2 lb., or fresh meat 1 lb.; biscuit 1/2 lb., or bread 1 lb.; tea,
+1/6 oz.; sugar, 1-1/2 ozs.; salt, 1/2 oz., and pepper 1/36 oz.</p>
+
+<p>It has also been decided to turn all the horses out to grass, except the
+artillery, three hundred from the cavalry, seventy officers' chargers,
+and twenty engineers' draught. These few are to be kept fed with rations
+of 3 lbs. of mealies, 4 lbs. of chaff, 16 lbs. of grass, 1-1/2 ozs. of
+salt. The artillery<span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>Pg 267</span> horses will get 2 lbs. of oats or bran besides. In
+the Imperial Light Horse they are killing one of their horses every
+other day, and eating him.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 30, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Mortals depend for their happiness not only on their circulation but on
+the weather. To-day was certainly the gloomiest in all the siege. It
+rained steadily night and morning, the steaming heat was overpowering,
+and we sludged about, sweating like the victims of a foul Turkish bath.
+Towards evening it suddenly turned cold. Black and dismal clouds hung
+over all the hills. The distance was fringed with funereal indigo. The
+wearied garrison crept through their duties, hungry and gaunt as ghosts.
+There was no heliograph to cheer us up, and hardly a sound of distant
+guns. The rumour had got abroad that we were to be left to our fate,
+whilst Roberts, with the main column, diverted all England's thoughts to
+Bloemfontein. Like one man we lost our spirits, our hopes, and our
+tempers.</p>
+
+<p>The depression probably arose from the reduction of rations which I
+mentioned yesterday. The remaining food has been organised to last
+another<span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>Pg 268</span> forty-two days, and it is, of course, assumed we shall have to
+use it all, whereas the new arrangement is only a precaution. Colonel
+Ward and Colonel Stoneman are not to be caught off their guard. One of
+their chief difficulties just now is the large body of Indians&mdash;bearers,
+sais, bakers, servants of all kinds&mdash;who came over with the troops, and
+will not eat the sacred cow. Out of about 2,000, only 487 will consent
+to do that. The remainder can only get very little rice and mealies.
+Their favourite ghi, or clarified butter, has entirely gone, and their
+hunger is pitiful. The question now is whether or not their religious
+scruples will allow them to eat horse.</p>
+
+<p>Most of us have been eating horse to-day with excellent result. But one
+of the most pitiful things I have seen in all the war was the
+astonishment and terror of the cavalry horses at being turned loose on
+the hills and not allowed to come back to their accustomed lines at
+night. All afternoon one met parties of them strolling aimlessly about
+the roads or up the rocky footpaths&mdash;poor anatomies of death, with
+skeleton ribs and drooping eyes. At about seven o'clock two or three
+hundred of them gathered on the road through the hollow between Convent
+Hill and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>Pg 269</span> Cove Redoubt, and tried to rush past the Naval Brigade to
+the cavalry camp, where they supposed their food and grooming and
+cheerful society were waiting for them as usual. They had to be driven
+back by mounted Basutos with long whips, till at last they turned
+wearily away to spend the night upon the bare hillside.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image15" name="image15">
+<img src="images/15.jpg" width="600" height="422" alt="INDIAN BAKERY" title="INDIAN BAKERY" /></a>
+<span class="caption">INDIAN BAKERY</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>January 31, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Again the sky was clouded, and except during an hour's sunshine in the
+afternoon no heliograph could work. But below the clouds the distance
+was singularly clear, and one could see all the Dutch camps, and the
+Boers moving over the plain. The camps are a little reduced. Only four
+tents are left in the white string that hung down the side of Taba
+Nyama.</p>
+
+<p>Two parties, of forty Boers apiece, passed north along the road behind
+Telegraph Ridge whilst I was on Observation Hill in the morning. But
+there was no special meaning in their movements, and absolutely no news
+came in. Only rumours, the rumours of despair&mdash;Warren surrounded,
+Buller's ammunition train attacked and cut to pieces, the whole
+relieving force in hopeless straits.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>Pg 270</span></p>
+
+<p>In the town and camps things went on as usual, under a continued weight
+of depression. The cold and wet of the night brought on a terrible
+increase of dysentery, and I never saw the men look so wretched and
+pinched. When officers in high quarters talk magnificently about the
+excellent spirits of the troops, I think they do not always realise what
+those excellent spirits imply. I wish they had more time to visit the
+remnants of battalions defending the hills&mdash;out in cold and rain all
+night, out in the blazing sun all day, with nothing to look forward to
+but a trek-ox or a horse stewed in unseasoned water, two biscuits or
+some sour bread, and a tasteless tea, generally half cold. No beer, no
+tobacco, no variety at all. To me, one of the highest triumphs of the
+siege is the achievement of MacNalty, a young lieutenant of the Army
+Service Corps. For nights past he has been working in the station engine
+shed at an apparatus of his own invention for boiling down horses into
+soup. After many experiments in process and flavouring, and many
+disappointments, he has secured an admirable essence of horse. This will
+sound familiar and commonplace to people who can get a bottle of such
+things at grocer's, but it may save many a good<span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>Pg 271</span> soldier's life none the
+less. I hope to see the process at work, and describe it later on.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lines, the town clerk, who has quietly stuck to his duties in spite
+of confusion and shells, gave me details to-day of the rations allowed
+to civilians. During the siege there has been a fairly steady white
+population of 560 residents and 540 refugees, or 1,100 in all. This does
+not include the civilians at Intombi, whose numbers are still
+unpublished. Practically all the civilians are drawing rations, for
+which they apply at the market between 5 and 7 p.m. They get groceries,
+bread or biscuit, and meat in the same quantities as the soldiers.
+Children under ten receive half rations. Each applicant has to be
+recommended by the mayor or magistrate, and brings a check with him. I
+suppose the promise to pay at the end of the siege is only a nominal
+formula.</p>
+
+<p>The civilian Indians and Kaffirs number 150 and 300 respectively, and
+draw their rations at the station, the organisation being under Major
+Thompson, A.C.G., as is the whole of the milk supply, now set aside for
+the sick. The Indian ration is atta, 4 oz.; rice, 3 oz.; mealie meal, 9
+oz.; salt, 1/2 oz.; goor, 1-1/4 oz.; amchur, 1/4 oz. And those who will
+eat meat get 8 oz. twice a week instead<span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>Pg 272</span> of mealies. The Kaffir ration
+is simpler: fresh meat, 1 lb.; mealie meal, 3/4 lb.; salt, 1/2 oz.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 1, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>How we should have laughed in November at the thought of being shut up
+here till February? But here we are, and the outlook grows more
+hopeless. People are miserably depressed. It would be impossible to get
+up sports or concerts now. Too many are sick, too many dead. The
+laughter has gone out of the siege, or remains only as bitter laughter
+when the word relief is spoken. We are allowed to know nothing for
+certain, but the conviction grows that we are to be left to our fate for
+another three weeks at least, while the men slowly rot. A Natal paper
+has come in with an account of Buller's defeat at Taba Nyama on the
+25th. We read with astonishment the loud praises of a masterly retreat
+over the Tugela without the loss of a single man. When shall we hear of
+a masterly advance to our aid? Do we lose no men?</p>
+
+<p>To-day the morning was cold and cloudy, as it has been since Monday, but
+the sun broke out for an hour or two, in the afternoon, and official
+messages could be sent through<span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>Pg 273</span> by heliograph. For information and
+relief we received the following words, and those only:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"German specialist landed Delagoa Bay pledges himself to dam up
+Klip River and flood Ladysmith out."</p></div>
+
+<p>That was all they deigned to tell us.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 2, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>After a misty dawn, soaked with minute rain, the sky slowly cleared at
+last, letting the merry sunshine through. At once the heliograph began
+to flash. I sent off a brief message, and soon afterwards the signal
+"Line clear" was sent from Zwartz Kop over the Tugela. The "officials"
+began to arrive, and we hoped for news at last. Three or four messages
+came through, but who could have guessed the thrilling importance of the
+first? It ran:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sir Stafford Northcote, Governor of Bombay, has been made a peer."</p></div>
+
+<p>The other messages were vague and dull<span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>Pg 274</span> enough&mdash;something about the
+Prince of Wales reviewing Yeomanry, and the race for some hunt cup in
+India. But that peerage! To a sick and hungry garrison!</p>
+
+<p>We were shot at rather briskly all day by the enemy's guns. The groups
+of wandering horses were a tempting aim. The poor creatures still try to
+get back to their lines, and some of them stand there motionless all
+day, rather than seek grass upon the hills. The cavalry have made
+barbed-wire pens, and collect most of them at night. But many are lost,
+some stolen, and more die of starvation and neglect. An increasing
+number are killed for rations, and to-day twenty-eight were specially
+shot for the chevril factory. I visited the place this afternoon. The
+long engine-shed at the station has been turned to use. Only one engine
+remains inside, and that is used as a "bomb-proof," under which all
+hands run when the shelling is heavy. Into other engine-pits cauldrons
+have been sunk, constructed of iron trolleys without their wheels, and
+plastered round with clay. A wood fire is laid along under the
+cauldrons, on the same principle as in a camp kitchen. The horseflesh is
+brought up to the station in huge red halves of beast, run into<span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>Pg 275</span> the
+shed on trucks, cut up by the Kaffirs, who also pound the bones, thrown
+into the boiling cauldron, and so&mdash;"Farewell, my Arab steed!"</p>
+
+<p>There is not enough hydrochloric or pepsine left in the town to make a
+true extract of horse, but by boiling and evaporation the strength is
+raised till every pint issued will make three pints of soup. A punkah is
+to be fitted to make the evaporation more rapid, and perhaps my horse
+will ultimately appear as a jelly or a lozenge. But at present the stuff
+is nothing but a strong kind of soup, and at the first issue to-day the
+men had to carry it in the ordinary camp-kettles.</p>
+
+<p>Every man in the garrison to-night receives a pint of horse essence hot.
+I tasted it in the cauldron, straight from the horse, and found it so
+sustaining that I haven't eaten anything since. The dainty Kaffirs and
+Colonial Volunteers refuse to eat horse in any form. But the sensible
+British soldier takes to it like a vulture, and begs for the lumps of
+stewed flesh from which the soup has been made. With the joke, "Mind
+that stuff; it kicks!" he carries it away, and gets a chance, as he
+says, of filling&mdash;well, we know<span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>Pg 276</span> what he says. The extract has a
+registered label:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 446px;">
+<img src="images/16.jpg" width="446" height="600" alt="Superior Ladysmith | CHEVRIL | RESURGAM | Trade Mark | &quot;The Iron Horse&quot;" title="Superior Ladysmith | CHEVRIL | RESURGAM | Trade Mark | &quot;The Iron Horse&quot;" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Under the signature of Aduncus Bea and Co. acute signallers will
+recognise the official title of Colonel Ward.</p>
+
+<p>Since the beginning of the siege one of the saddest sights has been the
+Boer prisoners lounging away their days on the upper gallery of the
+gaol. They have been there since Elands Laagte,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>Pg 277</span> nearly four months now,
+with no news, nothing to do, and nothing to see except one little bit of
+road visible over the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The solitude has so unnerved them that when the shells fall near the
+gaol or whiz over the roof the prisoners are said to howl and scream. On
+visiting them to-day I found that only seven real prisoners of war are
+left here, the others being suspects or possible traitors, arrested on
+suspicion of signalling or sending messages to the enemy. Among them is
+the French deserter I mentioned weeks ago. The little man is much
+reduced in girth, and terribly lonely among the Dutch, but he appears to
+grow no wiser for solitude and low living.</p>
+
+<p>Among the twenty-three suspects it was pleasant to see one new arrival
+who has been the curse of the town since the beginning of the siege,
+when he went about telling the terrified women and children that if they
+were not blown to bits by the shells the Boers would soon get them. So
+he has gone on ever since, till to-day Colonel Park, of the Devons, had
+him arrested for the military offence of "causing despondency." He had
+kept asking the Devons when they were going to run away, and how they
+would like the walk to Pretoria<span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>Pg 278</span> when Ladysmith surrendered. There are
+about thirty Kaffirs also in the prison, chiefly thieves, but some
+suspects. They are kept in the women's quarters, for the kind of woman
+who fills Kaffir gaols has lifted up her blankets and gone to Maritzburg
+or Intombi Camp.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>Pg 279</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>SUN AND FEVER</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 3, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The day was fairly quiet. Old "Bulwan Billy" did not fire at us at all,
+and there was no movement in the distant Boer camps, though the
+universal belief is that the enemy is concentrating round Ladysmith for
+a fresh attack.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening the rations were issued to the civilians under Major
+Thompson's new regulations in the Market House. Each child, or whoever
+else is sent, now brings his ticket; it is verified at a table, the cost
+is added daily to each account, the child is sent on down the shed to
+draw his allowance of tea and sugar, his loaf, and bit of horse. The
+organisation is admirable, but one feels it comes a little late in the
+day. The same is true of the new biscuit tins which are to be put up as
+letter-boxes about the camp for a local post, and of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>Pg 280</span> the new plan of
+making sandals for the men out of flaps of saddles and the buckets for
+cavalry carbines. For a fortnight past, 120 of the Manchesters have gone
+barefoot among the rocks.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Sunday, February 4, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The sun shone. Women and children went up and down the street. I even
+saw two white-petticoated girls climbing the rocks of Cove Redoubt to
+get a peep at "Princess Victoria"&mdash;otherwise "Bloody Mary." It was a day
+of peace, but every one believes it to be the last. To-night an attack
+is confidently expected. The Boers are concentrating on the north-west.
+A new gun was seen yesterday moving towards Thornhill's Kopje, and
+sounds of building with stones were heard there last night. It is
+thought the attack will be upon the line from Observation Hill to Range
+Post. Every available man is warned. Even the military prisoners are
+released and sent on duty again. The pickets are doubled and pushed far
+out. A code of signals by rocket has been arranged to inform Buller of
+what is going on. It is felt that this is the enemy's last chance of
+doing so big a thing as capturing this garrison.</p>
+
+<p>But all that is still uncertain, and in the quiet<span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>Pg 281</span> afternoon I harnessed
+up my cart for a gentle drive with Sergeant-Gunner Boseley, of the 53rd
+Battery. He is a red Irishman, born at Maidstone, and has done eleven
+years' service. During the attack on the 6th he was sitting beside his
+gun waiting for Major Abdy's word to fire in his turn, when a 96lb.
+shell from "Bulwan" struck him in its flight, and shattered his left arm
+and leg. He says he was knocked silly, and felt a bit fluttered, but had
+no pain till they lifted him into the dhoolie. He broke the record, I
+believe, by surviving a double amputation on the same side, which left
+him only about 6 in. of thigh and 4 in. of arm. For every movement he is
+helpless as a log. Four of us hoisted him into the cart, and then we
+drove round to see his old battery, where the greetings of his mates
+were brief, emphatic, and devoid of all romance. We then went up to the
+tin camp, and round the main positions, which he regarded with silent
+equanimity. I thought he was bored by the familiar scene, but at the end
+he told me he had enjoyed it immensely, never having seen Ladysmith by
+daylight before! The man is now in magnificent health, rosy as a rose,
+and no doubt has a great career before him as a wonder from the war.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>Pg 282</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 5, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>The noise of guns boomed all day from the Tugela. It sounded as though a
+battle was raging along miles of its banks, from Colenso right away west
+to Potgieter's Drift. I could see big shells bursting again on Taba
+Nyama and the low nek above the ford. Further to the left they were
+bursting around Monger's Hill, nearly half-way along the bank to
+Colenso. From early morning the fire increased in intensity, reaching
+its height between 3 and 4 p.m. At half-past four the firing suddenly
+slackened and stopped. That seems like victory, but we can only hope.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 6, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Firing was again continuous nearly all day along the Tugela, except that
+there appeared to be a pause of some hours before and after midday. The
+distance was hazy, and light was bad. The heliograph below refused to
+take or send messages, and we had no definite news. But at night it was
+confidently believed that relief was some miles nearer than in the
+morning. For myself, the sun and fever had hold of me, and I could only
+stand on Observation Hill and watch the far-off bursting of shells and
+the flash of a great gun which the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>Pg 283</span> Boers have placed in a mountain
+niche upon the horizon to our left of Monger's Hill, overlooking the
+Tugela. Sickness brought despondency, and I seemed only to see our
+countrymen throwing away their lives in vain against the defences of a
+gallant people fighting for their liberty.</p>
+
+<p>One cannot help noticing the notable change of feeling towards the enemy
+which the war has brought. The Boers, instead of being spoken of as
+"ignorant brutes" and "cowards" have become "splendid fellows,"
+admirable alike for strategy and courage. The hangers-on of Johannesburg
+capitalism have to keep their abusive contempt to themselves now, but
+happily only one or two of them have cared to remain in the beleaguered
+town.</p>
+
+<p>At a mess where I was to-night, all the officers but one agreed there
+was not much glory in this war for the British soldier. It would only be
+remembered as the fine struggle of an untrained people for their liberty
+against an overwhelming power. The defence of the Tyrol against Ney was
+quoted as a parallel. The Colonel, it is true, pathetically anxious to
+justify everything to his mind and conscience, and trying to hate the
+enemy he was fighting, stuck to his patriotic protests; but<span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>Pg 284</span> he was
+alone, and the conversation was significant of a very general change.
+Not that this prevents any one from longing for Buller's victory and our
+relief, though the field were covered with the dead defenders of their
+freedom.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 7, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>We have now but one thought&mdash;is it possible for Buller to force his way
+across that line of hills overlooking the Tugela? The nearest summits
+are not more than ten miles away. We could ride out there in little more
+than an hour and join hands with our countrymen and the big world
+outside. Yet the barrier remains unbroken. Firing continued nearly all
+day, except in the extreme heat of afternoon. We could watch the columns
+of smoke thrown up by the Boers' great gun, still fixed above that niche
+upon the horizon. The Dutch camps were unmoved, and at the extremity of
+the Long Valley a large new camp with tents and a few waggons appeared
+and increased during the day. Some thought it was a hospital camp, but
+it was more likely due to a general concentration in the centre. Here
+and there we could see great shells bursting, and even shrapnel. The
+sound of rifles and "pom-poms" was often reported. Yet I could not see
+any real proof of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>Pg 285</span> advance. Perhaps fever and sun blind me to hope, for
+the staff are very confident still. They even lay odds on a celebration
+of victory next Sunday by the united forces, and I hear that Sir George
+is practising the Hundredth Psalm.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 8 to February 24, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>I had hoped to keep well all through the siege, so as to see it all from
+start to finish. But now over a fortnight has been lost while I have
+been lying in hospital, suffering all the tortures of Montjuich, "A
+touch of sun," people called it, combined with some impalpable kind of
+malaria. On the 8th I struggled up C&aelig;sar's Camp again, and saw parties
+of Boers burning all the veldt beyond Limit Hill, apparently to prevent
+us watching the movements of the trains at their railhead. On the 9th I
+could not stand, and the bearers, with their peculiar little chant, to
+keep them out of step, brought me down to the Congregational Chapel in a
+dhoolie. There I still lie. The Hindoo sweepers creep about, raising a
+continual dust; they fan me sleepily for hours together with a look of
+impenetrable vacancy, and at night they curl themselves on the ground
+outside and cough their souls away. The English<span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>Pg 286</span> orderlies stamp and
+shout, displaying the greatest goodwill and a knowledge of the nervous
+system acquired in cavalry barracks. Far away we hear the sound of
+Buller's guns. I did not know it was possible to suffer such atrocious
+and continuous pain without losing consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Of course we have none of the proper remedies for sunstroke&mdash;no ice, no
+soda-water, and so little milk that it has to be rationed out almost by
+the teaspoonful. Now that the fever has begun to subside I can only hope
+for a tiny ration of tea, a brown compound called rice pudding,
+flavoured with the immemorial dust of Indian temples, and a beef-tea
+which neighs in the throat. That is the worst of the condition of the
+sick now; when they begin to mend it is almost impossible to get them
+well. There is nothing to give them. At Intombi, I believe it is even
+worse than here. The letters I have lately seen from officers recovering
+from wounds or dysentery or enteric are simply heart-rending in their
+appeals.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 25, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>Nearly all the patients who have passed through the field hospital
+during the fortnight have been poor fellows shot by snipers in arms or
+legs. Except when their wounds are being dressed, they<span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>Pg 287</span> lie absolutely
+quiet, sleeping, or staring into vacancy. They hardly ever speak a word,
+though the beds are only a foot apart. On my left is the fragment of the
+sergeant gunner whom I took for a drive. His misfortunes and his
+cheerful indifference to them make him a man of social importance. He
+shows with regret how the shell cut in half a marvellous little Burmese
+lady, whose robes once swept down his arm in glorious blues and reds,
+but are now lapped over the bone as "flaps."</p>
+
+<p>Another patient was a shaggy, one-eyed old man, between whose feet a
+Bulwan shell exploded one afternoon as he was walking down the main
+street. Beyond the shock he was not very seriously hurt, but his calves
+were torn by iron and stones. He said he was the one survivor of the
+first English ship that sailed from the Cape with settlers for Natal. He
+was certainly very old.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the 22nd a man was brought into the hospital where I
+lay&mdash;also attacked by sunstroke&mdash;his temperature 107 degrees, and all
+consciousness happily gone. It was Captain Walker, the clever Irish
+surgeon, who has served the Gordons through the siege as no other
+regiment has been served, making their bill of health the best, and
+their lines a pleasure to visit. His<span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>Pg 288</span> skill, especially in dysentery,
+was looked to by many outside the Gordons themselves. Nothing could save
+him. He was packed in cold sheets, fanned, and watched day and night.
+For a few moments he knew me, and reminded me of a story we had laughed
+over. But yesterday evening, after struggling long for each breath, he
+died&mdash;one of the best and most useful men in camp.</p>
+
+<p>If it was fated that I should be laid up for a fortnight or more of the
+siege it seems that this was about the best time fate could choose. From
+all the long string of officers, men, telegraph clerks, and civilians,
+who, with unceasing kindliness have passed beside my bed bringing news
+and cheering me up, I have heard but one impression, that this has been
+the dullest and deadliest fortnight of the siege. There has been no
+attack, no very serious expectation of Buller's arrival. The usual
+bombardment has gone wearily on. Sometimes six or seven big shells have
+thundered so close to this little chapel, that the special kind of
+torture to which I was being subjected had for a time to be interrupted.
+Really nothing worthy of note has happened, except the building by the
+Boers of an incomprehensible work beside the Klip at the foot of Bulwan.
+About 300 Kaffirs labour at it, with<span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>Pg 289</span> Boer superintendents. It is
+apparently a dam to stop the river and flood out the town. No doubt it
+is the result of that German specialist's arrival, of which we heard.</p>
+
+<p>On coming to my first bit of bread to-day I found it uneatable. In the
+fortnight it has degenerated simply to ground mealies of maize&mdash;just the
+same mixture of grit and sticky dough as the peasants in Pindus starve
+upon. Even this&mdash;enough in itself to inflame any English stomach&mdash;is
+reduced to 1/2 lb. a day. As I stood at the gate this afternoon taking
+my first breath of air, I watched the weak-kneed, lantern-jawed soldiers
+going round from house to house begging in vain for anything to eat. Yet
+they say the health of the camp as a whole has improved. This they
+attribute to chevril.</p>
+
+<p>During my illness, though I cannot fix the exact day, one of the saddest
+incidents of the siege has happened. My friend Major Doveton, of the
+Imperial Light Horse, a middle-aged professional man from Johannesburg,
+who had joined simply from patriotism, was badly wounded in the arm in
+the great attack of the 6th. Mrs. Doveton applied to Joubert for leave
+to cross the Boer lines to see her husband, and bring medical<span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>Pg 290</span>
+appliances and food. The leave was granted, and she came. But amputation
+was decided upon, and the poor fellow died from the shock. He was a fine
+soldier, as modest as brave. Often have I seen him out on the hillside
+with his men, quietly sharing in all their hardships and privations. I
+don't know why the incident of his wife's passage through the enemy's
+lines should make his death seem sadder. But it does. On Saturday night
+I drove away from the hospital in my cart, though still in great pain
+and hardly able to stand. I was unable to endure the depression of all
+the hospital sights and sounds and smells any longer. Perhaps the worst
+of all is the want of silence and darkness at night. The fever and pain
+both began to abate directly I got home to my old Scot.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<a id="image16" name="image16">
+<img src="images/17.jpg" width="420" height="600" alt="GENERAL RT. HON. SIR REDVERS HENRY BULLER, V.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.B." title="GENERAL RT. HON. SIR REDVERS HENRY BULLER, V.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.B." /></a>
+<span class="caption">GENERAL RT. HON. SIR REDVERS HENRY BULLER, V.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.B.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>Pg 291</span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>RELIEVED AT LAST</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>Tuesday, February 27, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>This is Majuba Day, and in the afternoon the garrison was cheered by the
+news that Roberts had surrounded Cronje and compelled him to surrender.
+For ourselves, relief seems as far off as ever, though it is said shells
+were seen bursting not far beyond Intombi Camp. The bread rations are
+cut down again to half, after a few days' rise; though, indeed, they can
+hardly be called bread rations, for the maize bread was so uneatable
+that none is made now. The ration is biscuits and three ounces of mealie
+meal for porridge.</p>
+
+<p>Towards evening I went for my first drive through old familiar scenes
+that have come to look quite different now. The long drought has<span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>Pg 292</span> turned
+the country brown, and it is all the barer for the immense amount of
+firewood that has been cut. It was decided about a week ago not to issue
+any more horse as rations till the very last of the oxen had been
+killed.</p>
+
+
+<p class="date"><i>February 28, 1900.</i></p>
+
+<p>From early morning it was evident that the Boers were much disturbed in
+mind. Line after line of waggons with loose strings of mounted men kept
+moving from the direction of the Tugela heights above Colenso, steadily
+westward, across the top of Long Valley, past the foot of Hussar Hill,
+out into the main road along the Great Plain, over the Sandspruit Drift
+at the foot of Telegraph Hill, and so to the branching of the roads
+which might lead either to the Free State passes or to Pepworth Hill and
+the railway to the north. All day the procession went on. However
+incredible it seemed, it was evident that the "Great Trek" had begun at
+last.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after midday a heliogram came through from Buller, saying he had
+severely defeated the enemy yesterday, and believed them to be in full
+retreat. Better still, about three the Naval guns on Cove Redoubt and
+C&aelig;sar's Camp (whither "Lady Anne" was removed three days ago) opened
+fire in<span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>Pg 293</span> rapid succession on the great Bulwan gun. The Boers were
+evidently removing him. They had struck a "shearlegs" or derrick upon
+the parapet. One of our first shots brought the whole machinery down,
+and all through the firing of the Naval guns was excellent.</p>
+
+<p>About six I had driven out (being still enfeebled with fever) to King's
+Post, to see the tail-end of the Boer waggons disappear. On returning I
+found all the world running for all they were worth to the lower end of
+the High-street and shouting wildly. The cause was soon evident. Riding
+up just past the Anglican Church came a squadron of mounted infantry.
+They were not our own. Their horses were much too good, and they looked
+strange. Behind them came another and another. They had crossed the
+drift that leads to the road along the foot of C&aelig;sar's Camp past Intombi
+to Pieter's, and Colenso. There was no mistake about it. They were the
+advance of the relief column, and more were coming behind. It was Lord
+Dundonald's Irregulars&mdash;Imperial Light Horse, Natal Carbineers, Natal
+Police, and Border Mounted Rifles.</p>
+
+<p>The road was crammed on both sides with cheering and yelling
+crowds&mdash;soldiers off duty,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>Pg 294</span> officers, townspeople, Kaffirs, and coolies,
+all one turmoil of excitement and joy. By the post office General White
+met them, and by common consent there was a pause. Most of his Staff
+were with him too. In a very few words he welcomed the first visible
+evidence of relief. He thanked his own garrison for their splendid
+service in the defence, and added that now he would never have to cut
+down their rations again, a thing that always went to his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed roar after roar of cheering&mdash;cheers for White, for Buller,
+for Ward, for many others. Then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves
+shouting the National Anthem in every possible key and pitch. Then more
+cheering and more again.</p>
+
+<p>But it was getting dark. The General and Staff turned towards
+Headquarters. The new arrivals had to be settled in their quarters for
+the night. Most were taken in by the Imperial Light Horse&mdash;alas! there
+is plenty of room in their camp now! To right and left the squadrons
+wheeled, amid greetings and laughter and endless delight. By eight
+o'clock the street was almost clear, and there was nothing to show how
+great a change had befallen us.</p>
+
+<p>About ten a tremendous explosion far away told<span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>Pg 295</span> that the Boers were
+blowing up the bridges behind them as they fled.</p>
+
+<p>And so with to-night the long siege really ends. It is hardly credible
+yet. For 118 days we have been cut off from the world. All that time we
+have been more or less under fire, sometimes under terrible fire. What
+it will be to mix with the great world again and live each day in
+comparative security we can hardly imagine at present. But the peculiar
+episode called the Siege of Ladysmith is over.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>Pg 299</span></p>
+<h2>APPENDIX</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>APPENDIX</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW LADYSMITH WAS FED</h3>
+
+
+<p class="date">LADYSMITH, <i>March 23, 1900</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Where all worked so well it would be a shame to say Ladysmith was saved
+by any particular branch of the service&mdash;the naval guns, the Army
+Service Corps, or the infantry soldier. But it is quite certain that
+without the strictest control on the food supply we could not have held
+out so long, and by the kindness of one whose authority is above
+question I am able to give the following account of how the town was fed
+for the seventeen weeks of the siege.</i></p>
+
+
+<h4>THE PROBLEM.</h4>
+
+<p>A celebrated French writer on military matters has said: "There are two
+words for war&mdash;<i>le pain et la poudre</i>."</p>
+
+<p>In a siege <i>le pain</i> is of even greater importance than <i>la poudre</i>, for
+"hunger is more cruel than the sword, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>Pg 300</span> famine has ruined more armies
+than battle." Feeding must go on at least three times a day, and every
+day, or the men become ineffective, and the hospitals filled.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of November, 1899, Ladysmith, containing over 20,000
+souls, with 9,800 horses and mules, and 2,500 oxen and a few hundred
+sheep, was cut off from the outer world, and nothing in the way of
+supplies was brought in for 119 days, except a few cattle which our
+guides looted at night from the besieging enemy. The problem was how to
+utilise the food supplies which were in the place, and those who had the
+misfortune (or, as some say, the good fortune) to go through that trying
+period will say that the problem was very satisfactorily solved in spite
+of the enormous difficulties the Army Service Corps had to contend with.</p>
+
+<p>The two senior officers of that corps&mdash;Colonel E.W. D. Ward, C.B., and
+Lieut.-Colonel Stoneman&mdash;recognising the possibility of a siege, and
+also that a big margin is everything in army administration, had caused
+enormous quantities of supplies to be sent up from the base to
+Ladysmith. The articles were not even tallied or counted as received, in
+spite of the remonstrances of the consignors; but by means of Kaffir
+labourers, working night and day, the trucks were off-loaded as fast as
+possible, and again sent down the line to bring up more food.</p>
+
+
+<h4>STORES AT THE BEGINNING.</h4>
+
+<p>The quantities of the various articles in hand at the beginning of
+November were as follows:&mdash;</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>Pg 301</span></p>
+
+<table summary="Stores">
+  <tr>
+    <td></td><td>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align="center">lbs.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Flour</td><td></td><td align="right">979,996</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Preserved Meat</td><td></td><td align="right">173,792</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Biscuits</td><td></td><td align="right">142,510</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Tea</td><td></td><td align="right">23,167</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Coffee</td><td></td><td align="right">9,483</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sugar</td><td></td><td align="right">267,699</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Salt</td><td></td><td align="right">38,741</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Maize</td><td></td><td align="right">3,965,400</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Bran</td><td></td><td align="right">923,948</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Oats</td><td></td><td align="right">1,270,570</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Hay, &amp;c.</td><td></td><td align="right">1,864,223</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>and a large amount of medical comforts, such as spirits, wines,
+arrowroot, sago, beef tea, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the above we had rice, <i>ghi</i>, <i>goor</i>, <i>atta</i>, &amp;c., for
+the natives of the Indian contingent. (<i>Ghi</i> is clarified butter;
+<i>goor</i>, unrefined sugar; <i>atta</i> is whole meal.)</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the siege the scale of rations was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bread, 1-1/4 lb, or biscuit, 1 lb.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Meat (fresh), 1-1/4 lb., or preserved meat, 1 lb.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">{ Coffee, 1 oz.,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">{&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; or</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">{ Tea, 1/2 oz.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sugar, 3 oz.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Salt, 1/2 oz.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pepper, 1/36 oz.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">{ Vegetables (compressed), 1 oz.,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">{&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; or</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">{ Potatoes, 1/2 lb.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Cheese, bacon, and jams were frequently issued as an extra, in addition
+to the above.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>Pg 302</span></p>
+
+
+<h4>REQUISITIONING.</h4>
+
+<p>The above quantities of articles, large as they appear, would not have
+sufficed to supply our wants for the long siege. The military
+authorities therefore very wisely determined at a very early date to
+make use of the Requisition. This power of seizing at a certain price
+from their owners all articles required by the troops has to be used
+very carefully and tactfully, as otherwise the people hide or bury their
+goods. A civilian, commanding the confidence of the people, was
+appointed by the local authorities to fix the prices in co-operation
+with a military officer, who represented the interests of her Majesty's
+Government. In this way a large quantity of food, &amp;c., was obtained at a
+fair price. These quantities were:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+Cattle, 1,511.<br />
+Goats and sheep, 1,092.<br />
+Mealies or maize, 1,517,996 lbs.<br />
+Kaffir corn, or a kind of millet, 68,370 lbs.<br />
+Boer meal, or coarse wheat-meal, 108,739 lbs.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>All spirits and wines were taken and a fair price paid.</p>
+
+<p>In December, when the cases of enteric fever and dysentery began to be
+very numerous, it was determined to take possession of the milch cows,
+and to see that the milk was used for the sick alone. So under the
+supervision and control of Colonel Stoneman and Captain Thompson, a
+dairy farm was started, and the milk was issued to civilians and
+soldiers alike on medical certificate. Owing to the scarcity of milk,
+and to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>Pg 303</span> great necessity for it in cases of enteric and dysentery,
+the dairy farm is still going (March 23, 1900), the owners of the cows
+being paid 1s. per quart; a careful account being kept of the milk
+produced.</p>
+
+<p>In connection with the requisitioning of cows by Colonel Stoneman, a
+quaint incident is recorded. A gentleman of Ladysmith of a stubborn
+temperament on receiving the requisition wrote to Colonel Stoneman in
+the following terms: "SIR,&mdash;Neither you nor any one else shall take my
+cow. If you want milk for your sick apply to Joubert for it. Get out
+with you, and get your milk from the Dutch." The cow was promptly taken.</p>
+
+
+<h4>POULTRY AND EGGS.</h4>
+
+<p>These soon became very scarce, and the price demanded for eggs was
+enormous. The highest price reached was &pound;2 10s. for twelve eggs, but
+they were often sold at sums from 30s. to 44s. per dozen. As eggs were
+so important a food in the dietary of the sick, it was determined, under
+the authority of the Lieutenant-General commanding, to requisition the
+poultry and eggs of those persons who would not sell them at a
+reasonable rate. A good price was paid to the owners for their eggs and
+chickens, which were issued only on medical certificate.</p>
+
+<p>A well-known official of the Natal Government Railway had thirty-six
+tins of condensed milk. At the auction which took place three times a
+week in the town, 6s. 6d. a tin was offered for this, but the unselfish
+and unsympa<span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>Pg 304</span>thetic owner did not consider this price sufficient; he
+declined to sell under 7s. 6d. a tin. This fact being brought to the
+notice of Colonel Stoneman, he requisitioned the whole lot at 10d. a
+tin.</p>
+
+<p>I have stated that 1,511 cattle were requisitioned from their owners for
+slaughter purposes. This was a great trial both to the officer who
+carried out this duty and to the owners. The Kaffir lady Ugumba did not
+want to part with her pet cow, which was the prop of her house, had been
+bred up amongst her children, and had lived in the back yard. The white
+owners discovered suddenly that their cattle were of the very highest
+breed, and had been specially imported from England or Holland at
+enormous cost. However, most of these cattle, except milch cows, had to
+be taken. The proprietors of high-bred stock were directed to claim
+compensation, over the meat value, from the "Invasion Losses Commission"
+now sitting.</p>
+
+
+<h4>FAIR SALE.</h4>
+
+<p>Colonels Ward and Stoneman having requisitioned considerable quantities
+of food-stuffs at the beginning of the siege, they determined to sell
+some of them, such as sugar, sardines, &amp;c., &amp;c., at the same price as
+was paid. One or two fathers with sick children were supplied with 4 oz.
+of brandy on medical certificate. There was no liquor to be had in the
+town, and the fathers with sick children grew in numbers with suspicious
+rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>In the month of February the pinch began to be felt.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>Pg 305</span> Most men were
+without smiles, and most women were scarcely able to suppress their
+tears&mdash;tears of weakness and exhaustion. The scale of rations was then
+reduced to a fine point. Many a man begged for suitable food for his
+sick wife and little baby, many mothers asked for a little milk and
+sugar for their young children, and many sick men, both at Intombi and
+in Ladysmith, wrote, or caused to be written, pathetic letters for
+"anything in the way of food" that could be granted.</p>
+
+<p>The "Chevril" factory was started to supply soup, jellies, extracts, and
+even marrow bones made from horses; a sausage factory was instituted;
+and a biltong factory was run in order to utilise the flesh of horses
+which would have otherwise died from starvation. A grass-cutting labour
+gang was organised to go out and (under fire) cut grass and bring it in
+for our cattle and horses; a wood-cutting labour gang went out daily and
+cut wood for fuel&mdash;being "sniped at" by the Boers constantly; mills were
+worked by the A.S.C. for the purpose of grinding maize, &amp;c., as food;
+arrangements were made by the A.S.C. for a pure water supply by means of
+condensation and filtration; coffee was made by roasting and grinding
+mealies; the gluten necessary to maize to make bread was supplied by
+Colman's starch; and in short nothing was left undone that ingenuity
+could devise.</p>
+
+
+<h4>LOWEST RATIONS.</h4>
+
+<p>And yet, in spite, of all that human power could do, as the days dragged
+out the supplies grew shorter. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>Pg 306</span> scale of rations, much to the sorrow
+of the lieut.-general commanding, had been several times reduced, and
+once more, on February 27, it was again found necessary to cut them
+down, with a view to holding out until April if necessary. On that day
+the ration scale was as follows per man, per day, this being the extreme
+limit:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+For Whites&mdash;Biscuit, 1/4 lb.; Maize meal, 3 oz.<br />
+For Indians and Kaffirs&mdash;Maize meal, 8 oz.<br />
+Europeans&mdash;Fresh meat, 1 lb.<br />
+Kaffirs&mdash;Fresh meat, 1-1/4 lbs. (Chiefly horseflesh.)<br />
+For White men&mdash;Coffee or tea, 1/12 oz.; pepper, 1/64 oz.; salt, 1/3 oz.; sugar, 1 oz.; mustard, 1/20 oz.; Vinegar, 1/12 gill.<br />
+For Indians&mdash;a little rice.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The Indian, it will be observed, would have fared the worst, much
+against the will of the authorities, for he does not eat beef, much less
+horseflesh.</p>
+
+<p>We had not, however, to spend the month of March on this scale of diet,
+for to our great joy, about midday on the 28th, we received the
+following message from General Buller:&mdash;"I beat the enemy thoroughly
+yesterday, and my cavalry is now pursuing as fast as bad roads will
+permit. I believe the enemy to be in full retreat." The ration scale was
+at once doubled, and that evening Lord Dundonald's cavalry arrived.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h5>UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.</h5>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a id="image17" name="image17"></a><a href="images/18large.jpg">
+<img src="images/18.jpg" width="600" height="443" alt="SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH &amp; WEST OF LADYSMITH" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH &amp; WEST OF LADYSMITH</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Despatched by runner on November 20, but returned to the
+writer on December 23, and despatched again on January 1.</p></div>
+
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ladysmith, by H. W. Nevinson
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+</body>
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@@ -0,0 +1,6554 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ladysmith, by H. W. Nevinson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ladysmith
+       The Diary of a Siege
+
+Author: H. W. Nevinson
+
+Release Date: August 27, 2005 [EBook #16603]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LADYSMITH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Taavi Kalju and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: H.W. NEVINSON]
+
+
+LADYSMITH
+
+THE DIARY OF A SIEGE
+
+
+BY
+
+
+H.W. NEVINSON
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE THIRTY DAYS' WAR"
+
+
+METHUEN & CO.
+36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
+LONDON
+1900
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ CHAPTER                                   PAGE
+
+    I.  ON THE EDGE                           1
+
+   II.  AT THE BRITISH FRONT                  9
+
+  III.  THE FIRST WEEK'S WAR                 20
+
+   IV.  BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE              30
+
+    V.  BATTLE OF TINTA INYONI               41
+
+   VI.  THE REVERSE AT NICHOLSON'S NEK       51
+
+  VII.  HEMMED IN                            61
+
+ VIII.  TRAGEDY AND COMEDY                   72
+
+   IX.  INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND REALITIES  83
+
+    X.  ENNUI ENLIVENED BY SUDDEN DEATH     100
+
+   XI.  FLASHES FROM BULLER                 129
+
+  XII.  THE NIGHT SURPRISE ON GUN HILL      138
+
+ XIII.  THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL        156
+
+  XIV.  THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL    176
+
+   XV.  SICKNESS, DEATH, AND A NEW YEAR     194
+
+  XVI.  THE GREAT ATTACK                    211
+
+ XVII.  A PAUSE AND A RENEWAL               231
+
+XVIII.  "WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE"        250
+
+  XIX.  HOPE DEFERRED                       265
+
+   XX.  SUN AND FEVER                       279
+
+  XXI.  RELIEVED AT LAST                    291
+
+        APPENDIX                            299
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR                                 _Frontispiece_
+
+MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD                                 12
+
+GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B., G.C.S.I. 18
+
+PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE                                32
+
+LOMBARD'S KOP                                                      56
+
+IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS                                      77
+
+THE DRIFT AND WATERING-PLACE                                       80
+
+BULWAN                                                            105
+
+HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL                               127
+
+BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL                                        148
+
+A PICTURESQUE RUIN                                                183
+
+HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL                                  186
+
+EFFECT OF 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE                          201
+
+SPECIMEN OF BOER SHELLS                                           252
+
+INDIAN BAKERY                                                     268
+
+GENERAL RT. HON. SIR R.H. BULLER, V.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.B.
+  (_photograph by KNIGHT, Aldershot_)                             291
+
+SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH AND WEST OF LADYSMITH                306
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+This book has been reprinted, by kind permission of the Proprietors of
+the _Daily Chronicle_, from the full text of the Letters sent to the
+paper.
+
+
+
+
+LADYSMITH
+
+THE DIARY OF A SIEGE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ON THE EDGE
+
+
+     NEWCASTLE, NATAL, _Thursday, October 5, 1899_.
+
+Late last Sunday night I found myself slowly crawling towards the front
+from Pretoria in a commandeered train crammed full of armed Boers and
+their horses. I had rushed from the Cape to quiet little Bloemfontein,
+the centre of one of the best administered States in the world, where
+the heads of the nation in the intervals of discussing war proudly
+showed me their pianos, their little gardens, little libraries of
+English books, little museums of African beasts and Greek coins, and all
+their other evidences of advancing culture. Then on to Pretoria, the
+same kind of a town on a larger and richer scale--trim bungalow houses,
+for the most part, spread out among gardens full of roses, honeysuckle,
+and syringa. But at the station all day and night the scene was not
+idyllic. Every hour train after train moved away--stores and firewood in
+front, horses next, and luggage vans for the men behind. The partings
+from lovers and wives and children must be imagined. They are bad enough
+to witness when our own soldiers go to the front. But these men are not
+soldiers at all. Each of them came direct from his home in the town or
+on some isolated farm. They rode up, dressed just in their ordinary
+clothes, but for the slung Mauser and the full cartridge belt over the
+shoulder or round the waist. Except for a few gunners, there is no
+uniform in the Boer Army. Even the officers can hardly be distinguished
+from ordinary farmers. The only thing that could be called uniform is
+the broad-brimmed soft hat of grey or brown. But all Boers wear it. It
+is generally very stained and dirty, and invariably a rusty crape band
+is wound about the crown. For the Boer, like the English poorer classes,
+has large quantities of relations, and one of them is always dying.
+
+By the courtesy of the Pretorian Government I had secured room in the
+guard's van for myself and a companion, who was equally anxious to
+cross the Natal frontier before the firing began, and that was expected
+at any moment. In the van with us were a score of farmers from
+Middleburg way, their contingent occupying four trains with about 800
+men and horses. For the most part they were fine tall men with shaggy
+light beards, reminding one of Yorkshire farmers, but rougher and not so
+well dressed. Most of them could speak some English, and many had Scotch
+or English relatives. They lay on the floor or sat on the edge of the
+van, talking quietly and smoking enormous pipes. All deeply regretted
+the war, regretted the farm left behind just when spring and rain are
+coming, and they were full of foreboding for the women and children left
+at the mercy of Kaffirs. There was no excitement or shouting or bravado
+of any kind. So we travelled into the night, the monotony only broken by
+one violent collision which shook us all flat on the floor, while arms
+and stores fell crashing upon us. In the silent pause which followed,
+whilst we wondered if we were dead, I could hear the Kaffirs chattering
+in their mud huts close by, and in the distance a cornet was playing
+"Home, Sweet Home," with variations.
+
+It must have been the next evening, as we were waiting three or four
+hours, as usual, for the line to clear, that General Joubert came up in
+a special train. A few young men and boys in ordinary clothes formed his
+"staff." The General himself wore the usual brown slouch hat with crape
+band, and a blue frock coat, not luxuriously new. His beard was quite
+white, but his long straight hair was still more black than grey. The
+brown sallow face was deeply wrinkled and marked, but the dark brown
+eyes were still bright, and looked out upon the world with a kind of
+simplicity mingled with shrewdness, or perhaps some subtler quality. He
+spoke English with a piquant lack of grammar and misuse of words. When I
+travelled with him next day, almost the first thing he said to me was,
+"The heart of my soul is bloody with sorrow." His moderating influence
+on the Kruger Government is well known, and he described to me how he
+had done his utmost for peace. But he also described how bit by bit
+England had pushed the Boers out of their inheritance, and taken
+advantage of them in every conference and native war. He was
+particularly hurt that the Queen had taken no notice of the long letter
+or pamphlet he wrote to her on the situation. And, by the way, I often
+observed what regard most Boers appear to feel for the Queen personally.
+They constantly couple her name with Gladstone's when they wish to say
+anything nice about English politics. As to the General's views on the
+crisis, there would be little new to say. Till the present war his hope
+had been for a South African Confederacy under English protection--the
+Cape, Natal, Free State, and Transvaal all having equal rights and local
+self-government. He knows well enough the inner causes of the present
+evils. "But now," he said, "we can only leave it to God. If it is His
+will that the Transvaal perish, we can only do our best."
+
+At Zandspruit, the scene of the old Sand River Convention, the whole
+Boer camp crowded to the station to greet the national hero, and he was
+at once surrounded by a herd of farmers, shaking his hands and patting
+him warmly on the back. It was a respectful but democratic greeting. The
+Boer Army--if for a moment we may give that name to an unorganised
+collection of volunteers--is entirely democratic. The men are nominally
+under field cornets, commanders, and the General. But they openly boast
+that on the field the authority and direction of officers do not count
+for much, and they go pretty much as they please. The camp, though not
+in the least disorderly, was confused and irregular--stores, firewood,
+horses, cattle, and tents strewn about the enormous veldt, almost
+haphazard, though the districts were kept fairly well separate.
+Provisions were plenty, but the cooking was bad. It took three days to
+get bread made, and some detachments had to eat their meat raw. I think
+there were not more than 10,000 or less than 7,000 men in the camp at
+that time, but the commandeered trains crawled up every two or three
+hours with their new loads.
+
+By a piece of good fortune we succeeded in crossing the frontier in an
+open coal-truck. The border-line runs about six miles north of Majuba
+and Laing's Nek, the last Boer village being Volksrust, and Charlestown
+the first English. The scenery changes rapidly; the high, bare veldt of
+the Southern Transvaal is at once left behind, and we enter the broad
+valley of Natal, sloping steadily down to the sea and becoming richer
+and more tropical as it descends. All regular traffic had stopped three
+days before, but now and then a refugee train came up to the frontier
+and transhipped its miserable crowd. Fugitives of every nation have been
+hurrying to the railway in hopes of escape. The stations far down into
+Natal are constantly surrounded with patient groups, waiting, waiting
+for an empty truck. Hindoos from Bombay and Madras with their golden
+nose-rings and brilliant silks sit day and night waiting side by side
+with coal-black Kaffirs in their blankets, or "blue-blooded" Zulus who
+refuse to hide much of their deep chocolate skin, showing a kind of
+purple bloom like a plum. The patient indifference with which these
+savages will sit unmoved through any fortune and let time run over them,
+is almost like the solemn calm of nature's own laws. The whites are
+restless and probably suffer more. Many were in extreme misery. Three or
+four young children died on the journey. One poor woman became a mother
+in the train just after the frontier, and died, leaving the baby alive.
+At the border I found many English and Scotch families, who had driven
+across the veldt from Ermelo, surrendering all their possessions. All
+spoke of the good treatment the Boers had shown them on the journey,
+even when the waggon had outspanned for the night close to the Boer
+camp. I came down to Newcastle with a Caithness stonemason and his
+family. They had lost house, home, and livelihood. They had even
+abandoned their horses and waggon on the veldt. The woman regretted her
+piano, but what really touched her most was that she had to wash her
+baby in cold water at the lavatory basin, and he had always been
+accustomed to warm. So we stand on the perilous edge and suffer
+variously.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AT THE BRITISH FRONT
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, NATAL, _Wednesday, October 11, 1899_.
+
+Ladysmith breathes freely to-day, but a week ago she seemed likely to
+become another Lucknow. Of line battalions only the Liverpools were
+here, besides two batteries of field artillery, some of the 18th
+Hussars, and the 5th Lancers. If Kruger or Joubert had then allowed the
+Boers encamped on the Free State border to have their own way, no one
+can say what might have happened. Our force would have been outnumbered
+at least four to one, and probably more. In event of disaster the Boers
+would have seized an immense quantity of military stores accumulated in
+the camp, and at the railway station. What is worse, they would have
+isolated the still smaller force lately thrown forward to Dundee, so as
+to break the strong defensive position of the Biggarsberg, which cuts
+off the north of Natal, and can only be traversed by three difficult
+passes. Dundee was just as much threatened from the east frontier beyond
+the Buffalo River, where the Transvaal Boers of the Utrecht and Vryheid
+district have been mustered in strong force for nearly a fortnight now.
+With our two advanced posts "lapped up" (the phrase is a little musty
+here), our stores lost, and our reputation among the Dutch and native
+populations entirely ruined, the campaign would have begun badly.
+
+For the Boers it was a fine strategic opportunity, and they were
+perfectly aware of that. But "the Old Man," as they affectionately call
+the President, had his own prudent reasons for refusing it. "Let the
+enemy fire first," he says, like the famous Frenchman, and so far he has
+been able to hold the most ardent of the encamped burghers in check. "If
+he should not be able!" we kept saying. We still say it morning and
+evening, but the pinch of the danger is passed. Last Thursday night the
+1st Devons and the 19th Hussars began to arrive and the crisis ended.
+Yesterday before daybreak half the Gordons came. We have now a mountain
+battery and three batteries of field artillery, the 19th Hussars (the
+18th having gone forward to Dundee), besides the 5th Lancers (the "Irish
+Lancers"), who are in faultless condition, and a considerable mixed
+force of the Natal Volunteers. Of these last, the Carbineers are perhaps
+the best, and generally serve as scouts towards the Free State frontier.
+But all have good repute as horsemen, marksmen, and guides, and at
+present they are the force which the Boers fear most. They are split up
+into several detachments--the Border Mounted Rifles, the Natal Mounted
+Rifles (from Durban), the Imperial Light Horse, the Natal Police, and
+the Umvoti Mounted Rifles, who are chiefly Dutch. Then of infantry there
+are the Natal Royal Rifles (only about 150 strong), the Durban Light
+Infantry, and the Natal Field Artillery. As far as I can estimate, the
+total Natal Volunteer force will not exceed 2,000, but they are well
+armed, are accustomed to the Boer method of warfare, and will be watched
+with interest. Unhappily, many of them here are already suffering from
+the change of life and food in camp. That is inevitable when volunteers
+first take the field.
+
+But Ladysmith has an evil reputation besides. Last year the troops here
+were prostrated with enteric. There is a little fever and a good deal
+of dysentery even now among the regulars. The stream by the camp is
+condemned, and all water is supplied in tiny rations from pumps. The
+main permanent camp is built of corrugated iron, practically the sole
+building material in South Africa, and quite universal for roofs, so
+that the country has few "architectural features" to boast of. The
+cavalry are quartered in the tin huts, but the Liverpools, Devons,
+Gordons, and Volunteers have pitched their own tents, and a terrible
+time they are having of it. Dust is the curse of the place. We remember
+the Long Valley as an Arcadian dell. Veterans of the Soudan recall the
+black sand-storms with regretful sighs. The thin, red dust comes
+everywhere, and never stops. It blinds your eyes, it stops your nose, it
+scorches your throat till the invariable shilling for a little glass of
+any liquid seems cheap as dirt. It turns the whitest shirt brown in half
+an hour, it creeps into the works of your watch and your bowels. It lies
+in a layer mixed with flies on the top of your rations. The white ants
+eat away the flaps of the tents, and the men wake up covered with dust,
+like children in a hayfield. Even mules die of it in convulsions. It was
+in this land that the ostrich developed its world-renowned digestive
+powers; and no wonder.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF LADYSMITH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD]
+
+The camp stands on a barren plain, nearly two miles north-west of the
+town--if we may so call the one straight road of stores and tin-roofed
+bungalows. Low, flat-topped hills surround it, bare and rocky. But to
+understand the country it is best to climb into the mountains of the
+long Drakensberg, which forms the Free State frontier in a series of
+strangely jagged and precipitous peaks, and at one place, by the
+junction with Basutoland, runs up to 11,000 feet. Last Sunday I went
+into the Free State through Van Reenen's Pass, over which a little
+railway has been carried by zigzag "reverses." The summit is 5,500 feet
+above the sea, or nearly 2,000 feet above Ladysmith. From the steep
+slopes, in places almost as green as the Lowlands or Yorkshire fells, I
+looked south-east far over Natal--a parched, brown land like the desert
+beyond the Dead Sea, dusty bits of plain broken up by line upon line of
+bare red mountain. It seemed a poor country to make a fuss about, yet as
+South Africa goes, it is rich and even fertile in its way. Indeed, on
+the reddest granite mountain one never fails to find multitudes of
+flowering plants and pasturage for thinnish sheep. Across the main
+range, Van Reenen's is the largest and best known pass. The old farmer
+who gave it the name is living there still and bitterly laments the
+chance of war. But there are other passes too, any of which may suddenly
+become famous now--Olivier's Hoek, near the gigantic Mont aux Sources,
+Bezuidenhaut, Netherby, Tintwa, and (north of Van Reenen's) De Beer's
+Pass, Cundycleugh, Muller's, and Botha's, beyond which the range ends
+with the frontier at Majuba. Three or four of these passes are crossed
+by waggon roads, but Van Reenen's has the only railway. The frontier,
+marked by a barbed wire fence across the summit of the pass, must be
+nearly forty miles from Ladysmith, but from the cliffs above it, the
+little British camp can be seen like a toy through this clear African
+air, and Boer sentries watch it all day, ready to signal the least
+movement of its troops, betrayed by the dust. Their own main force is
+distributed in camps along the hills well beyond the nine-miles' limit
+ordained by the Convention. The largest camp is said to be further north
+at Nelson's Kop, but all the camps are very well hidden, though in one
+place I saw about 500 of the horses trying to graze. The rains are late,
+and the grass on the high plateau of the Free State is not so good as
+on the Natal slopes of the pass. The Boer commandoes suffer much from
+want of it. When all your army consists of mounted infantry, forage
+counts next to food.
+
+At present the Van Reenen Railway ends at Harrismith, an arid but
+cheerful little town at the foot of the great cliffs of the Plaatburg.
+It boasts its racecourse, golf-links, musical society, and some
+acquaintance with the German poets. The Scotch made it their own, though
+a few Dutch, English, and other foreigners were allowed to remain on
+sufferance. Now unhappily the place is almost deserted, and Burns
+himself would hardly find a welcome there. In the Free State every
+resident may be commandeered, and I believe forty-eight hours counts as
+"residence." You see the advantage of an extended franchise. The penalty
+for escape is confiscation of property, and five years' imprisonment or
+L500 fine, if caught. The few British who remained have had all their
+horses, carts, and supplies taken. Some are set to serve the ambulance;
+a few will be sent to watch Basutoland; but most of them have abandoned
+their property and risked the escape to Natal, slipping down the railway
+under bales or built up in the luggage vans like nuns in a brick wall.
+In one case the Boers commandeered three wool trucks on the frontier.
+Those trucks were shunted on to a siding for the night, and in the
+morning the wool looked strangely shrunk somehow. Yet it was not wool
+that had been taken out and smuggled through by the next train. For Scot
+helps Scot, and it is Scots who work the railway. It pays to be a Scot
+out here. I have only met one Irishman, and he was unhappy.
+
+But for the grotesque side of refugee unhappiness one should see the
+native train which comes down every night from Newcastle way, and
+disappears towards Maritzburg and safety. Native workers of every
+kind--servants, labourers, miners--are throwing up their places and
+rushing towards the sea. The few who can speak English say, "Too plenty
+bom-bom!" as sufficient explanation of their panic. The Government has
+now fitted the open trucks with cross-seats and side-bars for their
+convenience, and so, hardly visible in the darkness, the black crowd
+rolls up to the platform. Instantly black hands with pinkish palms are
+thrust through all the bars, as in a monkey-house. Black heads jabber
+and click with excitement. White teeth suddenly appear from nowhere. It
+is for bread and tin-meats they clamour, and they are willing to pay.
+But a loaf costs a shilling. Everything costs a shilling here, unless it
+costs half-a-crown; and Natal grows fat on war. A shilling for a bit of
+bread! What is the good of Christianity? So the dusky hands are
+withdrawn, and the poor Zulu with untutored maw goes starving on. But if
+any still doubt our primitive ancestry, let them hear that Zulu's
+outcries of pain, or watch the fortunate man who has really got a loaf,
+and gripping it with both hands, gnaws it in his corner, turning his
+suspicious eyes to right and left with fear.
+
+The air is full of wild rumours. A boy riding over Laing's Nek saw 1,000
+armed Boers feeding their horses on Manning's farm. The Boers have been
+seen at a Dutch settlement this side Van Reenen's. Yesterday a section
+of the Gordons on their arrival were sent up to look at them in an
+armoured train. It is thought that war will be proclaimed to-day. That
+has been thought every day for a fortnight past, and the land buzzes
+with lies which may at any moment be true.
+
+Half the Manchesters have just marched in to trumpet and drum. When I
+think of those ragged camps of peasants just over the border the pomp
+and circumstance seem all on one side.
+
+
+     _Friday, October 13, 1899._
+
+So it has begun at last, for good or evil. Here we think it began
+yesterday, just at the very moment when Sir George White arrived. Late
+at night scouts brought news of masses of Boers crossing the Tintwa
+Pass, and going into laager with their waggons only fifteen miles away
+to the west. The men stood to their arms, and long before light we were
+marching steadily forward along the Van Reenen road. First came the
+Liverpools, then the three batteries of Field Artillery with a mountain
+battery, then the Devons and the Gordons. The Manchesters acted as
+rear-guard, and the Dublin Fusiliers, who were hurried down from Dundee
+by train, came late, and then were hurried back again. The column took
+all its stores and forage for five days in a train of waggons (horses,
+mules, and oxen) about two miles long. When day broke we saw the great
+mountains on the Basuto border, gleaming with snow like the Alps. Far in
+front the cavalry--the 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars with the Natal
+Volunteers--were sweeping over the patches of plain and struggling up
+the hills in search of that reported laager. But not a Boer of it was to
+be seen. At nine o'clock, having advanced eight or nine miles, the
+whole column took up a strong position, with all its baggage and train
+in faultless order, and went to sleep. About one we began to return, and
+now just as the mail goes, we are all back again in camp for tea. And so
+ends the first day of active hostilities.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B.,
+G.C.S.I.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE FIRST WEEK'S WAR
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _Thursday, October 19, 1899_.
+
+It is a week to-day since the Boers of the Transvaal and Free State
+began their combined invasion of Natal. So far all action has been on
+their side. They have crept down the passes with their waggons and
+half-organised bands of mounted infantry, and have now advanced within a
+short day's march of the two main British positions which protect the
+whole colony. It will be seen on a map that North Natal forms a fairly
+regular isoceles triangle, having Charlestown, Majuba, and Laing's Nek
+at the apex, the Drakensberg range separating it from the Free State on
+the one side, and the Buffalo River with its lower hills separating it
+from the Transvaal on the other. A base may be drawn a few miles below
+Ladysmith--say, from Oliver's Hoek Pass in the Drakensberg to the union
+of the Tugela River with the Buffalo. Newcastle will then lie about
+thirty miles from the apex of the triangle, nearly equi-distant from
+both sides. Dundee is about twelve miles from the middle point of the
+right side, and Ladysmith about the same distance from the middle point
+of the base. Evidently a "tight place" for a comparatively small force
+when the frontiers to right and left are openly hostile and can pour
+large bodies of men through all the passes in the sides and apex at
+will. That is exactly what the Boers have spent the week in doing, and
+they have shown considerable skill in the process. They have occupied
+Charlestown, Newcastle, and all the north of Natal almost to within
+reach of the guns at Dundee on the west and Ladysmith on the east and
+centre. Yet as far as I can judge they have hardly lost a man, whereas
+they have gained an immense amount of stores, food and forage, which
+were exactly the things they wanted. "Slim Piet" is the universal
+nickname for old Joubert among friends and enemies alike, and so far he
+has well deserved it. For the Dutch "slim" stands half way between the
+German "schlimm" and our description of young girls, and it means
+exactly what the Cockney means by "artful." Artful Piet has managed
+well. He has given the Boers an appearance of triumph. Their flag waves
+where the English flag waved before. The effect on the native mind, and
+on the spirits of his men is greater than people in England probably
+think. Before the war the young Boers said they would be in Durban in a
+month, and the Kaffirs half believed it. Well, they have got nearly a
+third of the way in a week.
+
+But to-day they are brought within touch of British arms, and the
+question is whether they will get any further. So far they have been
+unopposed. Their triumphs have been the bloodless capture of a passenger
+train, the capture of a few police, and the driving in of patrols who
+had strict orders to retire. So far we have sought only to draw them on.
+But here and at Dundee we must make a stand, and all yesterday and this
+morning we have thought only of one question: Will they venture to come
+on? They have numbers on their side--an advantage certainly of three to
+one, possibly more. The rough country with its rocky flat-topped lines
+of hill is just suited for their method of warfare--to lie behind stones
+and take careful shots at any one in range. Besides, if they are to do
+anything, they know they must be quick. The Basutos are chanting their
+war-song on the Free State frontier. The British reinforcements are
+coming, and all irregulars have a tendency to melt away if you keep them
+waiting. But on the other hand it is against Boer tradition to attack,
+especially entrenched positions. Their artillery is probably far
+inferior to ours in training and skill, and they don't like artillery in
+any case. Nor do they like the thought of Lancers and Hussars sweeping
+down upon their flanks wherever a little bit of plain has to be crossed.
+So the chances of attack seem about equally balanced, and only the days
+can answer that one question of ours: Will they come on?
+
+Yesterday it seemed as though they were coming. The advance of two main
+columns from the passes in the north-west had been fairly steady; and
+last night our outposts of the Natal Carbineers were engaged, as the 5th
+Lancers had been the night before. Heavy firing was reported at any
+distance short of fifteen miles. There was no panic. The few ladies who
+remain went riding or cycling along the dusty, blazing road which makes
+the town. The Zulu women in blankets and beads walked in single file
+with the little black heads of babies peering out between their
+shoulder-blades, and roasting in the sun. Huge waggon-loads of
+stores--compressed forage, compressed beef, jam, water-proof sheets,
+ammunition, oil, blankets, sardines, and all the other necessaries of a
+soldier's existence--came lumbering up from the station behind the long
+files of oxen urged slowly forward by savage outcries and lashes of
+hide. Orderlies were galloping in the joy of their hearts. The band of
+the Gloucesters were practising scales in unison to slow time. Suddenly
+a kind of feeling came into the air that something was happening. I
+noticed the waggon stopped; the oxen at once lay down in the dust; the
+music ceased and was packed away. I met the Gordons coming into town and
+asking for their ground. Riding up the mile or two to camp, I found the
+whole dusty plateau astir. Tents were melting away like snow. Kits lay
+all naked and revealed upon the earth. The men were falling in. The
+waggons were going the wrong way round. The very headquarters and staff
+were being cleared out. The whole camp was, in fact, in motion. It was
+coming down into the town. In a few hours the familiar place was bare
+and deserted. I went up this morning and stood on Signal Hill where the
+heliograph was working yesterday, just above the camp. The whole plain
+was a wilderness. Straw and paper possessed it merely, except that here
+and there a destitute Kaffir groped among the _debris_ in hopes of
+finding a shiny tin pot for his furniture or some rag of old uniform to
+harmonise with his savage dress. In one corner of the empty iron huts a
+few of the cavalry were still trying to carry off some remnants of
+forage. It was a pitiful sight, and yet the rapidity of the change was
+impressive. If the Boers came in, they would find those tin huts very
+luxurious after their accustomed bivouacs. Is it possible that tin huts
+might be their Capua?
+
+The camp was thought incapable of defence. Artillery could command it
+from half a dozen hills. Whoever placed it there was neither strategist
+nor humanitarian. It is like the bottom of a frying-pan with a low rim.
+The fire is hot, and sand is frying. But, indeed, the whole of Ladysmith
+is like that. The flat-topped hills stand round it reflecting the heat,
+and in the middle we are now all frying together, with sand for
+seasoning. The main ambulance is on the cricket ground. The battalion
+tents are pitched among the rocks or by the river side, where Kaffirs
+bathe more often and completely than you would otherwise suppose. The
+river water, by the way, is a muddy yellow now and leaves a deep deposit
+of Afric's golden sand in your glass or basin. The headquarters staff
+has seized upon two empty houses, and can dine in peace. The street is
+one yelling chaos of oxen in waggons and oxen loose, galloping horses,
+sheep, ammunition mules, savages, cycles, and the British soldier. He,
+be sure, preserves his wonted calm, adapts himself to oxen as naturally
+as to camels, puts in a little football when he can, practises
+alliteration's artful aid upon the name of the Boers, and trusts to his
+orders to pull him through. His orders are likely to be all right now,
+for Colonel Ward has just been put in command of the whole town, and
+already I notice a method in the oxen, to say nothing of the mules. What
+is it all but a huge military tournament to be pulled together, and got
+up to time?
+
+This morning most people expected the attack would begin. I rode five
+miles out before breakfast to see what might be seen, but there were
+only a few Lancers pricking about by threes, and never a Boer or any
+such thing. So we have waited all day, and nothing has happened till
+this afternoon the rumour comes with authority that a train has been
+captured at Elands Laagte, about sixteen miles on the way to Dundee. The
+railway stopped running trains beyond there yesterday, and had better
+have stopped altogether. Anyhow, the line of communication between us
+and the splendid little brigade at Dundee is broken now. Dundee is
+pretty nearly fifty miles N.N.E. of this. The camp is happily on a
+stronger position than ours, and not mixed up with the town. But at
+present it is practically besieged, and no one can say how long the
+siege of Ladysmith also will be delayed. For the moment, it seems just
+possible that the great force, which we vaguely hear is coming out from
+England (all English news is hopelessly vague), will have to send the
+bulk of its troops to fight up Natal for our relief. But the south of
+Natal having few rocks is not suited for Boer warfare. When the Boers
+boasted they were coming to Durban, a wit replied: "Then you will have
+to bring the stones with you." For a Boer much prefers to have a
+comforting stone in front of him in the day of battle. In these
+districts every hill is for him a natural fortress. His hope is that we
+shall venture into the mountains; ours that he will venture down to the
+plains. So far hope's flattery has kept us fairly well apart. The day
+after to-morrow is now fixed by popular judgment for battle and attack.
+But only one thing is certain: we can stand still if we choose, and the
+Boers cannot.
+
+To be under martial law, as we now are, does not make much difference to
+the ordinary man, but to the ordinary criminal it appears slightly
+advantageous. For his case is very likely to be overlooked in the press
+of military offences, and it is doubtful if any civil suits can be
+brought. At all events, a legal quarrel I had with a farmer about some
+horses has vanished into thin air; and so, indeed, have the horses. The
+worst offenders now are possible spies. A few Dutch have been arrested,
+but the commonest cases are out-of-work Kaffirs, who are wandering in
+swarms over the country, coming down from Johannesburg and the
+collieries, and naturally finding it rather hard to give account of
+themselves. The peculiarity of the trials which I have attended has been
+that if a Kaffir could give the name of his father it was taken as a
+sufficient guarantee of respectability With one miserable Bushman, for
+instance--a child's caricature of man--it was really going hard till at
+last he managed to explain that his father's name was Nicodemus Africa,
+and then every one looked satisfied, and he left the court without a
+stain upon his character.
+
+So we live from day to day. The air is full of rumours. One can see them
+grow along the street. One traces them down. Perhaps one finds an atom
+of truth somewhere at the root of them. One puts that atom into a
+telegram. The military censor cuts it out with unfailing politeness, and
+a good day's work is done. Heat, dust, and a weekly deluge with
+stupendous thunder complete the scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _October 22, 1899_.
+
+It was a fair morning yesterday, cool after rain, the thin clouds
+sometimes letting the sun look through. At half-past ten I was some six
+or seven miles out along the Newcastle road--a road in these parts being
+merely a worn track over the open veldt, distinguishable only by the
+ruts and mud. Close on the left were high and shapely hills, like Welsh
+mountains, but on the right the country was more open. A Mr. Malcolm's
+farm stood in the middle of a waving plain, with a few fields, aloe
+hedges, and poplars. The kraal of his Kaffir labourers was near it, and
+about a mile away the plain ended in a low ridge of rocky "kopjes,"
+which ran to join the mountainous ground on the left at a kind of "nek"
+or low pass over which the railway runs. Beyond that low ridge lay
+Elands Laagte, an important railway station with a few collieries close
+by, a store, a hotel, and some houses.
+
+The Boers had occupied it two days before, had captured a train there,
+and torn up the rail in two places, making a number of prisoners and
+seizing 100 head of cattle and quantities of other private stores and
+the luggage going to Dundee. Early in the morning we had gone out with
+four companies of the Manchesters in an armoured train with an ordinary
+train behind it, a battery of Natal Field Artillery, and the Imperial
+Light Horse under Colonel Scott Chisholme, to reconnoitre with a view to
+repairing the line. They seized the station and released a number of
+prisoners, but were compelled to withdraw by three heavy Nordenfeldt
+guns, which the Boers had posted on a hill about 2,500 yards beyond the
+station. At half-past ten they had reached the point I describe, and
+were very slowly coming back towards Ladysmith, the trains moving
+backwards, and the cavalry walking on each side the line. The point is
+called Modder's Spruit, from some early Dutchman, and there is a little
+station there, the first out from Ladysmith town. At that moment
+another train was seen coming up with the 1st Devons, and within an hour
+a fourth arrived with five companies of the Gordons. The 42nd Field
+Battery then came, and the 21st later; the 5th Lancers with a few 5th
+Dragoon Guards, and a large contingent of Natal mounted volunteers. That
+was our force. It took up a strong and fairly concealed position behind
+a rise in the road to the left of the railway and waited. Meantime the
+Boer scouts crept along that rocky ridge on our right front and down
+into the plain, firing into us at long range, quite without effect.
+
+At half-past one General French, who had taken command, sent out a few
+Lancers to watch our left, and a large force of mixed cavalry to the
+right. By a long circuit these swept up the whole length of the ridge
+and cleared out the Boer sharpshooters, who could be seen galloping away
+over the top. The infantry then detrained and advanced across the plain
+and up the ridge in extended order, half a battery meantime driving out
+a small Boer party, which was firing upon our Lancers on our left.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE]
+
+When we reached the top of that long ridge, we found it broad as well as
+long, and we were moving rapidly across it when, with the usual whirr
+and crash and scream, one of the enemy's big shells fell in the midst of
+our right centre, killing two horses at a gun. It was at once followed
+by another, and a dozen or two more. They had our range exactly, and the
+art of knowing what was going on behind the hill, but though the shells
+burst all right and hot fragments or bullets went shrieking through the
+midst of us, I did not see anything but horses actually struck. I think
+six or seven horses were killed at that place, and later on I heard of a
+bugler having his head cut off, and two or three others killed by shell,
+but otherwise I believe the artillery did us no damage, though to most
+men it is more terrifying than rifle fire. When we reached the edge of
+the ridge we looked across a broad low valley, with one small wave in
+it, to the enemy's main position on some rocky hills nearly 4,000 yards
+away. The place was very strong and well chosen.
+
+Opposite our right ran a long high ridge covered with rocks and leading
+up to a rocky plateau. In their centre was a pointed hill, at the foot
+of which stood their camp, with tents and waggons. Opposite our left was
+a small detached kopje, and beyond that a fairly flat plain, with a
+river running through it, and the railway beyond Elands Laagte Station.
+Their three guns stood on the rocky ridge to our right of their
+camp--two together half-way down, one a little higher up.
+Flash--flash--they went, and then came the whirr, the crash, and the
+screaming fragments.
+
+Suddenly our guns opened in answer from our right centre, and we could
+watch the shrapnel bursting right over their gunners' heads. They say
+the gunners were German. At all events, they were brave fellows, and
+worked the guns with extraordinary skill and courage. The official
+account admits that they returned several times to their posts after
+being driven out by our shell. The afternoon was passing, and if we were
+to take the place before dark we could not spare time to shake it with
+our artillery much longer. At about half-past four the infantry were
+ordered to advance, the Gordons and Manchesters on the right, the Devons
+on the left. They went down the long slope and across the valley with
+perfect intervals and line, much better than they go in the hollows of
+the old Fox Hills.
+
+In the advance the Gordons and Manchesters gradually changed direction
+half right and crept up towards that plateau on the right of the ridge,
+so as to take the enemy in flank. The Devons went straight forward,
+coming into infantry fire as they crossed that low wave of ground in the
+middle of the valley. On the further slope they were ordered to lie down
+and wait till the flanking movement was developed. Happily the slope, as
+is usual in South Africa, was thickly spotted over with great ant-hills,
+beneath which the ant-eater digs his den. Ant-heaps, hardened almost to
+brick, make excellent cover, and we lay down behind them on any bit of
+rock we could find, the fire being very hot, and the Mauser bullets
+making their unpleasant whiffle as they passed. I think the first man
+hit was a private, who got a ball through his head by the ear. He was
+carried away, but died before he got off the field. A young officer was
+struck soon afterwards, and then the bearers began to be busy. There
+were far too few of them, and no one could find the ambulance carts. As
+a matter of fact they had not left Ladysmith--twelve miles at least
+away. Most of the wounded tried to creep back out of fire. Some lay
+quite still. I heard only two or three call out for help. Meantime the
+rest were keeping up a steady fire, not by volleys, but as each could
+sight a Boer among the rocks, and my own belief is that very few Boers
+were hit that way.
+
+Climbing up a heap of loose stones a little to the right of the Devons,
+I could now see the Boers at the top of their position in the centre,
+moving about rapidly, taking cover, resting their rifles on the stones,
+and firing both at us and at the men who were pushing up the slope
+threatening their flank. Meantime the artillery pumped iron and lead
+upon them without mercy. Their own guns were quite silenced about this
+time, being unable to stand the combined shell and rifle fire. But the
+ordinary Boers--the armed and mounted peasants--still clung to their
+rocks as though nothing could drive them out.
+
+One big man in black I watched for what seemed a very long time. He was
+standing right against the sky line, sometimes waving his arm,
+apparently to give directions. Shells burst over his head, and bullets
+must have been thick round him. Once or twice he fell, as though
+slipping on the rocks, for the rain had begun again. But he always
+reappeared, till at last shrapnel exploded right in his face, and he
+sank together like a dropped rag. Just after that the Manchesters and
+Gordons began to force their way along the top of the ridge on the
+Boers' left. They had the dismounted Imperial Light Horse with them, and
+it was there that the loss was most terrible. Sometimes the advance
+hardly seemed to move, sometimes it rushed forward, and then appeared to
+swing back again. It was six o'clock, rain was falling in torrents, and
+it was getting dark. Perhaps the Gordons suffered most. Fourteen
+officers were killed and wounded there, and next day the killed men lay
+thick among the rocks. The Boer prisoners say the Gordon kilts made them
+easy marks. But the Light Horse lost, too--lost their Colonel, Scott
+Chisholme, who had been so eager for their success. Still the Boers kept
+up their terrible fire, and the attack crept forward, rock by rock. At
+the same time the Devons were called on to advance, and, getting up from
+the ant-hills without a moment's pause, they strode forward to the foot
+of the hill, keeping up an incessant fire as they went. Then we heard
+the bugler sounding the charge high up on our right, and we could just
+see the flank attack rushing forward and cheering. The Boers were
+galloping away or running from the top. The Devons also sounded the
+charge and rushed up the front of the position, but from that isolated
+hill on our left they met so obstinate a fire that the order for
+magazine firing was given, and for a few minutes the rifles rattled
+without a second's pause, in a long roar of fire. Then, with a wild
+cheer, the Devons cleared the position. It is due to them to say that
+they were first at the guns. Meantime, the "Cease Fire!" had sounded
+several times on the summit, but the firing did not cease. I don't know
+why it was. Perhaps the Boers were still resisting in parts. Certainly
+many of our men were drunk with excitement. "Wipe out Majuba!" was a
+constant cry. But the Boers had gone.
+
+The remnants of them were struggling to get away in the twilight over a
+bit of rocky plain on our left. There the Dragoon Guards got them, and
+three times went through. A Dragoon Guards corporal who was there tells
+me the Boers fell off their horses and rolled among the rocks, hiding
+their heads in their arms and calling for mercy--calling to be shot,
+anything to escape the stab of those terrible lances. But not many
+escaped. "We just gave them a good dig as they lay," were the corporal's
+words. Next day most of the lances were bloody.
+
+The victory was ours. We had gained a stony and muddy little hill
+strewn with the bodies of dead and wounded peasants, clerks, lawyers,
+and other kinds of men. Most were from Johannesburg. Nearly all spoke
+English like their native language. In one corner on the slope of the
+hill towards their little camp and waggons I counted fourteen dead
+together. In one of the tents were three dead men, all killed by the
+same shell, apparently whilst asleep. Yet I do not think there were more
+than thirty actually killed among the rocks in all. It is true that
+darkness fell rapidly, and the rain was blinding; but I was nearly two
+hours on the ground moving about. The wounded lay very thick, groaning
+and appealing for help. In coming down I nearly trod on the upturned
+white face of an old white-bearded man. He was lying quite silent, with
+a kind of dignity. We asked who he was. He said: "I am Kock, the father
+of Judge Kock. No, I am not the commandant. _He_ is the commandant." But
+the old man was wrong. He himself had been in command, though instead of
+fighting he had read the Bible and prayed. One bullet had passed through
+his shoulder, another through his groin. So he lay still and read no
+more. Near him was a boy with a hand just a mixture of shreds and bones
+and blood. But he too was very quiet, and only asked for a handkerchief
+to bind it together. Others were gradually dying. Many were not found
+till daylight. The dead of both sides lay unburied till Monday.
+
+In the mud and stones just above the captured guns, General French stood
+giving directions for the bivouac, and dictating a message to Sir George
+White praising the troops, especially the infantry who had been
+commanded by Colonel Ian Hamilton. The assemble kept sounding over the
+hill, and Gordons tried to sift themselves from Manchesters, and Light
+Horse from Devons. All were shouting and questioning and calling to each
+other in the dark. Soon they settled down; the Boers had left scores of
+saddles, coats, and Kaffir blankets, provisions, too, water-bottles,
+chickens, and in one case a flask of carbolic disinfectant, which a
+British soldier analysed as "furrin wine." So, on the whole, the fellows
+made themselves fairly comfortable in spite of the cold and wet. Then I
+felt my way down over the rocks, taking care, if possible, not to tread
+on anything human, and then sought out the difficult twelve-mile track
+to Ladysmith over the veldt and hills, lighted towards midnight by a
+waning and clouded moon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BATTLE OF TINTA INYONI
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _October 27, 1899_.
+
+If you want to "experience a shock," as the doctors say, be with the
+head of a column advancing leisurely along a familiar road only six
+miles from camp, and have a shell flung almost at your feet from a
+neighbouring mountain top. That was my fortune about the breakfast time
+of peaceable citizens last Tuesday morning. A squadron of Lancers and
+some of the Natal Carbineers were in front. Just behind me a battery was
+rumbling along. A little knot of the staff was close by, and we were all
+just preparing to halt. We stood on the Newcastle road, north of the
+town, not far from our first position at the Elands Laagte battle of the
+Saturday before. The road is close to the railway there, and I was
+watching an engine and truck going down with a white-flag flying,
+bringing back poor Colonel Chisholme's body for burial. Suddenly on the
+left from the top of a mountain side beyond a long rocky ridge I saw the
+orange flash of a big gun. The next moment came the familiar buzz and
+scream of a great shell, the crash, the squealing fragments, the dust
+splashing up all round us as they fell. I have never seen men and horses
+gallop faster than in our rapid right-wheel over the open ground towards
+a Kaffir kraal. I think only one horse was badly hurt, but at no
+military tournament have I seen artillery move in such excellent style.
+It was all over in a minute. The Boers must have measured the range to a
+yard, and just have kept that gun loaded and waiting.
+
+But in tactics jokes may be mistakes. That shot revealed the enemy's
+position. Within ten minutes our gunners had snipt the barbed wire
+fences along the railway, had dashed their guns across, and were
+dragging them up that low rocky ridge--say, 300ft. to 400ft. high--which
+had now so suddenly become our front and fighting position. Three field
+batteries went up, and close behind them came the Gloucesters on the
+right, a few companies of the second 60th (K.R.R.) the Liverpools and
+the Devons in order on the centre and left. On our right we had some of
+the 19th Hussars and 5th Lancers; on our left a large mixed force of the
+mounted Natal Volunteers, who were soon strongly engaged in a small
+valley at the end of the ridge, and suffered a good deal all day. But
+the chief work and credit lay with our guns. Till they got into
+position, found the range and began to fire, the enemy's shells kept
+dropping over the ridge and plumping into the ground. None were so
+successful as the first, and only few of them burst, but shells are very
+unpleasant, and it was a relief when at the second or third shot from
+our batteries we found the enemy's shells had ceased to arrive. We had
+destroyed the limber, if not the gun, and after that the shells were all
+on one side. Some say the Boers had two guns, but I only saw one myself,
+and I watched it as a mouse watches a cat. One does.
+
+The Boers, however, had many cats to watch. Climbing up the ridge
+towards its left end, I sat among the rocks with the Liverpools and
+Devons beside one of the batteries, and got a good view of the Boer
+position. They were in irregular lines and patches among the rocks of
+some low hills across a little valley in our front, and were stationed
+in groups upon the two higher mountains (as one may call them) upon our
+right and left. Both of these points looked down upon our position, and
+it was only by keeping close among the stones under the edge of our
+ridge that we got any cover, and that indifferent. But, happily, the
+range was long, and for hour after hour those two hills were simply
+swept by our shrapnel. On our right the long mountain edge, where the
+enemy's gun had been, is called Mattowan's Hoek. The great dome-like
+hill (really the end of a flat-topped mountain in perspective), on our
+left, was Tinta Inyoni.
+
+Our infantry lay along the ridge, keeping up a pretty constant fire, and
+sometimes volleying by sections, whenever they could get sight of their
+almost invisible enemy. Sometimes they advanced a little way down
+towards the valley. On the right the Gloucesters about eleven o'clock
+came over the ridge on to a flat little piece of grass land in front. I
+suppose they expected to get a better range or clearer view, but within
+a few minutes that patch of grass was spotted with lumps of khaki. Two
+officers--one their colonel--and six men were killed outright, and the
+official list of wounded runs to over fifty. When they had withdrawn
+again to the ridge the doctors and privates went out to bring the
+wounded back. Behind the cover of the rocks the dhoolies were waiting
+with their green-covered stretchers. In the sheltered corner on the flat
+ground below stood the ambulance waggons ready. All the ambulance
+service was admirably worked that day, but I think perhaps the highest
+credit remains with the mild Hindoos.
+
+By twelve o'clock the low hills in our front were burning from our
+shells, and the smoke of the grass helped still more to conceal this
+baffling enemy of ours. It was all very well for the gunners, with their
+excellent glasses, but the ordinary private could hardly see anything to
+aim at, and yet he was more or less under fire all the time. As to
+smoke, of course the smokeless powder gives the Boers an immense
+advantage in their method of fighting. It is hardly ever possible to
+tell exactly where the shots come from. But I noticed one man near the
+top of Tinta, who evidently had an old Martini which he valued much more
+than new-fangled things. Whenever he fired a little puff of grey smoke
+followed, and I always thought I heard the growl of his bullet
+particularly close, as though he steadily aimed at some officer near
+by. He sat under a bush, and had built himself a little wall of rocks in
+front. Shell after shell was showered upon that rocky hillside, for it
+concealed many other sharpshooters besides. But at each flash he must
+have thrown himself behind the stones, and when the shower of lead was
+over up he got, and again I saw the little puff of grey smoke and heard
+the growl of a bullet close by.
+
+The firing ceased about three. There was no apparent reason why it
+should. The Boers had killed a few of us. Probably we had killed more of
+them. But mere loss of life does not make victory or defeat, and to all
+appearance we were both on much the same ground as at first, except that
+the Boers had lost a gun, and were not at all comfortable on the
+positions they had held. Our withdrawal, however, was due to deeper
+reasons. A messenger had brought news of the column which had unhappily
+been driven from Dundee--whether by the Boers' 40-pounder, "Long Tom,"
+or by failing ammunition I will not try to decide. Anyhow, the messenger
+brought the news that the column was safe and returning unmolested on
+Ladysmith by the roundabout road eastward, near Helpmakaar. We had held
+back the enemy from intercepting them on their march. Our long and
+harassing fight, then, had been worth the sacrifice. It was a victory in
+strategy. Sir George White gave the order for the infantry to withdraw
+from the ridge by battalions and return to Ladysmith. By evening we were
+all in the town again.
+
+Next day I determined to meet the Dundee force on its way. They were
+reported to have halted about twenty-five miles off the night before,
+near Sunday's river, which, like all the rivers and spruits just here,
+runs southward through mountains into the Tugela and Buffalo. About six
+miles out we had a small force ready to give them assistance if they
+were pursued. Passing through that column halted by a stream, I went on
+into more open country, where there was an occasional farm with the
+invariable tin roof and weeping willows of South Africa. For many miles
+I saw small parties of our Lancers and Carbineers scouring the country
+on both sides of the track.
+
+Then soon after I had crossed a wide watershed I came down into broken
+and rocky country again, well suited for Boers, and there the outposts
+ended. I had a wide view of distant mountains, far away to the Zulu
+border on the east, and northwards to the Biggarsberg and Dundee, a
+terrible country to cross with a retiring column, harassed by three
+days' fighting. The few white farmers had gone, of course, but, happily,
+I came upon a Kaffir kraal, and a Kaffir chief himself came out to look
+at me. The Cape boy who was with me asked if he had seen any English
+troops that way. "Yes, there were many, many, many, hardly an hour's
+ride further on. But he was hungry, hungry--he, the chief--and so were
+his wives--four of them--all of them." He spoke the pretty Zulu
+language--it is something like Italian.
+
+We went on. The track went steep down hill to a spruit where the water
+lay in pools. And there on the opposite hill was that gallant little
+British Army, halted in a position of extreme danger, absolutely
+commanded on all sides but one, and preparing for tea as unconcernedly
+as if they were in a Lockhart's shop in Goswell Road. Almost as
+unconcernedly--for, indeed, some of the officers showed signs of their
+long anxiety and sleeplessness. When I came among them, some mounted men
+suddenly showed themselves in the distance. They took them for Boers. I
+could hardly persuade them they were only our own Carbineers--the
+outposts through whom I had just ridden. Three of our own scouts
+appeared across a valley, and never were Boers in greater peril of
+being shot. I think I may put their lives down to my credit.
+
+The British private was even here imperturbable as usual. He sat on the
+rocks singing the latest he knew from the music-halls. He lighted his
+fires and made his tea, and took an intelligent interest in the
+slaughter of the oxen, for all the world as if he were at manoeuvres on
+Salisbury Plain. He is really a wonderful person. Filthy from head to
+foot, drenched with rain, baked with sun, unshorn and unwashed for five
+days, his eyes bloodshot for want of sleep, hungry and footsore, fresh
+from terrible fighting, and the loss of many friends, he was still the
+same unmistakable British soldier, that queer mixture of humour and
+blasphemy, cheerfulness and grumbling, never losing that
+imperturbability which has no mixture of any other quality at all. The
+camping ground was arranged almost as though they were going to stay
+there for ever. Here were the guns in order, there the relics of the
+18th Hussars; there the Leicesters, the 60th, the Dublins, the Royal
+Irish Fusiliers, and the rest. The guards were set and sentries posted.
+But only two hours later the whole moved off again for three miles'
+further advance to get them well out of the mountains. Why, on that
+perilous march through unknown and difficult country, the Dutch did not
+spring upon them in some pass and blot them out is one of the many
+mysteries of this strange campaign.
+
+Among them I greeted many friends whom I had come to know at Dundee ten
+days before. But General Symons and Colonel Gunning, whom I had chosen
+out as the models of what officers should be, were not there. Nor was
+the young officer who had been my host--young Hannah of the
+Leicesters--who at his own cost came out in the ship with us rather than
+"miss the fun." A shell struck his head. I think he was the first killed
+in Friday's battle.
+
+I got back to Ladysmith late that night. Early next morning the column
+began to dribble in. They were received with relief. I cannot say there
+was much enthusiasm. The road by which I went to meet them is now
+swarming with Boers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE REVERSE AT NICHOLSON'S NEK
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _October 31, 1899_.
+
+On Sunday we were all astir for a big battle. But no village Sabbath in
+the Highlands could have been quieter, though it might have been more
+devotional. We rode about as usual, though our rides are very limited
+now, and the horse that took me forty miles last Wednesday is pining
+because the Boers have cut off his exercise. We sweated and swore, and
+suffered unfathomable thirst, but still there was no more battle than
+the evening hymn. Next day we knew it would be different. At night I
+heard the guns go out eastward along the Helpmakaar road to take up a
+position on our right. At three I was up in the morning darkness, and
+riding slowly northward with the brigade that was to form our centre,
+up the familiar Newcastle road. We had not far to go. The Boers save us
+a lot of exertion. A mile and a half--certainly less than two
+miles--from the outside of the town was our limit. But as we went the
+line of yellow behind our two nearest mountains, Lombard's Kop and
+Bulwan (Mbulwani, Isamabulwan--you may spell it almost as you like), was
+suddenly shot with red, and the grey night clouds showed crimson on all
+their hanging edges. The crimson caught the vultures soaring wide
+through the air, and then the sun himself came up with that blaze of
+heat which was to torture us all day long.
+
+The central rendezvous beside the Newcastle road was well protected by a
+high rocky hill, which one can only call a kopje now. There were the 5th
+Dragoon Guards, the Manchesters, the Devons, the Gordons, with their
+ambulance and baggage, some of the Natal Volunteers, and when the train
+from Maritzburg arrived about six the Rifle Brigade marched straight out
+of it to join us. I climbed the kopje in front of them, and from there
+could get a fine view of the whole position except the extreme flanks.
+
+At 5.10 the first gun sounded from a battery on the right of our
+centre--a battery that was to do magnificent work through the day. The
+enemy's reply was an enormous puff of smoke from a flat-topped hill
+straight in front of me. A huge shell shrieked through the air, and,
+passing high above my head, burst slap in the middle of the town behind
+me. Again and again it came. The second shot fell close to the central
+hospital; the third in a private garden, where the native servants have
+been busy digging for fragments ever since, as in a gold mine, not
+considering how cheap such treasure is now likely to become. The range
+was something over four miles. One of the shells passed so near the
+balloon that the officer in the car felt it like a gust of wind. (I
+ought to have told you about that balloon, by the way. We sent it up
+first on Sunday morning, our Zulu savages opening their mouths at it,
+beating their lips, and patting their stomachs with peculiar cries.)
+
+"Long Tom" had come. "Long Tom," the hero of Dundee, able to hurl his
+vast iron cylinder a clean six miles as often as you will. I saw him and
+his brother gun on trucks at Sand River Camp on the Transvaal border
+just before the war began. They say he is French--a Creusot
+gun--throwing, some say 40lbs., some 95lbs., each shot. Anyhow, the
+shell is quite big enough, whatever its weight, and it bangs into
+shops, chapels, ladies' bedrooms without any nice distinctions. I could
+see "Tom's" ugly muzzle tilted up above a great earthwork which the
+Boers had heaped near a tree on the edge of that flat-topped hill, which
+we may call Pepworth, from a little farm hard by.
+
+Our battery was at once turned on to him, and though short at first, it
+got the range, and poured the deadly shrapnel over that hill for hour
+after hour. But other guns were there--perhaps as many as six--and they
+replied to our battery, whilst "Tom" reserved his attention for the
+town. Often we thought him silenced, but always he began again, just
+when we were forgetting him, sometimes after over an hour's pause. The
+Boer gunners, whoever they may be, are not wanting in courage. So the
+artillery battle went on, hour after hour. I sat on the rocks and
+watched. At my side the Gordons on picket duty were playing with two
+little white kids. On the plain in front no one was to be seen but one
+lone and dirty soldier, who was steadily marching in across it, no one
+knew from where. He must have lost his way in the night, and now was
+making for the nearest British lines, hanging his rifle unconcernedly
+over his shoulder, butt behind.
+
+So we watched and waited. At one moment Dr. Jameson came up to get a
+look at his old enemy. Then we heard heavy rifle fire far away on our
+left, where the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers had been sent out
+the night before, and were now on the verge of that terrible disaster
+which has kept us all anxious and uncertain to-day. The rumour goes that
+both battalions have disappeared, and what survives of them will next be
+found in Pretoria. At eight o'clock I saw a new force of Boers coming
+down a gully in a great mountain behind Pepworth Hill. But for my glass,
+I should have taken them for a black stream marked with white rocks. But
+they were horses and men, and the white rocks were horses too. Heavy
+firing began far away on our right. At nine the Manchesters were called
+off to reinforce. At half-past nine the Gordons followed, and I went
+with them. About a mile and a half from the centre we were halted again
+on the top of another rocky kopje covered with low bush and trees, out
+of which we frightened several little brown deer and some strange birds.
+
+From the top I could see the whole position of the right flank fairly
+well, but it puzzled me at first. The guns shelling Pepworth
+Hill--there were two batteries of them now--were still at their work,
+just in front of our left now and about half a mile away. Away to our
+right and further advanced, but quite exposed in the open, were two
+other batteries, shelling some distant kopjes on our right at the foot
+of the great mountain lump of Lombard's Kop. I heard afterwards they
+were shelling an empty and deserted kopje for hours, but I know that
+only from hearsay. Between the batteries and far away to the right the
+infantry was lying down or advancing in line, chiefly across the open,
+against the enemy's position. But what was that position? Take Ladysmith
+as centre and a radius of five miles, the Boers' position extended round
+a semicircle or more, from Lombard's Kop on the east to Walker's Hoek on
+the west, with Pepworth Hill as the centre of the arc on the north. I
+believe myself that the position was not a mile less than fifteen miles
+long, and for the most part it was just what Boers like--rocky kopjes
+and ridges, high and low, always giving cover and opportunity for
+surprise and ambuscade.
+
+[Illustration: LOMBARD'S KOP]
+
+It was against the left flank of that position that our right was now
+hurling itself. The idea, I suppose, was to roll their left back upon
+their centre and take Pepworth Hill and "Long Tom" in the confusion
+of retreat. That may or may not have been the General's plan, but from
+my post with the Gordons I soon saw something was happening to prevent
+it. On a flat piece of green in front of the rocky kopjes, where the
+enemy evidently was, I could see men, not running, but walking about in
+different directions. They were not crowded, but they seemed to be
+moving about like black ants, only in a purposeless kind of way. "They
+are Boers, and we've got them between our men and our battery," said a
+Gordon officer. But I knew his hope was a vain one. Very slowly they
+were coming towards us--turning and firing and advancing a little, one
+by one--but still coming towards us, till at last they began to dribble
+through the intervals in our batteries. Then we knew it was British
+infantry retiring--a terrible sight, no matter how small the loss or how
+wise the order given. Chiefly they were the 60th (K.R.R.) and the
+Leicesters. I believe the Dublins were there too. Behind them the enemy
+kept up the incessant crackle of their rifles.
+
+They came back slowly, tired and disheartened and sick with useless
+losses, but entirely refusing to hurry or crowd. With bullet and shell
+the enemy followed them hard. Our batteries did what they could to
+protect them, and Colonel Coxhead, in command of the guns, received the
+General's praise afterwards. The Natal Volunteers and Gordons, and at
+least part of the Manchesters were there to cover the retreat, but
+nothing could restore the position again. Battalions and ranks had got
+hopelessly mingled, and as soon as they were out of range the men
+wandered away in groups to the town, sick and angry, but longing above
+all things for water and sleep. The enemy's shells followed hard on
+their trail nearly into the town, plumping down in the midst whenever
+any body of men or horses showed themselves among the ridges of the
+kopjes. Seeing what was happening on the right the centre began to
+withdraw as well, and as their baggage train climbed back into the town
+up the Newcastle road a shell from "Long Tom" fell among them at a
+corner of the hill, blowing a poor ambulance and stretcher to pieces,
+and killing one of the Naval Brigade just arrived from the _Powerful_.
+
+It was the Naval Brigade that saved the day, though, to be sure, a
+retirement like that is in itself a check, though no disaster. Captain
+Lambton had placed two of his Elswick wire guns on the road to the town,
+and sent shot after shot straight upon "Long Tom's" position four miles
+away. Only twelve-pounders, I believe, they were, but of fine range and
+precision, and at each successful shot the populace and Zulus standing
+on the rocks clapped their hands and laughed as at a music-hall. For a
+time, but only for a time, "Long Tom" held his tongue, and gradually the
+noise of battle ceased--the bang and squeal of the shells, the crackle
+of the rifle, the terrifying hammer-hammer of the enemy's two Krupp
+automatic guns. It was about half-past two and blazing hot. The rest of
+the day was quiet, but for rumours of the lamentable disaster of which
+one can hardly speak at present. The Gloucesters and Royal Irish
+prisoners--1,100 at least after all losses! They say two Boers were
+brought in blindfold last night to tell the General. This morning an
+ambulance party has gone out to bring in the wounded, and whilst they
+are gone with their flag of truce we have peace.
+
+I take the opportunity to write, hurriedly and without correction, for
+the opportunity is short. "Long Tom" sent two shells into us this
+morning as we were dressing (I should have said washing, only the water
+supply is cut), and at any moment he may begin again.
+
+
+     _November 1, 1899._
+
+I may add that the retirement of the battalions of the 60th, with the
+Leicesters, is the theme of every one's praise to-day. Its success was
+chiefly due to General Hunter, and the dogged courage of the men
+themselves.
+
+But the second part of the despatch is after all the main point of
+interest. Such a disaster has, I suppose, seldom befallen two famous and
+distinguished battalions. After heavy loss they are prisoners. They are
+wiped out from the war. The Gloucesters and the Royal Irish
+Fusiliers--they join the squadron of the 18th Hussars in Pretoria gaols.
+Two Boers came in blindfolded to tell the news last night. All day long
+we have been fetching in the wounded. Their wounds are chiefly from
+Martini rifles, and very serious. I know the place of the disaster well,
+having often ridden there when the Boers were at a more respectful
+distance. It is an entangled and puzzling country, full of rocks and
+hills and hidden valleys. It was only some falling boulders that caused
+the ruin--a few casual shots--and the stampeding mules. That ammunition
+mule has always a good deal to bear, but now the burden put on him
+officially is almost too heavy for any four-legged thing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HEMMED IN
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _November 2, 1899_.
+
+"Long Tom" opened fire at a quarter-past six from Pepworth Hill, and was
+replied to by the Naval Brigade. Just as I walked up to their big 4.7
+in. gun on the kopje close to the Newcastle road, a shell came right
+through our battery's earthwork, without bursting. Lieutenant Egerton,
+R.N., was lying close under the barrel of our gun, and both his legs
+were shattered. The doctors amputated one at the thigh, the other at the
+shin. In the afternoon he was sitting up, drinking champagne and smoking
+cigarettes as cheery as possible, but he died in the night. "Tom" went
+on more or less all day. In the afternoon Natal correspondents dashed
+down to the Censor with telegrams that he had been put out of action.
+They had seen him lying on his side. I started to look for myself, and
+at the first 100 yards he threw a shell right into the off-side of the
+street, as though to save me the trouble of going further. Another
+rumour, quite as confidently believed by the soldiers, was that the
+Devons had captured him with the bayonet and rolled him down the hill. I
+heard one of them "chipping" a Gordon for not being present at the
+exploit. Now "Tom" is a 15-centimetre Creusot gun of superior quality.
+
+All morning I spent in the Manchesters' camp on the top of the long hill
+to the south-west, called Caesar's Camp. There had been firing from a
+higher flat-topped mountain--Middle Hill--about 3,000 yards beyond,
+where the Boers have taken up one of their usual fine positions,
+overlooking Ladysmith on one side and Colenso on the other. At early
+morning a small column under General Hunter had attacked a Boer commando
+on the Colenso road unawares and gave them a bad time, till an order
+suddenly came to withdraw. Sir George White had heard Boer guns to the
+west of their right rear, and was afraid of another disaster such as
+befell the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers. The men came back sick
+with disappointment, and more shaken than by defeat.
+
+I found the Manchesters building small and almost circular sangars of
+stones and sandbags at intervals all along the ridge. The work was going
+listlessly, the men carrying up the smallest and easiest stones they
+could find, and spending most of the time in contemplating the scenery
+or discussing the situation, which they did not think hopeful. "We're
+surrounded--that's what we are," they kept saying. "Thought we was goin'
+to have Christmas puddin' in Pretoria. Not much Christmas puddin' we'll
+ever smell again!" A small mounted party rode past them, and the enemy
+instantly threw a shell over our heads from the front. Then the guns
+just set up on the long mountain of Bulwan, threw another plump into the
+rocks by the largest picket. "It's like that Bally Klarver," sighed a
+private, getting up and looking round with apprehension. "Cannon to
+right of 'em, cannon to left of 'em!" Then we went on building at the
+sangar, but without much spirit. They laughed when I told them how a
+shell from "Long Tom" fell into the Crown Hotel garden this morning, and
+all the black servants rushed out to pocket the fragments. But the only
+thing which really cheered them was the thought that they had only to
+"stick it out" till Buller's force went up to the Free State and drew
+the enemy off--that and a supply of cigarettes.
+
+Early in the afternoon I took my telegram to the Censor as usual, and
+after the customary wanderings and waste of time I found him--only to
+hear that the wires were bunched and the line destroyed. So telegrams
+are ended; mails neither come nor go. The guns fired lazily till
+evening, doing little harm on either side. A queer Boer ambulance, with
+little glass windows--something between a gipsy van and a penny
+peep-show--came in under a huge white flag, bringing some of our wounded
+to exchange for wounded Boers. The amenities of civilised slaughter are
+carefully observed. But one of the ambulance drivers was Mattey, "Long
+Tom's" skilled gunner, in disguise.
+
+
+     _November 3, 1900._
+
+The bombardment continued, guns on Bulwan throwing shells into various
+camps, especially the Natal Volunteers. Many people chose the river bed
+as the most comfortable place to spend a happy day. They hoped the high
+banks or perhaps the water would protect them. So there they sat on the
+stones and waited for night. I don't know how many shells pitched into
+the town to-day--say 150, not more. Little harm was done, but people of
+importance had one grand shock. Just as lunch was in full swing at the
+Royal, where officers, correspondents, and a nurse or two congregate for
+meals in hope of staying their intolerable thirst--bang came a shell
+from "Long Tom" straight for the dining-room window. Happily a little
+house which served as bedroom to Mr. Pearse, of the _Daily News_, just
+caught it on its way. Crash it came through the iron roof, the wooden
+ceiling, into the brick wall. There it burst, and the house was in the
+past. Happily Mr. Pearse was only on his way to his room, and had not
+reached it. Some of the lunchers got bricks in their backs, and one man
+took to his bed of a shocked stomach.
+
+At the time I was away on the Maritzburg road, which starts west from
+the town and gradually curves southward. The picket on the ridge called
+Range Post is a relic of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, now in the
+show-ground at Pretoria. Major Kincaid was there, only returned the
+night before from the Boer camp behind "Long Tom." He had been ill with
+fever and was exchanged. He spoke with praise of the Boer treatment of
+our wounded and prisoners. When our fellows were worn out, the Boers
+dismounted and let them ride. They brought them water and any food they
+had. Joubert came round the ambulance, commanding there should be no
+distinction between the wounded of either race. Major Kincaid had seen a
+good deal of the so-called Colonel Blake and his so-called Irish
+Brigade. He found that the very few who were not Americans were English.
+He had not a single real Irishman among them. Blake, an American, had
+come out for the adventure, just as he went to the Chili War.
+
+As we were talking, up galloped General Brocklehurst, Ian Hamilton, and
+the Staff, and I was called upon to give information about certain
+points in the country to our front--names and directions, the bits of
+plain where cavalry could act, and so on. The Intelligence Department
+had heard a large body of Free State Boers was moving westward from the
+south, as though retiring towards the passes. The information was false.
+The only true point about it was the presence of a large Boer force
+along a characteristic Boer position of low rocky hills about three
+miles to our front. There the General thought he would shell them out
+with a battery, and catch them as they retired by swinging cavalry
+round into the open length of plain behind the hills. So at 11 a.m. out
+trotted the 19th Hussars with the remains of the 18th. Then came a
+battery, with the 5th Dragoon Guards as escort In half an hour the guns
+were in full action against those low hills. The enemy's one gun there
+was silenced, but not before it had blown away half the head of a poor
+fellow among the Dragoon Guards. For an hour and a half we poured
+shrapnel over the rocks, till, except for casual rifle fire, there was
+no reply. Then another battery came up to protect the line to our rear,
+across which the Boers were throwing shells from positions on both
+sides, though without much effect. Soon after one, up cantered the
+Volunteers--Imperial Light Horse and Border Mounted Infantry--and they
+were sent forward, dismounted, to take the main position in front and
+occupy a steep hill on our left. To front and left they went gaily on,
+but they failed.
+
+At their approach the rocks we had so persistently shelled, crackled and
+hammered from end to end with rifle fire. The Boers had hidden behind
+the ridge, and now crept back again. Perhaps no infantry could have
+taken that position only from the front. I watched the Volunteers
+advance upon it in extended lines across a long green slope studded with
+ant-hills. I could see the puffs of dust where bullets fell thick round
+their feet. It was an impossible task. Some got behind a cactus hedge,
+some lay down and fired, some hid behind ant-hills or little banks.
+Suddenly that moment came when all is over but the running. The men
+began shifting uneasily about. A few turned round, then more. At first
+they walked and kept some sort of line. Then some began to run. Soon
+they were all running, isolated or in groups of two or three. And all
+the time those puffs of dust pursued their feet. Sometimes there was no
+puff of dust, and then a man would spring in the air, or spin round, or
+just lurch forward with arms outspread, a mere yellowish heap, hardly to
+be distinguished from an ant-hill. I could see many a poor fellow
+wandering hither and thither as though lost, as is common in all
+retreats. A man would walk sideways, then run back a little, look round,
+fall. Another came by. The first evidently called out and the other gave
+him a hand. Both stumbled on together, the puffs of dust splashing round
+them. Then down they fell and were quiet. A complacent correspondent
+told me afterwards, with the condescending smile of higher light, that
+only seven men were hit. I only know that before evening twenty-five of
+the Light Horse alone were brought in wounded, not counting the dead,
+and not counting the other mounted troops, all of whom suffered.
+
+It was all over by a quarter-past three. The Dragoon Guards, who had
+been trying to cover the retreat, galloped back, one or two horses
+galloping riderless. Under the Red Cross flag the dhoolies then began to
+go out to pick up the results of the battle. For an hour or so that work
+lasted, the dead and dying being found among the ant-hills where they
+fell. Then we all trailed back, the enemy shelling our line of retreat
+from three sides, and we in such a mood that we cared very little for
+shells or anything else.
+
+
+     _November 4, 1899._
+
+This morning Sir George White sent Joubert a letter by Major Bateson,
+asking leave for the non-combatants, women and children to go down to
+Maritzburg. The morning was quiet, most people packing up in hopes of
+going. But Joubert's answer put an end to that. The wounded, women,
+children, and other non-combatants might be collected in some place
+about four miles from the town, but could go no further. All who
+remained would be treated as combatants. 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. Amid shouts and cheers and waving parasols the people raised the
+National Anthem, and for once there was some dignity in that inferior
+tune. Everybody's life was in danger for "The Queen." The proposal to
+leave the town was flung back with defiance. Rather let our homes be
+flattened out!
+
+To-night my grey-haired Cape-boy and my Zulu came to me in silence and
+tears. They had hoped for escape. They longed for the peace of
+Maritzburg, and now, like myself, they were bottled up amid "pom-poms."
+Had I not promised never to bring them into danger--always to leave
+them snug in the rear? They were devoted to my service. Others ran. Them
+no thought of safety could induce to leave me. But one had a wife and
+descendants, the other had ancestors. It was pitiful. Better savages
+never loomed out of blackness. In sorrow I promised a pension for the
+widow if the old man was killed. "But how if you get pom-pom too, boss?"
+he plaintively asked. I pledged the _Chronicle_ to take over the
+obligation. The word "obligation" consoled him. The lady's name is Mrs.
+Louis Nicodemus, now of Maritzburg. For the Zulu's ancestry I promised
+no provision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TRAGEDY AND COMEDY
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 5, 1899._
+
+The armistice lasted all day, except that the enemy threw two shells at
+a waggon going up the Helpmakaar road and knocked it to pieces, and, I
+hear, killed a man or two--I don't know why. The townspeople were very
+busy building shelters for the bombardment. The ends of bridges and
+culverts were closed up with sandbags and stones. Circular forts were
+piled in the safest places among the rocks. The Army Service Corps
+constructed a magnificent work with mealy-bags and corn-beef cases--a
+perfect palace of security. But, as usual, the Kaffirs were wisest. They
+have crept up the river banks to a place where it flows between two
+steep hills of rock, and there is no access but by a narrow footpath.
+There they lie with their blankets and bits of things, indifferent to
+time and space. Some sort of Zulu missionary is up there, too, and I saw
+him nobly washing a cooking-pot for his family, dressed in little but
+his white clerical choker and a sort of undivided skirt. A few white
+families have gone to the same place, and I helped some of them to
+construct their new homes in the rocks amidst great merriment. The boys
+were as delighted as children with a spade and bucket by the sea, and
+many an impregnable redoubt was thrown up with a dozen stones. What
+those homes will be like at the end of a week I don't know. A picnic
+where love is may be endurable for one afternoon, when there are plenty
+of other people to cook and wash up. But a hungry and unclean picnic by
+day and night, beside a muddy river, with little to eat and no one to
+cook, nowhere to sleep but the rock, and nothing to do but dodge the
+shells, is another story. "I tell you what," said a serious Tory soldier
+to me, "if English people saw this sort of thing, they'd hang that
+Chamberlain." "They won't hang him, but perhaps they'll make him a
+Lord," I answered, and watched the women trying to keep the children
+decent while their husbands worked the pick.
+
+In the afternoon the trains went out, bearing the wounded to their new
+camp across the plain at Intombi's Spruit. The move was not well
+organised. From dawn the ambulance people had been at work shifting the
+hospital tents and all the surgical necessities, but at five in the
+afternoon a note came back from the officer in camp urging us not to
+send any more patients. "There is no water, no rations," it said; "not
+nearly enough tents are pitched. If more wounded come, they will have to
+spend the night on the open veldt." But the long train was already made
+up. The wounded were packed in it. It was equally impossible to leave
+them there or to take them back. So on they went. In all that crowd of
+suffering men I did not hear a single complaint. Administration is not
+the strong point of the British officer. "We are only sportsmen," said
+one of them with a sigh, as he crawled up the platform, torn with
+dysentery and fever.
+
+In front of the wounded were a lot of open trucks for such townspeople
+as chose to go. They had hustled a few rugs and lumps of bedding
+together, and, sitting on these, they made the best of war. But not many
+went, and most of those had relations among the Boers or were Boers
+themselves.
+
+When the trains had gone, Captain Lambton, of the _Powerful_, showed me
+the new protection which his men and the sappers had built round the
+great 4.7 in. gun, which is always kept trained on "Long Tom." The
+sailors call the gun "Lady Anne," in compliment to Captain Lambton's
+sister, but the soldiers have named it "Weary Willie"--I don't know why.
+The fellow gun on Cove Hill is called "Bloody Mary"--which is no
+compliment to anybody. The earthwork running round the "Lady Anne" is
+eighteen feet deep at the base. Had it been as deep the first day she
+came, Lieutenant Egerton would still be at her side.
+
+
+     _November 6, 1899._
+
+When the melodrama doesn't come off, an indignant Briton demands his
+money back. Our melodrama has not come off. We were quite ready to give
+it a favourable reception. The shops were shut, business abandoned. Many
+had taken secure places the night before, so as to be in plenty of time.
+Nearly all were seated expectant long before dawn. The rising sun was to
+ring the curtain up. It rose. The curtain never stirred. From whom shall
+we indignant Britons demand our money back?
+
+With the first glimmer of light between the stars over Bulwan, those few
+who had stayed the night under roofs began creeping away to the holes in
+the river bank or the rough, scrubby ground at the foot of the hills
+south-west of the town, where the Manchesters guard the ridge. Then we
+all waited, silent with expectation. The clouds turned crimson. At five
+the sun marched up in silence. Not a gun was heard. "They will begin at
+six," we said. Not a sound. "They are having a good breakfast," we
+thought. Eight came, and we began to move about uneasily. Two miserable
+shells whizzed over my head, obviously aimed only at the balloon which
+was just coming down. "Call that a performance?" we grumbled. We left
+our seats. We went on to the stage of the town. What was the matter? Was
+"Long Tom" ill? Had the Basutos overrun the Free State? Had Buller
+really advanced? Lieutenant Hooper, of the 5th Lancers, had walked
+through from Maritzburg, passing the Royal Irish sentries at 2 a.m. He
+brought news of a division coming to our rescue. Was that the reason of
+the day's failure? So speculation chattered. The one thing certain was
+that the performance did not come off, and there was no one to give us
+our money back.
+
+[Illustration: IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS]
+
+So we spent the day wandering round the outposts, washing ourselves and
+our rags in the yellow river, trying to get the horses to drink the
+water afterwards, contemplating the picturesque, and pretending to cook.
+Perhaps the greatest interest was the work upon a series of caves in the
+river-bank, behind the Intelligence Office. They are square-topped, with
+straight sides, cut clean into the hard, sandy cliff. The Light Horse
+have made them for themselves and their ammunition. On the opposite side
+the Archdeacon has hollowed out a noble, ecclesiastical burrow. On the
+hills the soldiers are still at work completing their shelter-trenches
+and walls. I think the Rifle Brigade on King's Post (the signal hill of
+a month ago) have built the finest series of defences, for they have
+made covered pits against shrapnel. But perhaps they are more exposed
+than all the others except the Devons, who lie along a low ridge beside
+the Helpmakaar road, open to shell from two points, and perhaps to
+rifle-fire also. The Irish Fusiliers, under Major Churchill, have a very
+ingenious series of walls and covers. The main Manchesters' defences are
+circular like forts; so are the Gordons' and the K.R.R.'s. All are
+provisioned for fourteen days.
+
+I spent the afternoon searching for a runner, a Kaffir the colour of
+night, who would steal through the Boer lines in the dark with a
+telegram. In my search I lost two hours through the conscientiousness of
+the 5th Lancers, who arrested me and sent me from pillar to post, just
+as if I was seeking information at the War Office. At last they took
+me--the Colonel himself, three privates with rifles and a mounted
+orderly with a lance--took me to the General Staff, and there the
+absurdity ended. But seriously, what is the good of having the very
+highest and most authoritative passes possible--one from the War Office
+and one from the head of the Intelligence Department here--if any
+conscientious colonel can refuse to acknowledge them, and drag a
+correspondent about amid the derision of Kaffirs and coolies, and of
+Dutchmen who are known perfectly well to send every scrap of
+intelligence to their friends outside? I lost two hours; probably I lost
+my chance of getting a runner through. I had complied with the
+regulations in every possible respect. My pass was in my hand; and what
+was the good of it?
+
+But after all we are in the midst of a tragedy. Let us not be too
+serious. Dishevelled women are peering out of their dens in the rocks
+and holes in the sand. They crawl into the evening light, shaking the
+dirt from their petticoats and the sand from their back hair. They rub
+the children's faces round with the tails of their gowns. They tempt
+scraps of flame to take the chill off the yellow water for the
+children's tea. After sundown a steady Scotch drizzle settles down upon
+us.
+
+
+     _November 7, 1899._
+
+To-day the melodrama has begun in earnest. "Long Tom" and four or five
+smaller guns from Bulwan, and a nearer battery to the north-west, began
+hurling percussion shell and shrapnel upon the Naval batteries at
+half-past seven. Our "Lady Anne" answered, but after flinging shells
+into the immense earthworks for an hour or two without much effect, both
+sides got tired of that game. But the Boer fire was not quite without
+effect, for one of the smaller shells burst right inside the "Lady
+Anne's" private chamber and carried away part of the protecting gear,
+not killing any men. Then "Long Tom" was deliberately turned upon the
+town, especially upon the Convent, which stands high on the ridge, and
+is used as a hospital. His shells went crashing among the houses, but
+happily land is cheap in South Africa still, and the houses, as a rule,
+are built on separate plots, so that as often as not the shells fall in
+a garden bush or among the clothes-lines. Only two Indian bearers were
+wounded and a few horses and cattle killed. Things went pretty quietly
+through the morning, except that there was a good deal of firing--shell
+and rifle--on the high ridge south-west, where the Manchesters are.
+About two o'clock I started for that position, and being fond of short
+cuts, thought I would ford the river at a break in its steep banks
+instead of going round by the iron bridge. Mr. Melton Prior was with me,
+for I had promised to show him a quiet place for sketching the whole
+view of the town in peace. As we came to the river a shell pitched near
+us, but we did not take much notice of it. In the middle of the ford we
+took the opportunity of letting the horses drink, and they stood
+drinking like the orphan lamb. Suddenly there was something more than
+the usual bang, crash, scream of a big shell, and the water was splashed
+with lumps and shreds of iron, my hat was knocked off and lay wrecked in
+the stream, and the horses were dashing this way and that with terror.
+"Are you killed?" shouted Mr. Prior. "I don't think so," I said. "Are
+you?" And then I had to lash my horse back to the place lest my hat
+should sail down-stream and adorn a Queen's enemy. There is nothing like
+shell-fire for giving lessons in horsemanship.
+
+[Illustration: THE DRIFT AND WATERING PLACE]
+
+The Manchesters had been having an uncomfortable time of it, and I found
+Sir George White and his staff up on their hill. As we walked about, the
+little puffs of dust kept rising at our feet. We were within rifle-fire,
+though at long range. Now and then a very peculiar little shell was
+thrown at us. One went straight through a tent, but we could not find it
+afterwards. It was a shell like a viper. I left the Manchesters putting
+up barbed-wire entanglements to increase their defence, and came back to
+try to find another runner. The shells were falling very thick in the
+town, and for the first time people were rather scared. As I write one
+bursts just over this little tin house. It is shrapnel, and the iron
+rain falls hammering on the roof, but it does not come through. Two
+windows only are broken. Probably it burst too high.
+
+
+     _November 8, 1899._
+
+Fairly quiet day. The great event was the appearance of a new "Long Tom"
+on the Bulwan. He is to be called "Puffing Billy," from the vast
+quantity of smoke he pours out. Nothing else of great importance
+happened. Major Grant, of the Intelligence, was slightly wounded while
+sketching on the Manchesters' ridge. Coolies wandered about the streets
+all day with tin boxes or Asiatic bundles on their heads. Joubert had
+sent them in as a present from Dundee. They were refugees from that
+unhappy town, and after a visit to Pretoria, they are now dumped down
+here to help devour our rations. Some Europeans have come, too--guards,
+signalmen and shopkeepers--who report immense reinforcements coming up
+for the Boers. Is there not something a little mediaeval in sending a
+crowd of hungry non-combatants into an invested town?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND REALITIES
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _November 9, 1899_.[1]
+
+A day of furious and general attack. Just before five I was wakened by a
+shell blustering through the eucalyptus outside my window, and bursting
+in a gully beyond. "Lady Anne" answered at once, and soon all the Naval
+Brigade guns were in full cry. What should we have done without the
+Naval guns? We have nothing else but ordinary field artillery, quite
+unable to reply to the heavy guns which the Boers have now placed in
+position round the town. Yet they only came up at the last moment, and
+it was a mere piece of luck they got through at all. Standing behind
+them on the ridge above my tin house, I watched the firing till nine
+o'clock, dodging behind a loose wall to avoid the splinters which buzz
+through the air after each shot, and are sometimes strangely slow to
+fall. Once after "Long Tom" had fired I stood up, thinking all was over,
+when a big fragment hummed gently above my head, went through the roof
+and ceiling of a house a hundred yards behind, and settled on a
+shell-proof spring mattress in the best bedroom. One of the little boys
+running out from the family burrow in the rocks was delighted to find it
+there, and carried it off to add to his collection of moths and birds'
+eggs. The estimate of "Long Tom's" shell has risen from 40lbs. to 96lbs.
+and I believe that to be the true weight. One of them to-day dug a
+stupendous hole in the pavement just before one of the principal shops,
+and broke yards of shutter and plate glass to pieces. It was quite
+pleasant to see a shop open again.
+
+So the bombardment went on with violence all the morning. The
+troglodytes in their burrows alone thought themselves safe, but, in
+fact, only five men were killed, and not all of those by shell. One was
+a fine sergeant of the Liverpools, who held the base of the Helpmakaar
+road where it leaves the town eastward. Sergeant Macdonald was his name,
+a man full of zeal, and always tempted into danger by curiosity, as
+most people are. Instead of keeping under shelter of the sangar when the
+guns on Bulwan were shelling the position, he must needs go outside "to
+have a look." The contents of a shell took him full in front. Any of his
+nine wounds would have been fatal. His head and face seemed shattered to
+bits; yet he did not lose consciousness, but said to his captain, "I'd
+better have stopped inside, sir." He died on the way to hospital.
+
+A private of the Liverpools was killed too. About twenty-four in all
+were wounded, chiefly by rifle fire, Captain Lethbridge of the Rifle
+Brigade being severely injured in the spine. Lieutenant Fisher, of the
+Manchesters, had been shot through the shoulder earlier in the day, but
+did not even report himself as wounded until evening.
+
+After all, the rifle, as Napoleon said, is the only thing that counts,
+and to-day we had a great deal of it at various points in our long line
+of defence. That line is like a horseshoe, ten to twelve miles round.
+
+The chief attacks were directed against the Manchesters in Caesar's Camp
+(we are very historic in South Africa) and against a mixed force on
+Observation Hill, two companies of the Rifle Brigade, two of the King's
+Royal Rifles, and the 5th Lancers dismounted. The Manchesters suffered
+most. Since the investment began the enemy has never left them in peace.
+They are exposed to shells from three positions, and to continual
+sniping from the opposite hill. It is more than a week since even the
+officers washed or took their clothes off, and now the men have been
+obliged to strike their tents because the shells and rifles were
+spoiling the stuff.
+
+The various companies get into their sangars at 3 a.m., and stay there
+till it is dark again. Two companies were to-day thrown out along the
+further edge of their hill in extended order as firing line, and soon
+after dawn the Boers began to creep down the opposite steep by two or
+three at a time into one of the many farms owned by Bester, a notorious
+traitor, now kept safe in Ladysmith. All morning the firing was very
+heavy, many of the bullets coming right over the hill and dropping near
+the town. Our men kept very still, only firing when they saw their mark.
+Three of them were killed, thirteen wounded. Before noon a field battery
+came up to support the battalion, and against that terrifying shrapnel
+of ours the Boers attempted no further advance. In the same way they
+came creeping up against Observation Hill (a barren rocky ridge on the
+north-west of the town), hiding by any tree or stone, but were
+completely checked by four companies of Rifles, with two guns and the
+dismounted Lancers. They say the Boer loss was very heavy at both
+places. It is hard to know.
+
+In the afternoon things were fairly quiet, but in walking along the low
+ridge held by the Liverpools and Devons, I was sniped at every time my
+head showed against the sky. At 4 p.m. there was a peculiar forward
+movement of our cavalry and guns along the Helpmakaar road, which came
+to nothing being founded on false information, such as comes in hourly.
+
+The great triumph of the day was certainly the Royal salute at noon in
+honour of the Prince of Wales. Twenty-one guns with shotted charge, and
+all fired slap upon "Long Tom"! It was the happiest moment in the Navy's
+life for many a year. One after another the shot flew. "Long Tom" was so
+bewildered he has not spoken since. The cheering in the camps was heard
+for miles. People thought the relief division was in sight. But we were
+only signifying that the Prince was a year older.
+
+[Footnote 1: Despatched by runner on November 20, but returned to the
+writer on December 23, and despatched again on January 1.]
+
+
+     _November 10, 1899._
+
+Another morning of unusual quiet. People sicken of the monotony when
+shells are not flying. We don't know any reason for the calm, except
+that the Dutch are burying their dead of yesterday. But the peace is
+welcome, and in riding round our positions I found nearly all the men
+lying asleep in the sun. The wildest stories flew: General French had
+been seen in the street; his brigade was almost in sight; Methuen was at
+Colenso with overwhelming force. The townspeople took heart. One man who
+had spent his days in a stinking culvert since the siege began now crept
+into the sun. "They are arrant cowards, these Boers," he cried, stamping
+the echoing ground; "why don't they come on and fight us like men?" So
+the day wears. At four o'clock comes an African thunderstorm with a
+deluge of rain, filling the water tanks and slaking the dust, grateful
+to all but the men of both armies uncovered on the rocks.
+
+
+     _November 11, 1899._
+
+A soaking early morning with minute rain, hiding all the circle of the
+hills, for which reason there is no bombardment yet, and I have spent a
+quiet hour with Colonel Stoneman, arranging rations for my men and
+beasts, and taking a lesson how to organise supplies and yet keep an
+unruffled mind. The rest of the morning I sat with a company of the 60th
+(K.R.R.) on the top of Cove Hill (another of the many Aldershot names).
+The men had been lining the exposed edge of Observation Hill all night,
+without any shelter, whilst the thick cold rain fell upon them. It was
+raining still, and they lay about among the rocks and thorny mimosa
+bushes in rather miserable condition.
+
+It would be a good thing if the Army could be marched through Regent
+Street as the men look this morning. It would teach people more about
+war than a hundred pictures of plumed horsemen and the dashing charge.
+The smudgy khaki uniforms soaked through and through, stained black and
+green and dingy red with wet and earth and grass; the draggled
+great-coats, heavy with rain and thick with mud; the heavy sopping
+boots, the blackened, battered helmets; the blackened, battered faces
+below them, unwashed and unshaved since the siege began; the eyes heavy
+and bloodshot with sun and rain and want of sleep; the peculiar
+smell--there is not much brass band and glory about us now.
+
+At noon the mist lifted, and just before one the Boer guns opened fire
+nearly all round the horseshoe, except that the Manchesters were left in
+peace. I think only one new gun had been placed in position, but another
+had been cleverly checked. As a rule, it has been our polite way to let
+the Boers settle their guns comfortably in their places, and then to try
+in vain to blow them out. Yesterday the enemy were fortifying a gun on
+Star Hill, when one of our artillery captains splashed a shell right
+into the new wall. We could see the Boer gunners running out on both
+sides, and the fort has not been continued.
+
+To-day "Long Tom's" shells were thrown pretty much at random about the
+town. One blew a mule's head off close to the bank, and disembowelled a
+second. One went into the "Scotch House" and cleared the shop. A third
+pitched close to the Anglican Church, and brought the Archdeacon out of
+burrow. But there was no real loss, except that one of the Naval Brigade
+got a splinter in the forehead. My little house had another dose of
+shrapnel, and on coming in I found a soldier digging up the bits in the
+garden; but the Scotch owner drove him away for "interfering with the
+mineral rights." At 3.30 the mist fell again, and there was very little
+firing after 4. Out on the flat beyond the racecourse our men were
+engaged in blowing up and burning some little farms and kraals which
+sheltered the Boer scouts. As I look towards the Bulwan I see the yellow
+blaze of their fires.
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 12, 1899._
+
+Amid all the estimable qualities of the Boer race there is none more
+laudable than their respect for the Sabbath day. It has been a calm and
+sunny day. Not a shot was fired--no sniping even. We feel like grouse on
+a pious Highland moor when Sunday comes, and even the laird dares not
+shoot. The cave dwellers left their holes and flaunted in the light of
+day. In the main street I saw a perambulator, stuffed with human young.
+Pickets and outposts stretched their limbs in the sun. Soldiers off duty
+scraped the clods off their boots and polished up their bayonets.
+Officers shaved and gloried over a leisurely breakfast. For myself, I
+washed my shirt and hung it on the line of fire to dry.
+
+In the morning one of the Irish Brigade rode in through the Liverpools'
+picket. He was "fed up" with the business, as the soldiers say. He
+reported that only about seventy of the Brigade were left. He also said
+the Boer commandants were holding a great meeting to-day--whether for
+psalms or strategy I don't know; probably both. We heard the usual
+rumours that the Boers were going or had gone. Climbing to the
+Manchesters' post for the view, I could see three Boer trains waiting at
+Modder's Spruit station, about six miles up the Newcastle line. Did they
+bring reinforcements, or were they waiting to take "Long Tom" home by
+return ticket? We shall know to-morrow. Over the valley where we
+repulsed Thursday's attack, the vultures flew as thick as swifts upon
+the Severn at twilight. Those were the only signs of war--those and the
+little forts which hid the guns. Otherwise the enormous landscape lay at
+peace. I have never seen it so clear--the precipitous barrier of the
+Basuto mountains, lined with cloud, and still touched with snow: the
+great sculptured mountains that mark the Free State border: and then the
+scenes which have become so familiar to us all--Elands Laagte, Tinta
+Inyoni, Pepworth Hill, Lombard's Kop, and the great Bulwan. Turning to
+the south we looked across to the nearer hills, beyond which lie
+Colenso, Estcourt, and the road to Maritzburg and the sea. It is from
+beyond those hills that our help is coming.
+
+The Boers have many estimable qualities. They are one of the few
+admirable races still surviving, and they conduct this siege with real
+consideration and gentlemanly feeling. They observe the Sabbath. They
+give us quiet nights. After a violent bombardment they generally give us
+at least one day to calm down. Their hours for slaughter are six to six,
+and they seldom overstep them. They knock off for meals--unfashionably
+early, it is true, but it would be petty to complain. Like good
+employers, they seldom expose our lives to danger for more than eight
+hours a day. They are a little capricious, perhaps, in the use of the
+white flag. At the beginning of the siege our "Lady Anne" killed or
+wounded some of "Long Tom's" gunners and damaged the gun. Whereupon the
+Boers hoisted the white flag over him till the place was cleared and he
+was put to rights again. Then they drew it down and went on firing. It
+was the sort of thing schoolboys might do. Captain Lambton complained
+that by the laws of war the gun was permanently out of action. But "Long
+Tom" goes on as before.
+
+I think the best story of the siege comes from a Kaffir who walked in a
+few days ago. In the Boer camp behind Pepworth Hill he had seen the men
+being taught bayonet exercise with our Lee-Metfords, captured at Dundee.
+The Boer has no bayonet or steel of his own, and for an assault on the
+town he will need it. Instruction was being given by a prisoner--a
+sergeant of the Royal Irish Fusiliers--with a rope round his neck!
+
+
+     _November 13, 1899._
+
+The Boer method of siege is quite inexplicable. Perhaps it comes of
+inexperience. Perhaps they have been studying the sieges of ancient
+history and think they are doing quite the proper thing in sitting down
+round a garrison, putting in a few shells and waiting. But they forget
+that, though the sieges of ancient history lasted ten years, nowadays we
+really can't afford the time. The Boers, we hope, have scarcely ten
+days, yet they loiter along as though eternity was theirs.
+
+To-day they began soon after five with the usual cannonade from "Long
+Tom," "Puffing Billy," and three or four smaller guns, commanding the
+Naval batteries. The answers of our "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" shook
+me awake, and, seated on the hill, I watched the big guns pounding at
+each other for about three hours, when there came an interval for
+breakfast. As far as I could make out, neither side did the other the
+least harm. It was simply an unlucrative exchange of so much broken iron
+between two sensible and prudent nations. The moment "Tom" or "Billy"
+flashed, "Anne" or "Mary" flashed too. Our shells do the distance about
+two and a-half seconds quicker than theirs, so that we can see the
+result of our shot just before one has to duck behind the stones for the
+crash and whiz of the enormous shells which started first. To-day most
+of "Tom's" shells passed over the batteries, and plunged down the hill
+into the town beyond. It is supposed that he must be wearing out. He has
+been firing here pretty steadily for over a fortnight, to say nothing of
+his work at Dundee. But I think his fire upon the town is quite
+deliberate. He might pound away at "Lady Anne" for ever, but there is
+always a chance that 96lbs. of iron exploding in a town may, at all
+events, kill a mule.
+
+So the bombardment went on cheerily through the early morning, till
+about 10.30 it slackened down in the inexplicable Boer fashion, and
+hardly one shot an hour was fired afterwards. The surmise goes that
+Joubert cannot get his men up to the attacking point. Their loss last
+Saturday was certainly heavy.
+
+Yesterday the Boers, with fine simplicity, sent to our ambulance camp
+for some chlorodyne because they had run short of it, and were troubled
+with dysentery like ourselves. Being at heart a kindly people, we gave
+them what they wanted and a little brandy besides. The British soldier
+thereupon invents the satire that Joubert asked for some forage because
+his horses were hungry, and Sir George White replied: "I would very
+gladly accede to your request, but have only enough forage myself to
+last three years."
+
+The day passed, and we did not lose a single man. Yet the enemy must
+have enjoyed one incident. I was riding up to spend an hour in the
+afternoon with Major Churcher and the 200 Royal Irish Fusiliers left at
+Range Post, when on an open space between me and their little camp I saw
+a squadron of the 18th Hussars circling and doubling about as though
+they were practising for the military tournament. Almost before I had
+time to think, bang came a huge shell from "Puffing Billy" just over my
+head, and pitched between me and them. Happily, it fell short, but it
+gave the Dutch gunners a wonderful display of our cavalry's excellence.
+Even before I could come up men and horses had vanished into air.
+
+All day strange rumours have been afloat about the Division supposed to
+be coming to our relief. It was expected to-morrow. Now it is put off
+till Thursday. It is even whispered it will sit quiet at Estcourt, and
+not come to our relief at all. To-night is bitterly cold, and the men
+are chilled to the stomach on the bare hillsides.
+
+
+     _November 14, 1899._
+
+The siege is becoming very tedious, and we are losing heart. Depression
+was to-day increased by one of those futile sorties which only end in
+retirement. In the early morning a large Boer convoy of waggons was seen
+moving along the road beyond Bluebank towards the north, about eight
+miles away. Ninety waggons were reported. One man counted twenty-five,
+another thirteen. I myself saw two. At all events, waggons were there,
+and we thought of capturing them. But it was past ten before even the
+nucleus of a force reached Range Post, and the waggons were already far
+away. Out trotted the 18th and 19th Hussars, three batteries, and the
+Imperial Light Horse on to the undulating plain leading up to the ridge
+of Bluebank, where the Boers have one gun and plenty of rocks to hide
+behind. That gun opened fire at once, and was supported by "Faith,"
+"Hope," and "Charity," three black-powder guns along Telegraph Hill,
+besides the two guns on Surprise Hill. In fact, all the Boer guns chimed
+in round the circle, and for two hours it was difficult to trace where
+each whizzing shell came from, familiar though we are with their
+peculiar notes.
+
+Meantime our batteries kept sprinkling shrapnel over Bluebank with their
+usual steadiness and perfection of aim. The enemy's gun was soon either
+silenced or withdrawn. The rifle fire died down. Not a Boer was to be
+seen upon the ridge, but three galloped away over the plains behind as
+though they had enough of it. The Light Horse dismounted and advanced to
+Star Point. All looked well. We expected to see infantry called up to
+advance upon the ridge, while our cavalry swept round upon the fugitives
+in the rear. But nothing of the kind happened.
+
+Suddenly the Light Horse walked back to their horses and retired. One by
+one the batteries retired at a walk. The cavalry followed. Before two
+o'clock the whole force was back again over Range Post. The enemy poured
+in all the shells and bullets they could, but our men just came back at
+a walk, and only four were wounded. I am told General Brocklehurst was
+under strict orders not to lose men.
+
+The shells did more damage than usual in the town. Three houses were
+wrecked, one "Long Tom" shell falling into Captain Valentine's
+dining-room, and disturbing the breakfast things. Another came through
+two bedrooms in the hotel, and spoilt the look of the smoking-room. But
+I think the only man killed was a Carbineer, who had his throat cut by a
+splinter as he lay asleep in his tent.
+
+Just after midnight a very unusual thing happened. Each of the Boer guns
+fired one shot. Apparently they were trained before sunset and fired at
+a given signal. The shells woke me up, whistling over the roof. Most of
+the townspeople rushed, lightly clad, to their holes and coverts. The
+troops stood to arms. But the rest of the night was quiet.' Apparently
+the Boers, contrary to their character, had only done it to annoy,
+because they knew it teased us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ENNUI ENLIVENED BY SUDDEN DEATH
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _November 15, 1899_.
+
+This drama is getting too long for the modern stage, and so far the
+Dutch have obeyed none of the dramatic rules. To-day was one monotony of
+rain, and may be blotted out from the memory of all but the men who lay
+hour after hour miserably soaking upon the edges of the hills. After the
+early morning not a shell was fired. The mist was too thick to allow
+even of wild shots at the town.
+
+I had another try at getting a Kaffir runner to carry a telegram through
+to Estcourt.
+
+
+     _November 16, 1899._
+
+The sun came back to cheer us up and warm our bones. At the Liverpools'
+picket, on the Newcastle road, the men at six o'clock were rejoicing in
+a glorious and soapy wash where the rain had left a pool in a quarry.
+The day passed very quietly, shells only falling on an average of one
+every half-hour. Unhappily a shrapnel scattered over the station,
+wounded three or four natives, and killed an excellent railway guard--a
+sharp fragment tearing through his liver and intestines. There was high
+debate whether the shell was thrown by "Silent Susan," or what other
+gun. Some even stuck out for "Long Tom" himself. But to the guard it
+makes no difference, and he was most concerned.
+
+Relief was to have come to us to-day for certain, but we hear nothing of
+it beyond vague rumours of troops at Estcourt and Maritzburg. We are
+slowly becoming convinced that we are to be left to our fate while the
+main issue is settled elsewhere. Colonel Ward has organised the
+provisions of the town and troops to last for eighty days. He is also
+buying up all the beer and spirits, partly to cheer the soldiers' hearts
+on these dreary wet nights; partly to prevent the soldier cheering
+himself too much.
+
+In the evening I sent off another runner with a telegram and quite a
+mail of letters from officers and men for their mothers', wives, and
+lovers over seas. He was a bony young Kaffir, with a melancholy face,
+black as sorrow. At six o'clock I saw him start, his apish feet padding
+through the crusted slush. One pocket bulged with biscuits, one with a
+tin of beef. Between his black chest and his rag of shirt he had tucked
+that neat packet which was to console so many a woman, white-skinned and
+delicately dressed. Fetching a wide compass, he stole away into the
+eastern twilight, where the great white moon was rising, shrouded in
+electric cloud.
+
+
+     _November 17, 1899._
+
+A few shells came in early, and by nine o'clock there was so much firing
+on the north-west that I rode out to the main position of the 60th
+(King's Royal Rifles) on Cove Hill. I found that our field battery there
+was being shelled from Surprise Hill and its neighbour, but nothing
+unusual was happening. The men were in a rather disconsolate condition.
+Even where they have built a large covered shelter underground the wet
+comes through the roof and trickles down upon them in liquid filth. But
+they bear it all with ironic indifference, consoling themselves
+especially with the thought that they killed one Boer for certain
+yesterday. "The captain saw him fall."
+
+Crossing the open valley in front I came to the long ridge called
+Observation Hill. There the rifle fire hardly ever ceases. It is held by
+three companies of the K.R.R. and the 5th Lancers dismounted. It looks
+out over the long valley of Bell's Spruit; that scene of the great
+disaster where we lost our battalions, being less than three miles away
+at the foot of the rugged mountain beyond--Surprise Hill. Close in front
+is one of the two farms called Hyde's, and there the Boers find shelter
+at nights and in rain. The farm's orchard, its stone walls, the rocks,
+and all points of cover swarm with Boer sharpshooters, and whenever our
+men show themselves upon the ridge the bullets fly. An immense quantity
+of them are lost. In all the morning's firing only one Lancer had been
+wounded. As I came over the edge the bullets all passed over my head,
+but our men have to keep behind cover if they can, and only return the
+fire when they are sure of a mark. I found a detachment of Lancers, with
+a corporal, lying behind a low stone wall. It happened to be exactly the
+place I had wished to find, for at one end of the wall stood the Lancer
+dummy, whose fame has gone through the camp. There he stood, regarding
+the Dutch with a calm but defiant aspect, his head and shoulders
+projecting about three feet over the wall. His legs were only a sack
+stuffed with straw, but round his straw body a beautiful khaki tunic had
+been buttoned, and his straw head was protected by a regulation helmet,
+for which a slouch hat was sometimes substituted, to give variety and
+versimilitude. In his right hand he grasped a huge branch of a tree,
+either as rifle or lance. He was withdrawn occasionally, and stuck up
+again in a fresh attitude. To please me the corporal crept behind him
+and jogged him up and down in a life-like and scornful manner. The hope
+was that the Boers would send a bullet through that heart of straw. In
+the afternoon they did in fact pierce his hat, but at the time they were
+keeping their ammunition for something more definitely human, like
+myself. As I retired, after saluting the dummy for his courage, the
+bullets flew again, but the sights were still too high.
+
+[Illustration: BULWAN]
+
+On my return to the old Scot's house, I found an excited little crowd in
+the back garden. They were digging out an enormous shell which had
+plumped into the grass, taking off the Scot's hat and knocking him down
+with the shock as it fell. The thing had burst in the ground, and it
+was as good as a Chinese puzzle to fit the great chunks of iron
+together. At first we could not find the solid base, but we dug it out
+with a pick from the stiff, black clay. It had sunk 3 ft. 8 in. down
+from the surface, and had run 7 ft. 6 in. from the point of contact. It
+was a 45-pounder, thrown by a 4.7 in. gun--probably one of the four
+howitzers which the Boers possess, standing half-way down Lombard's Kop,
+about four miles away, and is identical with "Silent Susan." But with
+smokeless powder it is almost impossible to say where a shot comes from.
+"Long Tom" and "Puffing Billy," with their huge volumes of smoke, are
+much more satisfactory.
+
+Rain fell heavily for the rest of the day, and the bombardment ended,
+but it was bitter cold.
+
+
+     _November 18, 1899._
+
+The bombardment was continued without much energy. The balloon reported
+that the Boers were occupied in putting up more guns on Bulwan. Rumour
+says there will be thirteen in all, a goodly number for a position which
+completely commands the town from end to end. All day the shells had a
+note of extra spite in them as they came plunging among the defenceless
+houses. But they did no great harm till evening. As a rule the Boers
+cease fire about half-past six, and some twenty of us then settled down
+to dinner at the hotel--one or two officers, some doctors, and most of
+the correspondents. We had hardly begun to-night when a shell from
+"Silent Susan" whistled just over the roof and burst in the yard. Within
+five minutes came the louder scream of another. It crashed over us,
+breaking its way through the hotel from roof to floor. We all got up and
+crowded to the main entrance on the street. The shell had struck a
+sidewall in the bar, and glanced off through the doorway without
+exploding. Dr. Stark, of Torquay, was standing at the door, waiting for
+a place at dinner, and talking to Mr. Machugh, of the _Daily Telegraph_.
+The shell struck him full in the thigh, leaving his left leg hanging
+only by a piece of flesh, and shattering the right just at the knee.
+"Hold me up," he said, and did not lose consciousness. We moved him to
+the hospital, but he died within an hour. I have little doubt that the
+shells were aimed at the hotel, because the Boers know that Dr. Jameson
+and Colonel Rhodes are in the town. But the man killed was Dr. Stark, a
+strong opponent of the Chamberlain policy, and a vigorous denouncer of
+the war's injustice.
+
+The havoc of the siege is gradually increasing, and the prospect of
+relief grows more and more distant. Just after midnight the Boers again
+aroused us by discharging all their guns into the forts or the town, and
+again the people hurried away to their caves and culverts for
+protection. The long Naval guns replied, and then all was quiet.
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 19, 1899._
+
+Another day of rest, for which we thank the Fourth Commandment. After
+the Sabbath wash, I went up to Caesar's Camp for the view. On the way I
+called in upon the balloon, which now dwells in a sheltered leafy glade
+at the foot of the Gordons' hill, when it is not in the sky, surrounded
+by astonished vultures. The weak points of ballooning appear to be that
+it is hard to be sure of detail as distinguished from mass, and even on
+a clear day the light is often insufficient or puzzling. It is seldom,
+for instance, that the balloonist gets a definite view towards Colenso,
+which to us is the point of greatest interest. I found that the second
+balloon was only used as a blind to the enemy, like a paper kite flown
+over birds to keep them quiet. Going up to the Manchesters' position on
+the top of Caesar's Camp, I had a view of the whole country almost as
+good as any balloon's. The Boer laagers have increased in size, and are
+not so carefully hidden.
+
+Beside the railway at the foot of "Long Tom's" hill near Modder Spruit,
+there was quite a large camp of Boer tents and three trains as usual.
+They say the Boers have put their prisoners from the Royal Irish
+Fusiliers here, but it is unlikely they should bring them back from
+Pretoria. The tents of another large camp showed among the bushes on
+Lombard's Nek, where the Helpmakaar road passes between Lombard's Kop
+and Bulwan, and many waggon laagers were in sight beyond. At the foot of
+the flat-topped Middle Hill on the south-west, the Boers have placed two
+more guns to trouble the Manchesters further. But our defences along the
+whole ridge are now very strong.
+
+In the afternoon they buried Dr. Stark in the cemetery between the river
+and the Helpmakaar road. I don't know what has become of a kitten which
+he used to carry about with him in a basket when he went to spend the
+day under the shelter of the river bank.
+
+
+     _November 20, 1899._
+
+"Gentlemen," said Sir George White to his Staff, "we have two things to
+do--to kill time and to kill Boers--both equally difficult." The siege
+is becoming intolerably tedious. It is three weeks to-day since "Black
+Monday," when the great disaster befell us, and we seem no nearer the
+end than we were at first. We console ourselves with the thought that we
+are but a pawn on a great chessboard. We hope we are doing service by
+keeping the main Boer army here. We hope we are not handed over for
+nothing to _ennui_ enlivened by sudden death. But the suspicion will
+recur that perhaps the army hedging us in is not large after all. It is
+a bad look-out if, as Captain Lambton put it, we are being "stuck up by
+a man and a boy."
+
+Nothing is so difficult to estimate as Boer numbers, and we never take
+enough account of the enemy's mobility. They can concentrate rapidly at
+any given point and gain the appearance of numbers which they don't
+possess. However, the balloon reports the presence of laagers of ten
+commandoes in sight. We may therefore assume about as many out of sight,
+and consider that we are probably doing our duty as a pawn.
+
+This morning the Boers hardly gave a sign of life, except that just
+before noon "Puffing Billy" shelled a platelayer's house on the flat
+beyond the racecourse, in the attempt to drive out our scouts who were
+making a defended position of it.
+
+In the afternoon I rode up to the Rifle Brigade at King's Post, above
+the old camp, and met Captain Paley, whom I last saw administering a
+province in Crete. Suddenly the Boer guns began firing from Surprise
+Hill and Thornhill's Kop, just north of us, and the shells passing over
+our heads, crashed right into the 18th Hussar camp beside a little
+bridge over the river below. Surprise Hill alone dropped five shells in
+succession among the crowded tents, horses, and men. The men began
+hurrying about like ants. Tents were struck at once, horses saddled,
+everything possible taken up, and the whole regiment sought cover in a
+little defile close by. Within half an hour of the first shell the place
+was deserted. The same guns compelled the Naval Brigade to shift their
+position last night. We have not much to teach the Boer gunners, except
+the superiority of our shells.
+
+The bombardment then became general; only three Gordons were wounded,
+but the town suffered a good deal. Three of "Long Tom's" shells pitched
+in the main street, one close in front of a little girl, who escaped
+unhurt. Another carried away the heavy stone porch of the Anglican
+Church, and, at dinner-time, "Silent Susan" made a mark on the hotel,
+but it was empty. Just before midnight the guns began again. I watched
+them flashing from Bulwan and the other hills, but could not mark what
+harm they did. It was a still, hot night, with a large waning moon. In
+the north-west the Boers were flashing an electric searchlight,
+apparently from a railway truck on the Harrismith line. The nation of
+farmers is not much behind the age. They will be sending up a balloon
+next.
+
+
+     _November 21, 1899._
+
+The desultory bombardment went on as usual, except that "Long Tom" did
+not fire. The Staff is said to have lost heliographic communication with
+the south. To-day they sent off two passenger pigeons for Maritzburg.
+The rumour also went that the wounded Dublins, taken to Intombi Spruit,
+from the unfortunate armoured train, had heard an official report of
+Buller's arrival at Bloemfontein after heavy losses. Another rumour told
+that many Boer wives and daughters were arriving in the laagers. They
+were seen, especially on Sunday, parading quite prettily in white
+frocks. This report has roused the liveliest indignation, which I can
+only attribute to envy. In our own vulgar land, companies would be
+running cheap excursions to witness the siege of Ladysmith--one shilling
+extra to see "Long Tom" in action.
+
+In the morning they buried a Hindoo bearer who had died of pneumonia.
+The grave was dug among the unmarked heaps of the native graveyard on
+the river bank. It took five hours to make it deep enough, and meantime
+the dead man lay on a stretcher, wrapped in a clean white sheet. His
+friends, about twenty of them, squatted round, almost motionless, and
+quite indifferent to time and space. In their midst a thin grey smoke
+rose from a brazen jar, in which smouldered scented wood, spices,
+lavender, and the fresh blossom of one yellow flower like an aster. At
+intervals of about a minute, one of the Hindoos raised a short, wailing
+chant, in parts of which the others joined. On the ground in front of
+him lay a sweetly-scented manuscript whose pages he never turned. It was
+written in the Oriental characters, which seem to tell either of Nirvana
+or of the nightingale's cry to the rose. At times the other friends
+tapped gently on three painted drums, hardly bigger than tea cups. The
+enemy, seeing from Bulwan the little crowd of us engaged upon a heathen
+rite, threw shrapnel over our heads. It burst and sprinkled the dusty
+ground behind us with lead. Not one of the Hindoos looked up or turned
+his face. That low chant did not pause or vary by a note. Close by, a
+Kaffir was digging a grave for a Zulu woman who had died in childbed. In
+the river beyond soldiers were bathing, Zulus were soaping themselves
+white, and one of the Liverpool Mounted Infantry was trying to prevent
+his horse rolling in four feet of water.
+
+
+     _November 22, 1899._
+
+A day only relieved by the wildest rumours and a few shells more
+dangerous than usual. Buller was reported as being at Hellbrouw; General
+French was at Dundee; and France had declared war upon England. Shells
+whiffled into the town quite indiscriminately. One pitched into the Town
+Hall, now the main hospital. In the evening "Long Tom" threw five in
+succession down the main street. But only one man was killed. A Natal
+policeman was cooking his dinner in a cellar when "Silent Susan's" shot
+fell upon him and he died. For myself, I spent most of the day on
+Waggon Hill west of the town, where the 1st K.R. Rifles have three
+companies and a strong sangar, very close to the enemy. I found that, as
+became Britons, their chief interest lay in sport. They had shot two
+little antelopes or rehbuck, and hung them up to be ready for a feast.
+Their one thought was to shoot more. From the hill I looked down upon
+one of Bester's farms. The owner-a Boer traitor-was now in safe keeping.
+A few days ago his family drove off in a waggon for the Free State.
+White were their parasols and in front they waved a Red Cross flag. On a
+gooseberry bush in the midst of the farm they also left a white flag,
+where it still flew to protect a few fat pigs, turkeys, and other fowl.
+The white flag is becoming a kind of fetish. To-day all our white tents
+were smeared with reddish mud to make them less visible. Beyond Range
+Post the enemy set up a new gun commanding the Maritzburg road as it
+crossed that point of hill. The Irish Fusiliers who held that position
+were shelled heavily, but without loss.
+
+
+     _November 23, 1899._
+
+The schoolmaster's wife had a fine escape. She was asleep in her bedroom
+when a 45lb. shell came through the fireplace and burst towards the
+bed. The room was smashed to pieces, but she was only cut about the
+head, one splinter driving in the bone, but not making a very serious
+wound. Two days before she had given a soldier 10s. for a fragment. Now
+she had a whole shell for nothing. At five o'clock "Long Tom" threw
+seven of his 96lb. shells straight down the street in quick succession,
+smashing a few shops and killing some mules and cattle, but without
+further harm. We watched them from the top of the road. They came
+shrieking over our heads, and then a flare of fire and a cloud of dust
+and stones showed where they fell. At every explosion the women and
+children laughed and cheered with delight, as at the Crystal Palace
+fireworks.
+
+Both yesterday and to-day the Boers on Bulwan spent much time and money
+shelling a new battery which Colonel Knox has had made beside the river
+near the racecourse. It is just in the middle of the flat, and the enemy
+can see its six embrasures and the six guns projecting from them. The
+queer thing is that these guns never reply, and under the hottest fire
+their gunners neither die nor surrender. A better battery was never
+built of canvas and stick on the stage of Drury. It has cost the
+simple-hearted Boers something like L300 in wasted shell.
+
+All day waggons were reported coming down from the Free State and moving
+south. They were said to carry the wives and daughters of the Free
+Staters driven by Buller from their own country and content to settle in
+ours, now that they had conquered it. A queer situation, unparalleled in
+war, as far as I know.
+
+In the evening I heard the Liverpools and Devons were likely to be
+engaged in some feat of arms before midnight. So I stumbled out in the
+dark along the Helpmakaar road, where those two fine regiments hold the
+most exposed positions in camp, and I spent the greater part of the
+night enjoying the hospitality of two Devon officers in their
+shell-proof hut. Hour after hour we waited, recalling tales of Indian
+life and Afridi warfare, or watching the lights in the Boer laagers
+reflected on a cloudy sky. But except for a hot wind the night was
+peculiarly quiet, and not a single shell was thrown: only from time to
+time the sharp double knock of a rifle showed that the outposts on both
+sides were alert.
+
+
+     _November 24, 1899._
+
+Though there was no night attack a peculiar manoeuvre was tried, but
+without success. On the sixty miles of line between here and Harrismith
+the Boers have only one engine, and it struck some one how fine it would
+be to send an empty engine into it at full speed from our side.
+Accordingly, when the Free State train was seen to arrive at the Boer
+rail-head some eight miles off, out snorted one of our spare
+locomotives. Off jumped the driver and stoker, and the new kind of
+projectile sped away into the dark. It ran for about two miles with
+success, and then dashed off the rails in going round a curve. And there
+it remains, the Boers showing their curiosity by prodding it with
+rifles. Unless it is hopelessly smashed up, the Free State has secured a
+second engine for the conveyance of its wives and daughters.
+
+It is a military order that all cattle going out to graze on the flats
+close to the town should be tended by armed and mounted drivers, but no
+one has taken the trouble to see the order carried out. The Empire in
+this country means any dodge for making money without work. All work is
+left to Kaffirs, coolies, or Boers. Two hundred cattle went out this
+morning beyond the old camp, accompanied only by Kaffir boys, who, like
+all herdsmen, love to sleep in the shade, or make the woods re-echo
+Amarylli's. Suddenly the Boers were among them, edging between them and
+the town, and driving the beasts further and further from defence. The
+Kaffirs continued to sleep, or were driven with the cattle. Then the
+Leicester Mounted Infantry came galloping out, and, under heavy rifle
+fire, gained the point of Star Hill, hoping to head the cattle back. At
+once all the guns commanding that bit of grassy plain opened on
+them--"Faith," "Hope," and "Charity"--from Telegraph Hill, the guns on
+Surprise Hill, and Thornhill Kopje, and the two guns now on Bluebank
+Ridge. Two horses were killed, and the party, not being numerous enough
+for their task, came galloping back singly. Meantime the Boers, with
+their usual resource, had invented a new method of calling the cattle
+home by planting shells just behind them. The whole enterprise was
+admirably planned and carried out. We only succeeded in saving thirty or
+forty out of the drove. The lowest estimate of loss is L3,000, chiefly
+in transport cattle.
+
+But who knows whether by Christmas we shall not be glad even of a bit of
+old trek-ox? Probably the Dutch hope to starve us out. At intervals all
+morning they shelled the cattle near the racecourse, just for the sake
+of slaughter. To-day also they tried their old game of sending gangs of
+refugee coolies into the town to devour the rations. Happily, Sir George
+White turned at that, and sent out a polite note reminding the
+commandants that we live in a polite age. So in the afternoon the Boers
+adopted more modern methods. I had been sitting with Colonel Mellor and
+the other officers of the Liverpools, who live among the rocks close to
+my cottage, and they had been congratulating themselves on only losing
+two men by shell and one by enteric since Black Monday, when they helped
+to cover the retirement with such gallantry and composure. I had
+scarcely mounted to ride back, when "Puffing Billy" and other guns threw
+shells right into the midst of the men and rocks and horses. One private
+fell dead on the spot. Three were mortally wounded. One rolled over and
+over down the rocks. Several others were badly hurt, and the bombardment
+became general all over our end of the town.
+
+
+     _November 25, 1899._
+
+Almost a blank as far as fighting goes. It is said that General Hunter
+went out under a flag of truce to protest against the firing upon the
+hospital. There were no shells to speak of till late afternoon. Among
+the usual rumours came one that Joubert had been wounded in the mouth at
+Colenso. The Gordons held their sports near the Iron Bridge, sentries
+being posted to give the alarm if the Bulwan guns fired. "Any more
+entries for the United Service mule race? Are you ready? Sentry, are you
+keeping your eye on that gun?" "Yes, sir." "Very well then, go!" And off
+the mules went, in any direction but the right, a soldier and a sailor
+trying vainly to stick on the bare back of each, whilst inextinguishable
+laughter arose among the gods.
+
+
+     _Sunday, November 26, 1899._
+
+Another day of rest. I heard a comment made on the subject by one of the
+Devons washing down by the river. Its seriousness and the peculiar
+humour of the British soldier will excuse it. "Why don't they go on
+bombardin' of us to-day?" said one. "'Cos it's Sunday, and they're
+singin' 'ymns," said another. "Well," said the first, "if they do start
+bombardin' of us, there ain't only one 'ymn I'll sing, an' that's 'Rock
+of Ages, cleft for me, Let me 'ide myself in thee.'" It was spoken in
+the broadest Devon without a smile. The British soldier is a class
+apart. One of the privates in the Liverpools showed me a diary he is
+keeping of the war. It is a colourless record of getting up, going to
+bed, sleeping in the rain with one blanket (a grievance he always
+mentions, though without complaint), of fighting, cutting brushwood, and
+building what he calls "sangers and travises." From first to last he
+makes but one comment, and that is: "There is no peace for the wicked."
+The Boers were engaged in putting up a new 6 in. gun on the hills beyond
+Range Post, and the first number of the _Ladysmith Lyre_ was published.
+
+
+     _November 27, 1899._
+
+The great event of the day was the firing of the new "Long Tom." The
+Boers placed it yesterday on the hill beyond Waggon Hill, where the 60th
+hold our extreme post towards the west. The point is called Middle Hill.
+It commands all the west of the town and camp, the Maritzburg road from
+Range Post on, and the greater part of Caesar's Camp, where the
+Manchesters are. The gun is the same kind as "Long Tom" and "Puffing
+Billy"--a 6 in. Creusot, throwing a shell of about 96lbs. The Boers
+have sixteen of them; some say twenty-three. The name is "Gentleman
+Joe." He did about L5 damage at the cost of L200. From about 8 to 9 a.m.
+the general bombardment was rather severe. There are thirty-three guns
+"playing" on us to-day, and though they do not concentrate their fire,
+they keep one on the alert. This morning a Kaffir was working for the
+Army Service Corps (being at that moment engaged in kneading a pancake),
+when a small shell hit him full in the mouth, passed clean through his
+head, and burst on the ground beyond. I believe he was the only man
+actually killed to-day.
+
+A Frenchman who came in yesterday from the Boer lines was examined by
+General Hunter. He is a roundabout little man, who says he came from
+Madagascar into the Transvaal by Delagoa Bay, and was commandeered to
+join the Boer army. He came with a lot of German officers, who drank
+champagne hard. On his arrival it was found he could not ride or shoot,
+or live on biltong. He could do nothing but talk French, a useless
+accomplishment in South Africa. And so they sent him into our camp to
+help eat our rations. The information he gave was small. Joubert
+believes he can starve us out in a fortnight. He little knows. We could
+still hold out for over a month without eating a single horse, to say
+nothing of rats. It is true we have to drop our luxuries. Butter has
+gone long ago, and whisky has followed. Tinned meats, biscuits,
+jams--all are gone. "I wish to Heaven the relief column would hurry up,"
+sighed a young officer to me. "Poor fellow," I thought, "he longs for
+the letters from his own true love." "You see, we can't get any more
+Quaker oats," he added in explanation.
+
+In the afternoon I took copies of the _Ladysmith Lyre_ to some of the
+outlying troops. It is but a single page of four short columns, and with
+a cartoon by Mr. Maud. But the pathetic gratitude with which it was
+received, proved that to appreciate literature of the highest order, you
+have only to be shut up for a month under shell fire.
+
+
+     _November 28, 1899._
+
+Hopeful news came of British successes, both at Estcourt and Mooi River.
+The relief column is now thought to be at Frere, not far below Colenso.
+A large Boer convoy, with 800 mounted men, was seen trending away
+towards the Free State passes, perhaps retiring. Everybody was much
+cheered up. The Boer guns fired now and then, but did little damage. At
+night we placed two howitzers on a nek in Waggon Hill, where the 60th
+have a post south-west of the town.
+
+
+     _November 29, 1899._
+
+A few more Kaffirs came through from Estcourt, but brought no later
+news. Their report of the fighting on the Mooi River was: "The English
+burnt the Dutch like paraffin. The Dutch have their ears down." Did I
+not say that Zulu was the future language of opera? Riding past the
+unfinished hospital I saw a private of the 18th Hussars cut down by a
+shell splinter--the only casualty to-day resulting from several hundred
+pounds' worth of ammunition. The two greatest events were, first, the
+attempt of our two old howitzers on Waggon Hill to silence the 6 in. gun
+on Middle Hill beyond them. They fired pretty steadily from 4 to 5 p.m.,
+sending out clouds of white smoke. For their big shells (6.3 in.) are
+just thirty years old, and the guns themselves have reached the years of
+discretion. They fired by signal over the end of Waggon Hill in front of
+them, and it was difficult to judge their effect. The other great event
+was the kindling of a great veldt fire at the foot of Pepworth Hill, in
+such a quarter that the smoke completely hid "Long Tom" for two or three
+hours of the morning. Captain Lambton at once detected the trick, and
+sent two shells from "Lady Anne" to check it. But it was none the less
+successful. There could be little doubt "Long Tom" was on the move,
+"doing a guy," the soldiers said. We hoped he was packing up for
+Pretoria.
+
+In the evening Colonel Stoneman held the first of his Shakespeare
+reading parties, and again we found how keenly a month of shell-fire
+intensifies the literary sense.
+
+
+     _November 30, 1899._
+
+At night the Boer searchlight near Bester's, north-west of the town,
+swept the positions by Range Post, the enemy having been informed by
+spies (as usual) that we intended a forward movement before dawn. Three
+battalions with cavalry and guns were to have advanced on to the open
+ground beyond Range Post, and again attack the Boer position on
+Bluebank, where there are now two guns. The movement was to prepare the
+way for the approach of any relieving force up the Maritzburg road, but
+about midnight it was countermanded. Accurately informed as the Boers
+always are, they apparently had not heard of this change from any of the
+traitors in town, and before sunrise they began creeping up nearer to
+our positions by the Newcastle road on the north. They hoped either to
+rush the place, or to keep us where we were. The 13th Battery, stationed
+at the railway cutting, opened upon them, and the pickets of the
+Gloucesters and the Liverpools checked them with a very heavy fire. As I
+watched the fighting from the hill above my cottage, the sun appeared
+over Bulwan, and a great gun fired upon us with a cloud of purple smoke.
+A few minutes after there came the sharp report, the screaming rush and
+loud explosion, which hitherto have marked "Long Tom" alone. Our
+suspicions of yesterday were true, and Pepworth Hill knows him no more.
+He now reigns on Little Bulwan, sometimes called Gun Hill, below
+Lombard's Kop. His range is nearer, he can even reach the Manchesters'
+sangars with effect, and he is far the most formidable of the guns that
+torment us.
+
+[Illustration: HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL]
+
+All day the bombardment was severe, as this siege goes. I did not count
+the shells thrown at us, but certainly there cannot have been less than
+250. They were thrown into all parts of the town and forts. No one
+felt secure, except the cave-dwellers. Even the cattle were shelled, and
+I saw three common shell and a shrapnel thrown into one little herd. Yet
+the casualties were quite insignificant, till the terrible event of the
+day, about half-past five p.m. During the afternoon "Long Tom" had
+chiefly been shelling the Imperial Light Horse camp, the balloon, and
+the district round the Iron Bridge. Then he suddenly sent a shell into
+the library by the Town Hall. The next fell just beyond the Town Hall
+itself. The third went right into the roof, burst on contact, flung its
+bullets and segments far and wide over the sick and wounded below. One
+poor fellow--a sapper of the balloon section--hearing it coming, sprang
+up in bed with terror. A fragment hit him full in the chest, cut through
+his heart, and laid him dead. Nine others were hit, some seriously
+wounded. About half of them belonged to the medical staff. The shock to
+the other wounded was horrible. There cannot be the smallest doubt that
+the Boer gunners deliberately aimed at the Red Cross flag, which flies
+on the turret of the Town Hall, visible for miles. They have now hit
+twenty-one people in that hospital alone. This last shell has aroused
+more hatred and rage against the whole people than all the rest of the
+war put together. When next the Boers appeal for mercy, as they have
+often appealed already, it will go hard with them. Overcome with the
+horror of the thing, many good Scots have refused to take part in the
+celebration of St. Andrew's Day, although the Gordons held some sort of
+festival, and there was a drinking-concert at the Royal. But the dead
+were in the minds of all.
+
+About midnight we again observed flash-signaling over the star-lit sky.
+It came from Colenso way, and was the attempt of our General to give us
+news or instructions. It began by calling "Ladysmith" three times. The
+message was in cipher, and the night before a very little of it was made
+out. Both messages ended with the words "Buller, Maritzburg." It is said
+one of the Mountain Battery is to be hanged in the night for signalling
+to the enemy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FLASHES FROM BULLER
+
+
+     _December 1, 1899._
+
+A kaffir came in to-day, bringing the strange story that the old "Long
+Tom" of Pepworth Hill was hit full in the muzzle by "Lady Anne," that
+the charge inside him burst, the gun was shattered, and five gunners
+killed. The Kaffir swore he himself had been employed to bury them, and
+that the thing he said was true. If so, our "Lady Anne" has made the
+great shot of the war. The authorities are inclined to believe the
+story. The new gun on Gun Hill is perhaps too vigorous for our old
+friend, and the rifling on his shells is too clean. Whatever the truth
+may be, he gave us a lively time morning and afternoon. I think he was
+trying to destroy the Star bakery, about one hundred yards below my
+cottage. The shells pitched on every side of it in succession. They
+destroyed three houses. A Natal Mounted Rifle riding down the street was
+killed, and so was his horse. In the afternoon shrapnel came raining
+through our eucalyptus trees and rattling on the roof, so I accepted an
+invitation to tea in a beautiful hole in the ground, and learnt the joys
+spoken of by the poet of the new _Ladysmith Lyre_:--
+
+    "A pipe of Boer tobacco 'neath the blue,
+    A tin of meat, a bottle, and a few
+    Choice magazines like _Harmsworth's_ or the _Strand_--
+    sometimes think war has its blessings too."
+
+But one wearies of the safest rabbit-hole in an afternoon tea-time, and
+I rode to the other end of the town trying to induce my tenth or twelfth
+runner to start. So far, three have gone and not returned, one did not
+start, but lay drunk for ten days, the rest have been driven back by
+Boers or terror.
+
+As I rode, the shells followed me, turning first upon Headquarters and
+then on the Gordons' camp by the Iron Bridge, where they killed two
+privates in their tents. I think nothing else of importance happened
+during the day, but I was so illusioned with fever that I cannot be
+sure. Except "Long Tom," the guns were not so active as yesterday, but
+some of them devoted much attention to the grazing cattle and the
+slaughter-houses. We are to be harried and starved out.
+
+
+     _December 2, 1899._
+
+To me the day has been a wild vision of prodigious guns spouting fire
+and smoke from uplifted muzzles on every hill, of mounted Boers, thick
+as ants, galloping round and round the town in opposite directions, of
+flashing stars upon a low horizon, and of troops massed at night, to no
+purpose, along an endless road. But I am inspired by fever just now, and
+in duller moments I am still conscious that we have really had a fairly
+quiet day, as these days go.
+
+"Long Tom" occupied the morning in shelling the camp of the Imperial
+Light Horse. He threw twelve great shells in rapid succession into their
+midst, but as I watched not a single horse or man was even scratched.
+The narrowest escape was when a great fragment flew through an open door
+and cut the leg clean off a table where Mr. Maud, of the _Graphic_, sat
+at work. Two shells pitched in the river, which half encircles the camp,
+and for a moment a grand Trafalgar Square fountain of yellow water shot
+into the air. A house near the gaol was destroyed, but no damage to man
+or beast resulted.
+
+Soon afterwards, from the highest point of the Convent Hill, looking
+south-west over the Maritzburg road by Bluebank, I saw several hundred
+Boers cantering in two streams that met and passed in opposite
+directions. They were apparently on the move between Colenso and Van
+Reenen's Pass; perhaps their movements implied visits to lovers, and a
+pleasant Sunday. They looked just like ants hurrying to and fro upon a
+garden track.
+
+The reality of the day was a flash of brilliant light far away beyond
+the low gorge, where the river turns southward. My old Scot was the
+first to see it. It was about half-past three. The message came through
+fairly well, though I am told it is not very important. The important
+thing is that communication with the relieving force is at last
+established.
+
+About 8.30 p.m. there was a great movement of troops, the artillery
+massing in the main street, the cavalry moving up in advance, the
+infantry forming up. Being ill, I fell asleep for a couple of hours, and
+when I turned out again all the troops had gone back to camp.
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 3, 1899._
+
+Long before sunrise I went up to the examining post on the Newcastle
+road, now held by the Gloucesters instead of the Liverpools. The
+positions of many regiments have been changed, certain battalions being
+now kept always ready as a flying column to co-operate with the
+relieving force. Last night's movement appears to have been a kind of
+rehearsal for that. It was also partly a feint to puzzle the Boers and
+confuse the spies in the town.
+
+Signalling from lighted windows has become so common among the traitors
+that to-day a curfew was proclaimed--all lights out at half-past eight.
+Rumours about the hanging and shooting of spies still go the round, but
+my own belief is the authorities would not hurt a fly, much less a spy,
+if they could possibly help it.
+
+Nearly all day the heliograph was flashing to us from that far-off hill.
+There is some suspicion that the Boers are working it as a decoy. We
+lost three copies of our code at Dundee, and it is significant that it
+was a runner brought the good news of Methuen's successes on Modder
+River to-night. But at Headquarters the flash signals are now taken as
+genuine, and the sight of that star from the outer world cheers us up.
+
+At noon I rode out to see the new home of the 24th Field Ambulance from
+India. It is down by the river, near Range Post, and the silent Hindoos
+have constructed for it a marvel of shelter and defence. A great rampart
+conceals the tents, and through a winding passage fenced with massive
+walls of turf you enter a chamber large enough for twenty patients, and
+protected by an impenetrable roof of iron pipes, rocks, and mounds of
+earth. As I admired, the Major came out from a tent, wiping his hands.
+He had just cut off the leg of an 18th Hussar, whose unconscious head,
+still on the operating table, projected from the flaps of the tent door.
+The man had been sitting on a rock by the river, washing his feet, while
+"Long Tom" was shelling the Imperial Light Horse, as I described
+yesterday. Suddenly a splinter ricocheted far up the valley, and now,
+even if he recovers, he will have only one foot to wash.
+
+A civilian was killed yesterday, working in the old camp. The men on
+each side of him were unhurt. So yesterday's shelling was not so
+harmless as I supposed.
+
+Early in the afternoon I met Mr. Lynch, known as one of the _Daily
+Chronicle_ correspondents in Cuba last year. He was riding his famous
+white horse, "Kruger," which we captured after the fight at Elands
+Laagte. One side of this bony animal is dyed khaki colour with Condy's
+fluid, as is the fashion with white horses. But the other side is left
+white for want of material. Mr. Lynch showed me with pride a great white
+umbrella he had secured. Round it he had written, "Advt. Dept.
+_Ladysmith Lyre_" In his pocket was a bottle of whisky--a present for
+Joubert. And so he rode away, proposing to exchange our paper for any
+news the Boers might have. Eluding the examining posts, he vanished into
+the Boer lines under Bulwan, and has not re-appeared. Perhaps the Boers
+have not the humour to appreciate the finely Irish performance. They
+have probably kept him prisoner or sent him to Pretoria. On hearing of
+his disappearance, Mr. Hutton, of Reuter's, and I asked leave to go out
+to the Boer camp to inquire after him. But the General was wroth, and
+would not listen to the proposal.
+
+
+     _December 4, 1899._
+
+This morning the General offered the use of the heliograph to all
+correspondents in rotation by ballot. Messages were to be limited to
+thirty words. One could say little more than that we are doing as well
+as can be expected under the circumstances. But the sun did not come out
+all day, and not a single word got through.
+
+In the afternoon I rode out to Waggon Hill, south-west of our position,
+to call upon the two howitzers. They are heavy squat guns about twenty
+years old, their shells being marked 1880, though they are said in
+reality to date from 1869. They were brought up from Port Elizabeth
+where the Volunteers used them, and certainly they have done fine
+service here. Concealed in the hollow of a hill, they are invisible to
+the enemy, and after many trials have now exactly got the range of the
+great 6 in. gun on Middle Hill. At any moment they can plump their
+shells right into his sangar, and the Boer gunners are frightened to
+work there. In fact, they have as effectually silenced that gun as if
+they had smashed it to pieces. They are worked by the Royal Artillery,
+two dismounted squadrons of the I.L.H. acting as escort or support. Them
+I found on picket at the extreme end of the hill. They told me they had
+seen large numbers of Boers moving slowly with cattle and waggons
+towards the Free State passes. The Boers whom I saw were going in just
+the opposite direction, towards Colenso. I counted twenty-seven waggons
+with a large escort creeping steadily to the south along some invisible
+road. They were carrying provisions or the ammunition to fight our
+relieving column.
+
+We hear to-day there will be no attempt to relieve us till the 15th, if
+then. A Natal newspaper, with extracts from the Transvaal _Standard and
+Diggers' News_, brought in yesterday, exaggerates our situation almost
+as much as the Boers themselves. If all Englishmen now besieged were
+asked why most they desired relief, there is hardly one would not reply,
+"For the English mail!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE NIGHT SURPRISE ON GUN HILL
+
+
+     _December 5, 1899._
+
+We have now been shut up nearly five weeks. Some 15,000 people or more
+have been living on a patch of ground roughly measuring three miles each
+way. On that patch of ground at the lowest estimate 3,500 cases of
+explosive iron have been hurled at high velocity, not counting an
+incalculable number of the best rifle bullets. One can conceive the
+effect on a Londoner's mind if a shell burst in the city. If another
+burst next day, the 'buses would begin to empty. If a hundred a day
+burst for five weeks, people would begin to talk of the paralysis of
+commerce. Yet who knows? The loss of life would probably be small. The
+citizen might grow as indifferent to shells as he is to shooting stars.
+Here, for instance, the killed do not yet amount to thirty, the wounded
+may roughly be put down at 170, of whom, perhaps, twenty have died, and
+all except the confirmed cave-dwellers are beginning to go about as
+usual, or run for cover only when it shells particularly hard.
+
+To-day has not been hard in any sense. It opened with a heavy Scotch
+mist, which continued off and on, though for the most part the outlines
+of the mountains were visible. "Long Tom" of Gun Hill did not speak. The
+bombardment was almost entirely left to "Puffing Billy" and "Silent
+Susan." They worked away fairly steadily at intervals morning and
+afternoon, but did no harm to speak of.
+
+Again large numbers of Boers were seen moving along the south-west
+borders, and a Kaffir brought in the story of a great conference at
+Bester's on the Harrismith line. Whether the conference is to decide on
+some future course of action, or to compare the difference between the
+allied states, we do not know. Probably the Dutch will not abandon the
+siege without a big fight.
+
+On our side we contented ourselves with sending a shot or two from
+"Bloody Mary" to Bulwan, but the light was bad and the shells fell
+short. Sir George White now proposes to withdraw the curfew law, in
+hopes that any traitors may be caught red-handed. The Town Guard,
+consisting of young shop assistants with rifles and rosettes, are
+displaying an amiable activity. Returning from dinner last night, I was
+arrested four times in the half mile. I may mention that it is now
+impossible to procure anything stronger than lime-juice or lemonade.
+
+
+     _December 6, 1899._
+
+"Long Tom" of Gun Hill surprised us all by beginning a fairly rapid fire
+about 10 a.m. "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" replied within a few moments
+of each other, and the second of the two shots exploded right on the top
+of "Tom's" earthworks, but he fired again within a few minutes, aiming
+at the new balloon, the old one having been torn to pieces in a
+whirlwind nearly a week ago. When the balloon soared out of reach, he
+turned a few shots upon the town and camps, and then was silent.
+
+Since the siege began one farmer has steadily continued to plough his
+acres on the plain near the racecourse. He reminded one of the French
+peasant ploughing at Sedan. His three ploughs went backwards and
+forwards quite indifferent to unproductive war. But to-day the Boers
+deliberately shelled him at his work, the shells following him up and
+down the field, and ploughing up the earth all wrong. Neither the farmer
+nor his Kaffir labourers paid the least attention to them. The plough
+drove on, leaving the furrow behind, just as the world goes forward, no
+matter how much iron two admirable nations pitch at each other's heads.
+
+Of course percussion-fused shells falling on ploughed land seldom burst,
+as a boy here found by experiment. Having found an eligible little shell
+in the furrows, he carried it home, and put it to soak in his washing
+basin. When it had soaked long enough, he extracted the fuse and
+proceeded to knock out the powder with a hammer. Then the nasty thing
+exploded in his face, and he lost one eye and is otherwise a good deal
+cut about.
+
+In the afternoon I rode out again to the howitzers on Waggon Hill. The 6
+in. gun which they command from their invisible station has not fired
+for six days. The Boer gunners dare not set it to work for fear of the
+85lb. shells which are fired the moment Boers are seen in the sangar.
+Two were fired just as I left.
+
+From the end of the hill there was a magnificent view of the great
+precipices in Basutoland, but hardly a Boer could be seen. Ninety-seven
+waggons had been counted the evening before, moving towards the Free
+State passes, but now I saw hardly a dozen Boers. Yet if their big gun
+had sent a shrapnel over us, what a bag they would have made! Colonel
+Rhodes and Dr. Jameson were at my side, General Ian Hamilton, with Lord
+Ava and Captain Valentine were within six yards, to say nothing of
+Captain Clement Webb, of Johannesburg fame, and other Imperial Light
+Horse officers.
+
+In the evening the Natal Carbineers gave an open-air concert to a big
+audience. A good many women and girls came. As usual the sailors had the
+best of it in the comic songs, but the event of the evening was "The
+Queen." Though the Boers must have seen our lights, and perhaps heard
+the shout of "Send her victorious," they did not fire, not even when the
+balloon, fresh charged at the gas-works, stalked past us like a ghost.
+
+
+     _December 7, 1899._
+
+A glorious day for the heliograph, which flashed encouragement on us
+from that far-off mountain. But little else was done. The bombardment
+was only half-hearted. Some of the shells pitched about the town,
+smashing walls and windows, and two of the Irish Fusiliers were wounded
+by shrapnel. Towards evening a lot of children in white dresses were
+playing among the rocks opposite my window, when "Puffing Billy," of
+Bulwan, sent a huge shell over my roof right into the midst of them as
+it seemed. Fortunately it pitched a few yards too high. The poor little
+creatures scuttled away like rabbits. They are having a queer
+education--a kindergarten training in physical shocks.
+
+During the day I rode nearly all over the camp and outposts, even
+getting to Waggon Hill again to see the enemy at their old trick of
+calling the cattle home with shells. There I heard that the 6 in. gun on
+Middle Hill was removed last evening, and that was the cause of the two
+shots I had heard as I left. Our gunners detected the movement too late
+to prevent it, and the destination of the gun is unknown.
+
+
+     _December 8, 1899._
+
+The brightest day of the siege so far. The secret was admirably kept.
+Outside three or four of the General Staff, not a soul knew what was to
+happen. At 10 p.m. on Thursday an officer left me for his bed; a
+quarter of an hour later he was marching with his squadron upon the
+unknown adventure. It was one of the finest and most successful things
+done in the war, but what I most admire about it is its secrecy. The
+honours go to the Volunteers. One regrets the exclusion of the Regulars
+after all their splendid service and cheery temper, but the Volunteers
+are more distinctly under Headquarter control, and it was thought best
+not to pass the orders through the brigades. Accordingly just after ten
+certain troops of the Imperial Light Horse, under Colonel Edwards, the
+Natal Carbineers, and Border Mounted Rifles, all under the command of
+Colonel Royston, suddenly received orders to march on foot along the
+Helpmakaar road. About 600 went, though only 200 of them actually took
+part in the final enterprise.
+
+The moon was quarter full, but clouded, giving just enough light to see
+the road and no more. The small column advanced in perfect silence. Not
+a whisper was heard or a light seen. After long weeks of grumbling under
+the steady control of Regular officers, the Volunteers are learning what
+discipline means. The Cemetery was passed, the gorge of Bell's Spruit,
+the series of impregnable defences built by the Liverpools and Devons
+along the Helpmakaar road. At the end of those low hills the Devons were
+found drawn up in support, or to cover retreat. General Hunter then took
+command of the whole movement, and the march went on. Three-quarters of
+a mile further the road enters rough and bushy ground, thinly covered
+with stunted thorns and mimosa. It rises gradually to the foot of the
+two great hills, Lombard's Kop and Bulwan, the road crossing the low
+wooded nek between them. Lombard's Kop, which is the higher, lies in the
+left. The kop itself rises to about 1,200 or 1,300 feet, in a
+square-topped pyramid; but in front of it, forming part of the same
+hill, stands a broad and widely-expanded base, perhaps not higher than
+600 or 700 feet. It is called Little Bulwan by the natives and Gun Hill
+by our troops. Near its centre on the sky-line the Boers placed the new
+"Long Tom" 6 in. Creusot gun, throwing a 96lb. shell, as I described
+before, and about 150 yards to the left was a howitzer generally
+identified with "Silent Susan." Those are the two guns which for the
+last fortnight have caused most damage to the troops and town. Their
+capture was the object of the night's adventure.
+
+Leaving two-thirds of-his force in the bush nearly half-way up the
+slope, General Hunter took about 100 Light Horse, nearly 100 Carbineers
+and Mounted Rifles, with ten sappers under Captain Fowke, and began the
+main ascent. Major Henderson, of the Intelligence Department, acted as
+guide, keeping the extreme left of the extended line pretty nearly under
+the position of the big gun. So they advanced silently through the rocks
+and bushes under the uncertain light of the moon, which was just
+setting. It was two o'clock.
+
+The Boer sentries must have been fast asleep. There was only one
+challenge. An old man's voice from behind suddenly cried in Dutch:
+"Halt! who goes there?" One of the Volunteers--a Carbineer--answered,
+"Friend." "Hermann," cried the sentry. "Who's that? Wake up. It's the
+Red-necks" (the Boer name for English). "Hold your row!" cried the
+Carbineer, still in Dutch. "Don't you know your own friends?" The sentry
+either ran away, or was satisfied, and the line crept on. The first part
+of the slope is gentle, but the face of the hill rises steep with rocks,
+and must be climbed on hands and knees, especially in the dark. Up went
+the 200, keeping the best line they could, and spreading out well to
+the right so as to outflank the enemy when the top was reached. Within
+about 100 yards of the summit they came under rifle fire, the Boer guard
+having taken alarm. A picket in rear also began firing up at random. It
+was impossible to judge the number of the enemy. Anything between twenty
+and fifty was a guide's estimate at the time. The slope was so steep
+that the Boers were obliged to lean over the edge and show themselves
+against the sky as they fired. Some of our men returned their fire with
+revolvers. At sixty yards from the top they were halted for the final
+assault. The Volunteers, like the Boers, carry no bayonets. Their orders
+were not to fire, but to club the enemy with the butt if they stood. The
+orders were now repeated. Then some inspired genius (Major Carey-Davis
+[? Karri Davis], of the I.L.H., it is said) raised the cry: "Fix
+bayonets. Give 'em cold steel, my lads." All appreciated the joke, and
+the shout rang down the line, as the men rose up and rushed to the
+summit. Four bayonets were actually present, but I am not sure whether
+they were fixed or not.
+
+That shout was too much for the Boer gunners. They scattered and fled,
+heading across the broad top of the hill, even before our men had
+reached the edge. Swinging round from the right, our line rushed for the
+big gun. The Light Horse and the Sappers were first to reach it, Colonel
+Edwards himself winning the race. They found the splendid gun deserted
+in his enormous earthwork, the walls of which are 30 ft. to 35 ft.
+thick. One Boer was found dead outside it, shot in the assault.
+
+Captain Fowke and his sappers at once got to work. The breech-block was
+unscrewed and taken out, falling a prize to the Light Horse, who vied
+with each other in carrying it home (it weighs 137lbs.) Then gun-cotton
+was thrust up the breech into the body of the gun. A vast explosion told
+the Boers that "Tom" had gone aloft, and his hulk lay in the pit, rent
+with two great wounds, and shortened by a head. The sappers say it
+seemed a crying shame to wreck a thing so beautiful. The howitzer met
+the same fate. A Maxim was discovered and dragged away, and then the
+return began. It was now three o'clock, and by four daylight comes. The
+difficulty was to get the men to move. The Carbineers especially kept
+crowding round the old gun like children in their excitement. At last
+the party came scrambling down the hill, joined the supports, and all
+straggled back into camp together, with exultation and joy. They
+just, and only just, got in before the morning gave the enemy light
+enough to fire on their line of march.
+
+[Illustration: BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL]
+
+The whole movement was planned and executed to perfection. One man was
+killed, three or four were slightly wounded. Our worse loss was Major
+Henderson, wounded in the shoulder and leg during the final advance. He
+went through the rest of the action, and returned with the party, but
+must now retire for a week or so to Intombi Camp, for the Roentgen rays
+to discover the ball in his leg. It is thought to be a buckshot, or,
+rather, the steel ball of a bicycle bearing, fired from a sporting gun.
+
+General Hunter found a letter in the gun-pit. It is in Dutch, and
+half-finished, scribbled by a Boer gunner to his sister in Pretoria. I
+give a literal translation:--
+
+     "MY DEAR SISTER,--It is a month and seven days since we besieged
+     Ladysmith, and I don't know what will happen further. We see the
+     English every day walking about the town, and we are bombarding the
+     place with our cannon. They have built breastworks outside the
+     town. To attack would be very dangerous. Near the town they have
+     set up two naval guns, from which we receive a very heavy fire we
+     cannot stand. I think there will be much blood spilt before they
+     surrender, as Mr. Englishman fights hard, and our burghers are a
+     bit frightened. I should like to write more, but the sun is very
+     hot, and, what's more, the flies are so troublesome that I don't
+     get a chance of sitting still.--Your affectionate Brother."
+
+In the afternoon the General publicly congratulated the Volunteers on
+their achievement. The Boers added their generous praise--communicated
+to some doctors left behind to look after our wounded, who returned to
+us in the course of the day, after being given a good breakfast.
+Unhappily the above account is necessarily second-hand. No correspondent
+had a chance of going with the party. The only one who even started was
+sent back by General Hunter to await the column's return in a
+guard-room. I have been obliged to build up the story from my knowledge
+of the ground and from what has been told me by Major Henderson and
+other officers or privates who were present.
+
+Before that party returned in triumph another important movement was
+already in progress, of which, I believe, I was the only outside
+spectator. Just before four I was awakened by the trampling of cavalry
+going up the Newcastle road. They were the 5th Lancers, the 5th Dragoon
+Guards, and the 18th Hussars. The 19th Hussars had been out all night
+burning a kraal and distracting attention from Gun Hill. Just as the
+stars vanished, the 18th, followed by the others, galloped forward
+towards the Boer lines in the general direction of Pepworth Hill, though
+our main force was on the left of the direct line. General Brocklehurst
+was in command. It is described at Headquarters as a reconnaissance or
+demonstration. But there are rumours that more was originally
+intended--perhaps an attack on the Boer rail head, with its three heavy
+trains this side of Modder Spruit; perhaps the destruction of the Modder
+Spruit Bridge. If the object was only to discover whether the Boers are
+still in force, and to demonstrate the coolness of the British cavalry,
+the movement was entirely successful.
+
+Directly the cavalry advanced across the fairly open valley of Bell's
+Spruit, passing Brook's Farm and making for the left of Limit Hill on
+the main road, they were met by a tremendous rifle fire from every
+ridge and hillock and rock commanding the scene. At the same time, guns
+opened upon them from Surprise Hill on our left rear, and from some spot
+which I could not locate on our left front. Still they advanced,
+squadron after squadron sweeping across Bell's Spruit, and up into the
+tortuous little valleys and ravines beyond, towards Macpherson's Farm.
+That was the limit. It is about two and three-quarter miles (not more)
+from our picket on the Newcastle road, and lies not far from the left
+foot of Pepworth Hill. The 18th Hussars, through some mistake in orders,
+attempted to push still further forward towards the hill, but just
+before five a general retirement began.
+
+Except perhaps at the close of Elands Laagte fight, or in one brief
+assault of Turks upon a Greek position in Epirus, I have never heard
+anything to compare to the rifle fire under which the withdrawal was
+conducted. The range was long, but the roll of the rifle was incessant.
+The whole air screamed with bullets, and the dust rose in clouds over
+the grass as they fell. Then the 6 in. gun on Bulwan ("Puffing Billy")
+and an invisible gun on our right opened fire, throwing shells into the
+thick of our men wherever the ravines or rocks compelled them to crowd
+together. They came back fast, but well in hand, wheeling to right or
+left at word of command, as on parade. The B Squadron of the 18th had a
+terrible gallop for it, right across the front of fire along a ridge
+such as Boers rejoice in. Their loss was two killed and seventeen
+wounded. The others only lost three or four slightly wounded. It proves
+how lightly a highly-disciplined cavalry can come off where one would
+have said hardly any could survive.
+
+As we retired the Boers kept following us up, though with great caution.
+Riding along the valleys, dismounting, and creeping from kopje to kopje
+among the stones, a large body of them came up to Brooks Farm, and began
+firing at our sangars and outposts at ranges of 800 to 1,000 yards, the
+bullets coming very thick over our heads, even after we had reached the
+protection of the Gloucesters' walls and earthworks. There our infantry
+opened fire, while two guns of the 13th Battery near the railway
+cutting, and two of the 69th on Observation Hill, threw shrapnel over
+the kopjes, and checked any further advance.
+
+But the Boers still held their positions, pouring a tremendous fire into
+any of the cavalry who had still to pass within their range. As to
+their number, their magazine rifles, firing five shots in rapid
+succession, makes any estimate difficult. I have heard it put as low as
+600. Perhaps 1,000 is about right. I myself saw some 300 from first to
+last. By seven the whole of our force was again within the lines.
+Splendid as the behaviour of all the cavalry was, one man seemed to me
+conspicuous. Towards the end of the retirement he quietly cantered out
+across the most exposed bit of open ground, and went round among the
+kopjes as though looking for something. For a time he disappeared down a
+gully. Then he came cantering back again, and reached the high road
+along a watercourse, which gave a little cover. At least 300 bullets
+must have been fired at him, but he changed neither his pace nor
+direction. Whether he was looking for wounded or only went out for
+diversion I have not heard, but one could not imagine more complete
+disregard of death.
+
+The rest of the day passed quietly. The Boers gathered in crowds on Gun
+Hill and stood around the carcass of "Long Tom" as though in
+lamentation. His absence gave us an unfamiliar sense of security. Some
+called it dull. "Lay it on where you like, there's no pleasing you,"
+said the gaoler.
+
+
+     _December 9, 1899._
+
+The Dutch left us pretty much alone. Sickness is becoming serious. The
+cases average thirty a day, chiefly enteric. A Natal newspaper only a
+week old was brought in by a runner. It contained a few details of
+Methuen's fight on Modder River, but hardly any English news. Captain
+Heath, of the balloon, told me he could see the Boers concentrating in
+much larger camps than before, especially about Colenso and at
+Springfield further up the Tugela.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 10, 1899._
+
+Just as we were lazily washing our clothes and otherwise enjoying the
+Sabbath rest and security at about eight in the morning, "Puffing
+Billy," of Bulwan, began breaking the Fourth Commandment with
+extraordinary recklessness and rapidity. He sent nine of his shells into
+the town, as fast as he could fire them. "Bloody Mary" flung two over
+his head and one into his earthwork, but he paid no attention to her
+protests. The fact was, the 5th Dragoon Guards, trusting to Boer
+principles, had left their horses fully exposed to view instead of
+leading them away under cover as usual at sunrise. The gunners, probably
+Germans, thought this was presuming too much on their devotion to the
+Old Testament, and set their scruples aside for twenty minutes under
+the paramount duty of slaughtering men and horses. Happily no serious
+harm was done, and the rest of the day was as quiet as Sunday usually
+is.
+
+On our side we were engaged all day in preparing a new home for "Lady
+Anne" on Waggon Hill, south-west of the town. The position, as I have
+often described, gives a splendid view of the country towards Basutoland
+and the Free State mountains. It also commands some four miles of the
+Maritzburg road towards Colenso and the guns which the Boers have set up
+there to check the approach of a relieving force. By late afternoon the
+enormous sangar was almost finished. The gun will be carried over on a
+waggon at night. I watched the work in progress from Rifleman's Post, an
+important outpost and fort, held by the 2nd K.R.R. (60th). It also
+commands the beginning of the Maritzburg road, where it passes across
+the "Long Valley," between Range Post and Bluebank.
+
+The doctors and ambulance men who went out after the brief cavalry
+action on Friday morning report they were fired on while carrying the
+dead and wounded in the dhoolies. The Boers retaliate with a similar
+charge against us in Modder River. Unhappily, there can be no doubt that
+one of our doctors was heavily fired on whilst dressing a man's wounds
+on the field.
+
+
+     _December 11, 1899._
+
+Soon after two in the night I heard rifle-firing, then two explosions,
+and heavier rifle-firing again, apparently two or three miles away. It
+was too dark to see anything, even from the top of the hill, but in the
+morning I found we had destroyed another gun--the 4.7 in. howitzer on
+Surprise Hill. For weeks past it had been one of the most troublesome
+guns of the thirty-two that surround us. It had a long range and
+accurate aim. Its position commanded Observation Hill, part of the
+Newcastle road, Cove Hill, and Leicester Post, the whole of the old camp
+and all the line of country away to Range Post and beyond. It was this
+gun that shelled the 18th Hussars out of their camp and continually
+harassed the Irish Fusiliers. It was constantly dropping shells into the
+69th Battery and on the K.R.R. at King's Post. Surprise Hill is a
+square-topped kopje, from 500 feet to 600 feet high, between Thornhill's
+Kopje and Nicholson's Nek. It overlooks Bell's Spruit and the scene of
+"Mournful Monday's" worst disaster. From Leicester Post, where two guns
+were always kept turned on it, the distance is 4,100 yards--just the
+full range of our field guns. From Observation Hill it is hardly 2,500
+yards. The destruction of its gun was therefore of the highest
+importance.
+
+At ten o'clock last night four companies of the 2nd Rifle Brigade
+started from their camp on Leicester Post, with six sappers, under Mr.
+Digby Jones, and five gunners under Major Wing, of the 69th Battery. The
+whole was commanded by Colonel Metcalfe of the battalion. They marched
+across the fairly open grassland toward Observation Hill, and there
+halted because the half-moon was too bright. About midnight they again
+advanced, as the moon was far down in the west. They marched in fours
+towards the foot of the hill, but had to cross the Harrismith Railway
+two deep through a gap where the wire fences were cut with nippers. One
+deep donga and a shallower had to be crossed as well. At the foot of the
+hill two companies were left, extended in a wedge shape, the apex
+pointing up the hill. The remaining two companies began the ascent. The
+front of the hill is steep and covered with boulders, but is greener
+than most South African hills. About half-way up half a company was left
+in support. The small assaulting party then climbed up in extended line.
+Not a word was spoken, and the Boers gave no sign till our men were
+within twenty yards of the top. Then a sentry cried, "Who's there? Who's
+there?" in English, and fired. Our men fixed swords and charged to the
+top with a splendid cheer. They made straight for the sangar and formed
+in a circle round it, firing outwards without visible target. To their
+dismay they found the gun-pit empty. The gun had been removed perhaps
+for security, perhaps for the Sabbath rest. But it was soon discovered a
+few yards off, and the sappers set to work with their gun-cotton.
+Meantime a party was sent to the corner of the hill on the left to clear
+out a little camp, where the Boer gunners slept and had their meals
+under a few little trees. They fired into it, and then carried
+everything away, some of the men bringing off some fine blankets, which
+they are very proud of this morning. The great-coats were in such a
+disgusting condition that the soldiers had to leave them.
+
+The fuse was long in going off. Some say the first fuse failed, some
+that it was very slow. Anyhow, the party was kept waiting on the
+hill-top almost half an hour, when the whole thing ought to have been
+done in a quarter. Those extra fifteen minutes cost many lives. At last
+the shock of the explosion came. Two great holes were made in the gun's
+rifling near the muzzle, and the breech was blown clean out, the screw
+being destroyed. Major Wing secured the sight, the sponge, and an old
+wideawake, which the gunner used always to wave to him very politely
+just before he fired. Some say there was a second explosion, and I heard
+it myself, but it may have been a Boer gun which threw one round of
+shrapnel high over the hill, the bullets pattering down harmlessly, and
+only making a blue bruise when they hit. As soon as the sappers and
+gunners had made sure the gun was destroyed, the order to retire was
+given, and the line began climbing down in the darkness. The half
+company in support was taken up, the two companies at the foot were
+reached by some, when a heavy fire flashed out of the darkness on both
+sides. The Boers, evidently by a preconcerted scheme, were crowding in
+from Thornhill's farm on our left--Mr. Thornhill, by the way, was acting
+as our guide--and from Bell's farm on our right. They came creeping
+along the dongas, right into the midst of our men, as well as cutting
+off retreat. Then it was that we wanted that quarter of an hour lost by
+the fuse. The men hastily formed up into their four companies and began
+the retirement in succession. Each company had simply to fight its way
+through with the sword-bayonet. They did not fire much, chiefly for fear
+of hitting each other, which unfortunately happened in some cases. The
+Boers took less precaution, and kept up a tremendous fire from both
+flanks, many of the bullets probably hitting their own men. Under
+shelter of the dongas some got right among our companies and fired from
+a few yards' distance.
+
+Then came the horror of a war between two nations familiar with the same
+language. "Second R.B.! Second R.B.!" shouted our fellows as a watchword
+and rallying-cry. "Second R.B.!" shouted every Boer who was challenged
+or came into danger. "B Company here!" cried an officer. "B Company
+here!" came the echo from the Dutch. "Where's Captain Paley?" asked a
+private. "Where's Captain Paley?" the question passed from Boer to Boer.
+In the darkness it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The
+only way was to stoop down till you saw the edge of a broad-brimmed
+hat. Then you drove your bayonet through the man, if he did not shoot
+you first. Many a poor fellow was shot down by some invisible figure who
+was talking to him in English and was taken for a friend. One Boer fired
+upon a private at two or three yards--and missed him! The private sprang
+upon him. "I surrender! I surrender!" cried the Boer, throwing down his
+rifle. "So do I," cried the private, and plunged his bayonet through the
+man's stomach and out at his back.
+
+One by one the companies cut their way into the open ground by the
+railway, and to Observation Hill, where the enemy dare not pursue. By
+half-past three a.m. the greater part were back at Leicester Post again.
+It was a triumph, even for the Rifle Brigade: as fine and gallant an
+achievement as could be done. But the cost was heavy.
+
+Eleven were dead, including one or perhaps two officers. Six are
+prisoners. Forty-three are wounded, some severely. The ambulance was out
+all the morning bringing them in. Again they complained that the Boers
+fired on them and wanted to keep them prisoners. Nothing has so
+embittered our troops against the enemy as this continual firing on the
+wounded and hospitals. It was sad in any case to see the stretchers
+coming home this morning. Meeting a covered dhoolie, I asked the bearers
+who was in it. "Captain Paley," they said, and put him down for water.
+He had been reported missing. In fact, he had stayed behind to look
+after some of his men who were down or lost. He is known for his
+excellent government of a district in Crete. I gave him the water. He
+recognised me at once and was conscious, but his singularly blue eyes
+looked out of a deadly yellow and bloodless face, and his hands seemed
+to have the touch of death on them. When I said I was sorry, he
+answered, "But we got the gun." He was shot through the chest, though,
+as he pointed out, he was not spitting blood. Another bullet had entered
+the left hip and passed out, breaking the right hip-bone. That is the
+dangerous wound. He said he did not feel much pain.
+
+The wounded were taken down to the tents set up in the ravine of the
+Port Road between the Headquarters and the old camp. That is the main
+hospital (11th and 18th) since the wounded were shifted out of the Town
+Hall, because the Boers shelled it so persistently. Since the Geneva
+flag was removed from the hall's turret not a single shell has been
+fired near the building. The ravine--"kloof" is the word here, like
+"cleft"--is fairly safe from shells, though the Bulwan gun has done its
+best to get among the tents ever since spies reported the removal.
+
+It is fully exposed to those terrible dust storms which I described in
+an earlier letter. In the afternoon we had one of the worst I have seen.
+The sand and dust and dry filth, gathered up by the hot west wind from
+the plain of the old camp, swept in a continuous yellow cloud along the
+road and down into the ravine. It blotted out the sun, it blinded horses
+and men, it covered the wounded with a thick layer. I have described its
+horrible effects before. Imagine what it is like to have a hospital
+under such conditions, practically unsheltered--to extract bullets, to
+staunch blood, to amputate. One admires the Boers as a race fighting for
+their freedom, soon to be overthrown on behalf of a mongrel pack of
+speculators and other scoundrels. But I did not like them any better
+when I saw our wounded in the dust-storm to-day, and remembered why they
+were there.
+
+In the afternoon a white woman was killed by a shell as she was washing
+clothes in the river. She is the first woman actually killed, though
+others have died from premature child birth. I don't know which gun
+killed her, but parts of the town and river hitherto safe were to-day
+exposed to fire from the 6 in. gun which was removed from Middle Hill a
+few days ago, and is now set up on Thornhill's farm, due west of the
+town. It commands a very wide district--the old camp, the Long Valley
+which the Maritzburg road crosses, the Great Plain behind Bluebank, and
+most of our western positions. It began firing early in the morning and
+continued at intervals all day. For an hour or two people were surprised
+at seeing a free balloon sailing away towards Bulwan. It turned out to
+be one of Captain Heath's dummies, which had got away. He tells me it
+will be entirely useless to the enemy in any case.
+
+
+     _December 12, 1899._
+
+I was so overcome with fever that again my aspect of things was not
+quite straight. After dawn the Bulwan gun shelled the Star bakery, close
+to my cottage, and the stones and earth splashing on my roof woke me up
+too early. Another cottage was wrecked. The heat was intense, but the
+sun so splendid that I have hopes my heliograph message got through at
+last. None have gone yet, but I took up my sixth version in faith to the
+signal station near the Convent. On inquiry about Captain Paley I found
+he had been sent down to Intombi Camp with other serious cases, but the
+doctors think he has a chance. Lieut. Bond, who has a similar wound,
+went with him. Lieut. Fergusson, who died, had four bad wounds, three
+from bullets and one from a small shell of the automatic "pom-pom,"
+which shattered his thigh. The rest of the day was a delirium of fever
+till the evening, when the wind suddenly changed to east, and it became
+cool and then bitterly cold. At half-past eight the proposed Flying
+Column, which is to co-operate with the relieving force, had a kind of
+dress rehearsal, all turning out with field equipment and transport for
+three days' rations. The Irish Fusiliers under Major Churcher formed the
+head of the column at Range Post, a body of Natal Volunteers coming
+next, followed by the Gordons. I waited at Range Post in the eager and
+refreshing wind till the column gradually dissolved into its camps, and
+all was still. By eleven the rehearsal was over and I rode back to my
+end of the town. To-night the civilians of the Town Guard went on picket
+by the river, and bore their trials boldly, though one of them got a
+crick in the neck.
+
+
+     _December 13, 1899._
+
+The early part of the day was distinguished by a violent fire from the
+big gun of Bulwan upon the centre of the town and the riverside camps.
+"Lady Anne" answered, for she has not yet been removed to her destined
+station on Waggon Hill. In the intervals of their fire we could
+distinctly hear big guns far away near Colenso and the Tugela River.
+They were chiefly English guns, for the explosion followed directly on
+the report, proving they were fired towards us. The firing stopped about
+10 a.m.
+
+All morning our two howitzers, which have been brought down from Waggon
+Hill, pounded away at their old enemy, the 6 in. gun now placed on
+Telegraph Hill as I described. They are close down by the Klip River,
+west of the old camp. Their object is to drive the gun away as they
+drove him before, and certainly they gave him little rest. He had hardly
+a chance of returning the fire; but when he had his shot was terribly
+effective, coming right into the top of our earthworks. Equally
+interesting was the behaviour of two Boers who crept down from
+Thornhill's farm among the rocks and began firing into our right rear. I
+detected them by the little puffs of white smoke, for both had
+Martini's. But no one took the trouble to shoot them, though they
+harassed our gunners. If there had been 50 instead of two they might
+have driven out our handful of men and tumbled the guns into the river.
+For we had no support nearer than the steep top of King's Post. Happily
+Boers do not do such things.
+
+A Kaffir brought in a newspaper only two days old. It said Gatacre had
+suffered a reverse on the Free State frontier. There was nothing about
+the German Emperor, and no football news.
+
+In the late afternoon I rode up to the Manchesters' lines on Caesar's
+Camp, our nearest point to Colenso. But they knew no more than the rest
+of us, except that an officer had counted the full tale of guns fired in
+the morning--137. The view on all sides was as varied and full of
+growing association as usual, but had no special interest to-day, and I
+hurried back to inquire again after Mr. George Steevens, who is down
+with fever, to every one's regret.
+
+
+     _December 14, 1899._
+
+After the high hopes of the last few days we seem to be falling back,
+and to get no nearer to the end. Very little firing was heard from
+Colenso. The Bulwan gun gave us his morning salute of ten big shells in
+various parts of the town. They made some troublesome pits in the roads,
+and one destroyed a house, but nobody was killed.
+
+The howitzers and the Telegraph Hill Gun pounded away at each other
+without much effect. Sickness is now our worst enemy. Next to sickness
+comes want of forage for the horses. The sick still average thirty a
+day, and there were 320 cases of enteric at Intombi Camp last night. Mr.
+Steevens has it, and his friends were busy all morning, moving him to
+better quarters. Major Henderson is about again. The Roentgen Rays did
+not discover the bicycle shot in his leg, and the doctors have decided
+to leave it there.
+
+It was disappointing to hear that the Kaffir runner I sent with an
+account of the night attack on Surprise Hill had been captured by the
+Boers and robbed of his papers. I had hopes of that boy; he wore no
+trousers. But it is perhaps unsafe to judge character from dress alone.
+This runner business is heart-breaking. I tried to make up by getting
+another short heliogram through, but the sun was uncertain, and the
+receivers on the distant mountain sulky and wayward. They showed one
+faint glimmer of intelligence, and then all was dark again.
+
+In the heat of the day a four-wheeled hooded cart drove from the Boer
+lines under a white flag bringing a letter for the General. The envoy
+was a Dutchman from Holland. He was met outside our lines by Lieutenant
+Fanshawe, of the 19th Hussars, who conversed with him for about two
+hours, till the answer returned. Seated under the shade of the cart, he
+enjoyed the enemy's hospitality in brandy and soda, biltong, and Boer
+biscuit. "But for that white rag," said the Dutchman, "we two would be
+trying to kill each other. Very absurd!" He went on to repeat how much
+the Boers admired the exploits of the night attacks. "If you had gone
+for the other guns that first night, you would have got them all." He
+said the gunners on Gun Hill were all condemned to death. He examined
+the horse and its accoutrements, thinking them all very pretty, but
+maintaining the day for cavalry was gone. He was perfectly intimate with
+the names and character of all the battalions here. Of the Boer army he
+said it contained all nationalities down to Turks and Jews. He had no
+doubt of their ultimate success, and looked forward to Christmas dinner
+in Ladysmith. What we regard as our victories, he spoke of as our
+defeats. Even Elands Laagte he thought unsuccessful. Finally, after all
+compliments, he drove away, bearing a private letter from Mr. Fanshawe
+to be posted through Delagoa Bay and Amsterdam.
+
+
+     _December 15, 1899._
+
+In my own mind I had always fixed to-day as the beginning of our
+deliverance from this grotesque situation. It may be so still. Very
+heavy firing was heard down Colenso way from dawn till noon. Colonel
+Downing, commanding the artillery, said some of it was our field-guns,
+and it seemed nearer than two days ago.
+
+The Bulwan gun gave us his customary serenade from heaven's gate. He did
+rather more damage than usual, wrecking two nice houses just below my
+cottage. One was a boarding house full of young railway assistants, who
+had narrow escapes. The brother gun on Telegraph Hill was also very
+active, not being so well suppressed by our howitzers as before. When I
+was waiting at Colonel Rhodes' cottage by the river, it dropped a shell
+clear over Pavilion Hill close beside it. Otherwise the Boer guns
+behaved with some modesty and discretion.
+
+In the morning I rode up to Waggon Hill, and found that "Lady Anne" had
+at last arrived there, and was already in position. She was hauled up in
+the night in three pieces, each drawn by two span of oxen. Some thirty
+yards in front of her, in an emplacement of its own, stands the 12lb.
+naval gun which has been in that neighbourhood for some days. Both are
+carefully concealed, even the muzzles being covered up with earth and
+stones. They both command the approach to the town across the Long
+Valley by the Maritzburg road, as well as Bluebank or Rifleman's Ridge
+beyond, and Telegraph Hill beyond that.
+
+While I was on the hill I saw one mounted and four dismounted Boers
+capture five of our horses which had been allowed to stray in grazing.
+
+In the afternoon a South African thunderstorm swept over us. In a few
+minutes the dry gully where the main hospital tents are placed, as I
+described, became a deep torrent of filth. The tents were three feet
+deep in water, washing over the sick. "Sure it's hopeless, hopeless!"
+cried unwearying Major Donegan, the medical officer in charge. "I've
+just seen me two orderlies swimmin' away down-stream." The sick, wet and
+filthy as they were, had to be hurried away in dhoolies to the chapels
+and churches again. They will probably be safe there as long as the
+Geneva flag is not hoisted.
+
+
+     _December 16, 1899._
+
+This is Dingaan's Day, the great national festival of the Boers. It
+celebrates the terrible battle on the Blood River, sixty-one years ago,
+when Andreas Pretorius slaughtered the Zulus in revenge for their
+massacre of the Dutch at Weenen, or Lamentation. In honour of the
+occasion, the Boers began their battle earlier than usual. Before
+sunrise "Puffing Billy" of Bulwan exploded five 96lb. shells within
+fifty yards of my humble cottage, disturbing my morning sleep after a
+night of fever. I suppose he was aiming at the bakery again, but he
+killed nobody and only destroyed an outbuilding. Farther down the town
+unhappily he killed three privates. He also sent another shell into the
+Town Hall, and blew Captain Valentine's horse's head away, as the poor
+creature was enjoying his breakfast. After seven o'clock hardly a gun
+was fired all day. Opinion was divided whether the Boers were keeping
+holiday for that battle long ago, or were burying their dead after
+Buller's cannonade of yesterday. But raging fever made me quite
+indifferent to this and all other interests.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 17, 1899._
+
+We are sick of the siege. Enteric and dysentery are steadily increasing.
+Food for men and horses is short and nasty. Ammunition must be used with
+care. The longing for the English mail has almost become a disease. Only
+two days more, we thought, or perhaps we could just stick it out for
+another week. Now we are thrown back into vague uncertainty, and seem no
+nearer to the end.
+
+All the correspondents were summoned at noon to the Intelligence Office.
+That the Intelligence should tell us anything at all was so
+unprecedented that we felt the occasion was solemn. Major Altham then
+read out the General Order, briefly stating that General Buller had
+failed in "his first attack at Colenso," and we could not be relieved
+as soon as was expected. All details were refused. We naturally presume
+the situation is worse than represented. Each of us was allowed to send
+a brief heliogram, balloting for turn. Then we came away. We were told
+it was our duty to keep the town cheerful.
+
+The suffering among the poor who had no stores of their own to fall back
+upon is getting serious. Bread and meat are supplied in rations at a
+fair and steady price. Colonel Ward and Colonel Stoneman have seen to
+that, and as far as possible they check the rapacity of the Colonial
+contractor. But hundreds have no money left at all. They receive
+Government rations on a mere promise to pay. Outside rations, prices are
+running up to absurdity. Chickens and most nice things are not to be
+obtained. But in the market last week eggs were half a guinea a dozen,
+potatoes 1s. 6d. a pound, carrots 5s., candles 1s. each, a tin of milk
+6s., cigarettes 5s. a dozen. Nothing can be bought to drink, except
+lemonade and soda-water, made with enteric germs. The Irishman drinks
+the rinsings of his old whisky bottles. One man gave L5 yesterday for a
+bottle of whisky, but then he was a contractor, and our necessity is his
+opportunity. Of our necessity the Colonial storekeepers and dealers of
+all kinds are making their utmost. Having spent their lives hitherto in
+"besting" every one on a small scale, they are now besting the British
+nation on the large. Happily their profit is not so easily made now as
+in the old days of the Zulu war, when a waggon-load of food would be
+sold three times over on the way to the front and never reached the
+troops at all in the end. A few days ago one contractor thought the Army
+would have to raise its price for mealies (maize) to 30s. a sack. He at
+once bought up all the mealies in the town at 28s., only to discover
+that the army price was 25s. So, under the beneficent influence of
+martial law he was compelled to sell at that price, and made a fine
+loss. The troops received this morning's heavy news with cheerful
+stoicism; not a single complaint, only tender regrets about the whisky
+and Christmas pudding we shall have to do without.
+
+
+     _December 18, 1899._
+
+How is one to treat an indeterminate situation? The siege is already too
+long for modern literature. It was all very well when we thought it must
+end by Christmas at the furthest. But since last Sunday we are thrown
+back into the infinite, and can fix no limit on which hope can build
+even a rainbow. So now the only way to make this account of our queer
+position readable will be to dwell entirely in the glaring events of
+adventure or bloodshed, and let the flat days slide, though the sadness
+and absurdity of any one of them would fill a paper.
+
+We have had such luck in escaping shells that we grow careless. The
+Bulwan gun began his random fire, as usual, before breakfast. He threw
+about fifteen shells, but most of us are quite indifferent to the 96lb.
+explosive thunder-bolts dropping around us. Indeed, fourteen of them did
+little harm. But just one happened to drop in the Natal Carbineer lines
+while the horses were being groomed. Two men were killed outright and
+three mortally wounded. A sapper was killed 200 yards away. Three others
+were wounded. Eleven horses were either killed or hopelessly disabled.
+All from one chance shell, while fourteen hit nobody! One man had both
+legs cut clean off, and for a time continued conscious and happy. Five
+separate human legs lay on the ground, not to speak of horses' legs. The
+shell burst on striking a horse, they say (it was shrapnel), and threw
+forwards. While the Carbineers were carrying away one of their dead
+another shell burst close by. They rightly dropped the body and lay
+flat. The only fragment which struck at all almost cut the dead man in
+half. Another shell later in the day killed a Kaffir woman and her
+husband in a back garden off the main street. Several women have died
+from premature childbirth owing to shock.
+
+Most of my day was again spent in trying to get a Kaffir runner for a
+telegram, but none would go. My last two had failed. All are getting
+frightened. In the evening I rode out to Waggon Hill and found "Lady
+Anne" and the 12lb. naval gun had gone back to their old homes. They are
+not wanted to keep open the approach for Buller now, and perhaps Captain
+Lambton was afraid the position might be rushed.
+
+
+     _December 19, 1899._
+
+Another black day. Details of Buller's defeat at Colenso began to leak
+out and discouraged us all. It would be much better if the truth about
+any disaster, no matter how serious, were officially published. Now
+every one is uncertain and apprehensive. We waste hours in questions and
+speculations. To-day there was something like despair throughout the
+camp. The Boers are putting up new guns on Gun Hill in place of those we
+destroyed. Through a telescope at the Heliograph Station I watched the
+men working hard at the sangar. Two on the face of the hill were
+evidently making a wire entanglement. On Pepworth Hill the sappers think
+they are putting up one of the 8.7 in. guns, four of which the Boers are
+known to have ordered, though it is not certain whether they received
+them. They throw a 287lb. shell. We are all beginning to feel the pinch
+of hunger. Bit by bit every little luxury we had stored up has
+disappeared. Nothing to eat or drink is now left in any of the shops;
+only a little twist tobacco.
+
+What is even worse, the naval guns have too little ammunition to answer
+the enemy's fire; so that the Boers can shell us at ease and draw in
+nearer when they like. The sickness increases terribly. Major Donegan
+sent out thirty-six cases of enteric to Intombi Camp from the divisional
+troops' hospital alone. Probably over fifty went in all. Everything now
+depends on Buller's winning a great victory. It seems incredible that
+two British armies should be within twenty miles of each other and
+powerless to move.
+
+I cannot induce a Kaffir runner to start now. Even the Intelligence
+Officer cannot do it. The heliograph has failed me, too. Sunday's
+message has not gone, and this afternoon was clouded with storms and
+rain. The temperature fell 30 deg.. Yesterday it was 102 deg.; the day before
+106 deg. in the shade.
+
+
+     _December 20, 1899._
+
+From dawn till about seven the mutter of distant guns was heard near
+Colenso. But no news came through, for the sky was clouded nearly all
+day long. The new 4.7 in. howitzer which the Boers have put up on
+Surprise Hill opened fire in the morning, and will be as dangerous as
+its predecessor which we blew up. From every point of the compass it
+shelled hard nearly all day. I connect this feverish activity with the
+apparition of a chaise and four seen driving round the Boer outposts,
+and to-day quite visible on the Bulwan. Four outriders accompany it, and
+queer little flags are set up where it halts. Can the black-coated old
+gentleman inside be Oom Paul himself? It is significant that the big gun
+of Bulwan did some extraordinary shooting during the day. It threw one
+shell right into the old camp; another sheer over the Irish at Range
+Post; both were aimed at nothing but simply displayed the gun's full
+range; another pointed out the position of the Naval battery, and whilst
+I was at lunch in the town, another whizzed past and carried away one
+side of the Town Hall turret. I envy the gunner's feelings, though for
+the moment I thought he had killed my horse at the door. The Town Hall
+is now really picturesque, just the sort of ruin visitors will expect to
+see after a bombardment. With a little tittifying it will be worth
+thousands to the Colonials.
+
+[Illustration: A PICTURESQUE RUIN.]
+
+The day was cool and cloudy; fair shelling weather, but bad for
+heliographs. So my Christmas message is still delayed. A certain
+lieutenant (whom I know, but may not name) went out under flag of truce
+with a letter to the Boer General, and was admitted even into Schalk
+Burger's tent. The Boer gave him some details of Buller's disaster last
+Friday, and of the loss of the ten guns, which they said came up within
+heavy rifle fire and were disabled. They especially praised one officer
+who refused to surrender, fired all his revolver' cartridges, drew his
+sword, and would have fallen had not the Boers attacked him only with
+the butt, determined to spare the life of so brave a man. I give the
+story: its truth will be known by this time.
+
+Sickness continues. There are 900 cases of enteric in Intombi. A sister
+from the camp came and besought Colonel Stoneman with tears to stop the
+shameful robbery of the sick which goes on in the camp. The blame, of
+course, does not lie with him or the authorities here. The supplies are
+sent out regularly day by day. It is in the careless or corrupt
+distribution that the sick are robbed and murdered by a mob of cowardly
+Colonials of the rougher class, who had not enough courage to stay in
+the town, and now turn their native talent for swindling to the plunder
+of brave men who are suffering on their behalf.
+
+A deputation of mayor and town councillors waited on Colonel Ward
+to-day. The petitioners humbly prayed that the bathing parties of
+soldiers below the town on Sundays might be stopped, because they
+shocked the feelings of the women. For a mixture of hypocrisy and
+heartlessness I take that deputation to be unequalled. The soldiers are
+exposed all the week long, day and night, to sun and cold and dirt, on
+rocks and hill-tops where it is impossible even to dip their hands in
+water. On Sunday the Boers seldom fire. The men are marched down in
+companies under the officers to bathe, and to any decent man or woman
+the sight of their pleasure is one of the few joys of the campaign. But
+those who think nothing of charging a soldier 6d. for a penny bottle of
+soda-water, or 2s. for twopenn'orth of cake, tremble for the feelings of
+their wives and daughters. Why do the women go to look? as Colonel Ward
+asked, in his indignant refusal even to listen to the petition. Sunday
+is the one day when they can stay at home with safety, and leave their
+husbands to skulk in the river holes if they please.
+
+
+     _December 21, 1899._
+
+"Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, distinguished himself this morning by
+sending one shot into Colonel Ward's house and the next into the
+general's just beyond. In Colonel Ward's was a live Christmas turkey,
+over which a sentry is posted day and night. At first the rumour spread
+that the bird was mortally wounded; its thigh fractured, its liver
+penetrated. But about midday public alarm was allayed by the news that
+the invaluable creature could be seen strutting about and stiffening its
+feathers as usual. It had not even suffered from shock. The second shot
+went through Sir Henry Rawlinson's office, which he had just left, and
+shattered the Headquarters' larder, depriving the Staff of butter for
+the rest of the siege. It has made a model ruin for future sightseers.
+Unhappily the general was ill in bed with slight fever, and had to be
+carried to another house up the hill in a dhoolie. This may have
+encouraged the Boers to think they had killed him.
+
+It was again a bad day for the heliograph, and the Boers have purposely
+kindled a veldt fire across the line of light. But I think I got through
+my thirty words of Christmas greeting to the _Chronicle_. I tried in
+vain all day for a Kaffir runner, but in the late afternoon I rode away
+over the plain, past the racecourse, and through the thorns at the foot
+of Caesar's Camp, till I almost came in touch with the enemy's piquets at
+Intombi. I saw a flock of long-billed waders, like small whimbrel, a
+great variety of beautiful little doves, and many of that queer bird the
+natives call Sakonboota, whose tail grows so long in the breeding season
+that his little wings can hardly lift it above the ground, and he
+flutters about in the breeze like a badly made kite. Riding back at
+sunset over the flat I felt like Montaigne when he desired to wear away
+his life in the saddle. The difference is that in the end I may have
+to eat my own horse. The shells from four guns kept singing their
+evening hymn above my head as I cantered along.
+
+[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL]
+
+
+     _December 22, 1899._
+
+The morning opened with one of those horrible disasters which more than
+balance our general good luck. The Bulwan gun began his morning shell
+rather later than usual. His almost invariable programme is to fire five
+or six shots at the bakery or soda-water shed beside my cottage; then to
+give a few to the centre of the town, and to finish off with half a
+dozen at the Light Horse and Gordons down by the Iron Bridge. Having
+earned his breakfast, he usually stops then, and cools down a bit. The
+performance is so regular that when he has finished with our end of the
+town the men cease to take precautions even at the sound of the whistle
+or bugle which gives notice of danger whenever the special sentry sees
+the gun flash.
+
+But this morning the routine was changed. Having waked me up as usual
+with the crash of shells close by on my left, the gun was turned down
+town, smashed into a camp or two without damage, and then suddenly
+whipped round on his pivot and sent a shell straight into the
+Gloucester lines, about 300 yards away to my right. It pitched just on
+the top of a traverse at the foot of the low hill now held by the
+Devons. The men were quite off their guard, busy with breakfast and
+sharing out the kettles. In an instant five lay dead and twelve were
+wounded. The shell burst so close that three of the dead were horribly
+scorched. One got covered by a tarpaulin, and was not found at first.
+His body was split open, one leg was off, his head was burnt and smashed
+to pulp. The cries of the wounded told me at once what had happened.
+Summoned by telephone, the dhoolies came quickly up and bore them away,
+together with the remains of the dead. Three of the wounded died before
+the night. Eight dead and nine wounded--it is worse than the disaster to
+the King's (Liverpools) almost exactly on the same spot a few weeks ago.
+In the middle of the morning much the same thing nearly happened to the
+5th Lancers. The 6 in. gun on Telegraph Hill, usually more noisy than
+harmful, was banging away at the Old Camp and the Naval battery on Cove
+Hill, when one of the shells ricocheted off the hill-top, and plunged
+into the Lancers' camp at the foot. Four officers were hit, including
+the colonel, who had a bit of finger blown off, and a segment through
+both legs. A sergeant lost an eye. One officer ducked his head and got a
+fragment straight through his helmet. The shell was a chance shot, but
+that made it no better. The men are sick of being shot at like rabbits,
+and sicker still of running into rabbit holes for shelter. The worst of
+all is that we can no longer reply for fear of wasting ammunition.
+
+There was no sound of Buller's guns all day. I induced another Kaffir to
+make the attempt of running the Boer lines. Mr. McCormick, a Colonial
+correspondent, also started. I should go myself, but have no wish to be
+shut up in Pretoria for the rest of the campaign, cut off from all
+letters, and more useless even than I am here. So I spent the afternoon
+with others, building a sand-bag fort round the tent where Mr. Steevens
+is to be nursed, beside the river bank. The five o'clock shells came
+pretty close, pitching into the Light Horse camp and the main watering
+ford. But the tent itself is fairly safe. The feeding of the horses is
+our greatest immediate difficulty. Every bit of edible green is being
+seized and turned to account. I find vine-leaves a fair substitute for
+grass, but my horses are terribly hungry all the same.
+
+
+     _December 23, 1899._
+
+The bombardment was violent at intervals, and some hundreds of shells
+must have been thrown at us. But there was no method or concentration in
+the business.
+
+Buller's guns were heard for about two hours in the morning, and wild
+rumours filled the air. Roberts and Kitchener were coming out. Buller
+was across the Tugela. Within the week our relief was certain. At night
+the 18th Hussars gave another concert among the rocks by the riverside.
+In the midst of a comic song on the inner meaning of Love came a sound
+as of distant guns. The inner meaning of Love was instantly forgotten.
+All held their breaths to listen. But it was only some horses coming
+down to water, and we turned to Love again, while the waning moon rose
+late beside Lombard's Kop, red and shapeless as a potsherd.
+
+
+     _December 24, 1899._
+
+Nothing disturbed the peace of Christmas Eve except three small shells
+thrown into the town about five o'clock tea-time, for no apparent
+reason. The main subject of interest was the chance of getting any
+Christmas dinner. Yesterday twenty-eight potatoes were sold in the
+market for 30s. A goose fetched anything up to L3, a turkey anything up
+to L5. But the real problem is water. The river is now a thick stream of
+brown mud, so thick that it cannot be filtered unless the mud is first
+precipitated. We used to do it with alum, but no alum is left now. Even
+soda-water is almost solid.
+
+
+     _December 25, 1899._
+
+The Boer guns gave us an early Christmas carol, and at intervals all day
+they joined in the religious and social festivities. Our north end of
+the town suffered most, and we beguiled the peaceful hours in digging
+out the shells that had nearly killed us. They have a marketable value.
+One perfect specimen of a 96lb. shell from Bulwan fell into a soft
+flower bed and did not burst or receive a scratch. I suppose it cost the
+Boers about L35, and it would still fetch L10 as a secondhand article. A
+brother to it pitched into a boarding house close by us, and blew the
+whole gable end sky high. Unhappily two of the inmates were wounded, and
+a horse killed.
+
+But such little contretemps as shells did not in the least interfere
+with the Christmas revels. About 250 children are still left in the town
+or river caves (where one or two have recently been born), and it was
+determined they should not be deprived of their Christmas tree. The
+scheme was started and organised by Colonel Rhodes and Major "Karri"
+Davis, of the Imperial Light Horse. Four enormous trees were erected in
+the auction rooms and decked with traditional magnificence and toys
+ransacked from every shop. At half-past eight p.m. fairyland opened. A
+gigantic Father Christmas stalked about with branches of pine and snowy
+cap (the temperature at noon was 103deg. in the shade). Each child had a
+ticket for its present, and joy was distributed with military precision.
+When the children had gone to their dreams the room was cleared for a
+dance, and round whirled the khaki youths with white-bloused maidens in
+their arms. It was not exactly the Waterloo Ball with sound of revelry
+by night, but I think it will have more effect on the future of the
+race.
+
+Other festivities, remote from the unaccustomed feminine charm, were a
+series of mule races, near the old camp, for soldiers and laughing
+Kaffir boys. The men's dinner itself was enough to mark the day. It is
+true everything was rather skimped, but after the ordinary short rations
+it was a treat to get any kind of pudding, any pinch of tobacco, and
+sometimes just a drop of rum.
+
+Almost the saddest part of the siege now is the condition of the
+animals. The oxen are skeletons of hunger, the few cows hardly give a
+pint of milk apiece, the horses are failing. Nothing is more pitiful
+than to feel a willing horse like mine try to gallop as he used, and
+have to give it up simply for want of food. During the siege I have
+taught him to talk better than most human beings, and his little
+apologies are really pathetic when he breaks into something like his old
+speed and stops with a sigh. It is the same with all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+SICKNESS, DEATH, AND A NEW YEAR
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _December 26, 1899_.
+
+Good news came through the heliograph about General Gatacre's force at
+Dordrecht. There were rumours about Lord Methuen, too, for which Dr.
+Jameson was quoted as authority. But the best evidence for hope was the
+unusual violence of the bombardment. It began early, and before the
+middle of the afternoon the Boers had thrown 178 shells at us. They were
+counted by a Gordon officer on Moriden's Castle, and the total must have
+reached nearly 200 before sunset. Such feverish activity is nearly
+always a sign of irritation on the part of the Dutch, and one can always
+hope the irritation is due to bad news for them.
+
+I have not heard of any loss in town or camp. Our guns, with the
+exception of the howitzers and Major Wing's field guns, which can just
+reach the new howitzer on Surprise Hill, have hardly replied at all.
+
+The milk question was the most serious of the day. I saw a herd of
+thirty-five cows which had only yielded sixteen pints at milking time.
+It is now debated whether we shall not have to feed the cows and starve
+the horses; or kill the thinnest horses and stew them down into broth
+for the others. The reports about the condition of Intombi Camp were
+particularly horrible to-day. But General Hunter will not allow any one
+to visit the camp, and it is no good repeating secondhand reports.
+
+
+     _December 27, 1899._
+
+The side of Tunnel Hill, at the angle of the Helpmakaar road, where
+Liverpools and Gloucesters have suffered in turn, was to-day the scene
+of an exactly similar disaster to the Devons.
+
+The great Bulwan gun began shelling us later than usual. It must have
+been past eight. The Devon officers had long finished breakfast, and
+after inspecting the lines were gathered for orderly room in their mess.
+It is a fairly large shed on a platform of beaten earth, levelled in the
+side of the hill. The roof, of corrugated iron and earth, covered with
+tarpaulin, would hardly even keep out splinters, and is only supported
+on rough wooden beams. It is impossible to construct sufficient head
+shelter. The ground is so rocky that all you can do with it is to build
+walls and traverses. Along one side of the mess tent a great traverse
+runs, some eight or ten feet thick, and about as high. When the sentry
+blows the warning whistle at the flash of a big gun, officers are
+supposed to come under the shelter of this traverse, till the shell has
+passed or declared its direction. At the first shot this morning I heard
+no whistle blow, but it was sounded at the second and third. It was the
+third that did the damage. Striking the top of the traverse, it plunged
+forward in huge fragments into the messroom, tearing an enormous hole in
+the tarpaulin screen. Unhappily Mr. Dalzell, a first lieutenant with
+eight years' service, had refused to come under the wall, and was
+sitting at the table reading. The main part of the shell struck him full
+on the side of the face, and carried away nearly all his head. He passed
+painlessly from his reading into death. The state of the messroom when I
+saw it was too horrible to describe. The wounds of the other officers
+prove that the best traverse is insufficient unless accompanied by head
+shelter. Though their backs were against the wall, seven were wounded,
+and three others badly bruised. Two cases are serious: Lieutenant P.
+Dent had part of his skull taken off, and Lieutenant Caffin had a
+compound fracture of the shoulder-blade. Lieutenant Cane, an "orficer
+boy," who only joined on Black Monday, was also wounded in the back. The
+dhoolies quickly came and bore the wounded away to the Wesleyan Chapel.
+Mr. Dalzell was buried in the afternoon. "Well, well," sighed the old
+gravedigger, "I never thought I should live to bury a man without a
+head."
+
+To-day, for the first time, we heard that Lord Roberts had lost his only
+son at Colenso. The whole camp was sad about it. The scandal over the
+robbery of the sick by the civilians at Intombi has grown so serious
+that at last General Hunter is sending out Colonel Stoneman to
+investigate. I have myself repeatedly endeavoured to telegraph home
+known facts about the corruption and mismanagement, but all I wrote has
+been scratched out by the Censorship. One such little fact I may mention
+now. The 18th Hussar officers at Christmas gave up a lot of little
+luxuries, such as cakes and things, which count high in a siege, and
+sent them down to their sick at Intombi. Not a crumb of it all did the
+sick ever receive. Everything disappeared _en route_--stolen by
+officials, or sold to greedy Colonials for whom the sick had fought. It
+is a small point, but characteristic of the whole affair.
+
+
+     _December 28, 1899._
+
+The night was wet and pitchy dark. Only by the help of the lightning I
+had stumbled and plunged home to bed, when at about eleven a perfect
+storm of rifle-fire suddenly swept along the ridges at our end of the
+town. Rushing out I saw the edges of the hills twinkle with lines of
+flashes right away to Gun Hill and Bulwan. Alarmed at the darkness, and
+hearing strange sounds in the rain the Boers had taken a scare and were
+blazing away at vacancy, in terror of another night attack. The uproar
+lasted about five minutes. Then all was quiet until, as dawn was
+breaking, "Lady Anne" and "Bloody Mary" shook me off my camp bed with
+the crash of seven reports in quick succession just over my roof. For
+some days it had been an idea of Captain Lambton's to catch the Boer
+gunners on Bulwan just as they were going up to their big gun, or were
+occupied with early breakfast. Five of our shells burst on the face of
+the hill where many Boers spend the night, probably to protect the gun.
+The two last fell on the top, close to the gun itself. The latter did
+not fire at all to-day, and I saw the Boers standing about it in groups
+evidently excited and disturbed.
+
+The bombardment continued much as usual in other parts, and I spent the
+afternoon with the 69th Battery on Leicester Post, watching Major Wing
+reply to the new howitzer on Surprise Hill. Rain fell heavily at times,
+and the Boers never like firing in the wet.
+
+The day was chiefly marked by Colonel Stoneman's visit to Intombi Camp
+to inquire into the reported scandals. He thinks that the worst of the
+corruption and swindling is already over, being killed by the very
+scandal. But he found a general want of organisation in the distribution
+of food and other stores. There are now 2,557 inhabitants of the camp,
+of whom 1,015 are sick and wounded soldiers. Of late the numbers have
+been increasing by forty or fifty a day, allowing for those who return
+or die. The graves to-day number eighty-three, and a gang of forty
+Kaffirs is always digging. Outside the military, the majority of the
+refugees are Kaffirs and coolies, the white civilians only numbering
+600 or 700. Colonel Stoneman had all, except the sick, paraded in
+groups, and assigned separate tasks to each--nursing for the whites,
+digging and sanitation for the Kaffirs, cooking and skilled labour for
+the coolies. One important condition he made--every one required to work
+is also required to take his day's wage. The medical authority has
+objected to certain improvements on the ground of expense, but, as
+Colonel Stoneman says, what will England care about a few thousands at
+such a crisis in her history? Or what would she say if we allowed her
+sick and wounded to die in discomfort for the want of a little money? By
+to-morrow all the sick will have beds and even sheets, food will be
+distributed on a better organised plan, and civilians will be raised
+from a two-months' slough of feeding, sleeping, grumbling, and general
+swinishness unredeemed even by shells.
+
+[Illustration: EFFECT OF A 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE]
+
+At night the British flashlight from Colenso was throwing signals upon
+the cloudy sky, and it was amusing to watch the Boers trying to confuse
+the signals by flashing their two searchlights upon the same cloud. They
+have one light west of us near Bester's Station, and to-night they
+showed a very brilliant electric light on the top of Bulwan. When our
+signalling stopped, they turned it on the town, and very courteously
+lighted me home. It was like the clearest moonlight, the shadows long
+and black, but all else distinct in colourless brilliance. The top of
+Bulwan is four miles from our main street. To make up for yesterday the
+shells were particularly lively to-day. Before breakfast one fell on the
+railway behind our house, one into the verandah next door, and two into
+our little garden. Unhappily, the last killed one of our few remaining
+fowls--shivered it into air so that nothing but a little cloud of
+feathers was seen again. In the middle of the afternoon old "Puffing
+Billy" again opened fire with energy. I was at the tailor's on the main
+street, and the shells were falling just round his shop. "Thirty-eight,
+thirty-four," said the little Scot measuring. "There's the Dutch church
+gone. Forty-two, sixteen. There's the bank. Just hold the tape, mon,
+while I go and look. Oh, it's only the Town Hall!" Among other shells
+one came in painted with the Free State colours, and engraved "With the
+compliments of the season." It is the second thus adorned, but whereas
+the first had been empty, this was charged with plum-pudding. Can it be
+a Dutchman who has such a pleasant wit? The condition of the horses
+becomes daily more pitiful. Some fall in the street and cannot get up
+again for weakness. Most have given up speed. The 5th Lancers have
+orders never to move quicker than a walk. The horses are just kept alive
+by grass which Hindoos grub up by the roots. A small ration of ground
+mealies and bran is also issued. Heavy rain came on and fell all night,
+during which we heard two far-off explosions.
+
+
+     _December 30, 1899._
+
+Going up to Leicester Post in the early morning, I found the K.R. Rifles
+drying themselves in the African sun, which blazed in gleams between the
+clouds. Without the sun we should fare badly. As it is, the rain,
+exposure, and bad food are reducing our numbers fast. Passing the 11th
+Field Hospital on my way up, I saw stretcher after stretcher moving
+slowly along with the sick in their blankets. "Dysentery, enteric;
+enteric, dysentery," were the invariable answers. All the thousands of
+shells thrown at us in the last two months count for nothing beside the
+sickness.
+
+On the top of the hill I found the two guns of Major Wing's battery
+trained on Surprise Hill as usual. In accordance with my customary good
+fortune all the enemy's guns opened fire at once. But only the howitzer,
+the automatic, and the Bluebank were actually aimed our way. The
+Bluebank was most effective.
+
+It was amusing to see the men of the 60th when a shell pitched among
+them to-day. How they regarded it as a busy man regards the intrusion of
+the housemaid--just a harmless necessary nuisance, and no more. The
+cattle took the little automatic shells in much the same spirit, but
+with an addition of wonder--staring at them and snuffing with bovine
+astonishment. The Kaffir herdsmen first ran yelling in every direction,
+and then rushed back to dig the shell up, amid inextinguishable
+laughter. The Hindoo grass-cutter neither ran nor laughed, but awaited
+destiny with resignation. By the way, there is a Hindoo servant in the
+19th Hussar lines, who at the approach of a "Long Tom" shell always
+falls reverently on his face and prays to it.
+
+At sundown, in hopes of adding to our starvation rations, I went out
+among the thorns at the foot of Caesar's Camp to shoot birds and hares.
+But the thorns are fast disappearing as firewood, and the appalling rain
+almost drowned me in the rush of the spruits. So we dined as usual on
+lumps of trek-ox thinly disguised. Talking of rain, I forgot to mention
+that the deluge on Friday night drowned six horses of the Leicester
+Mounted Infantry, carried away twenty-seven of their saddles, broke down
+the grand shelter-caves of the Imperial Light Horse, carried their
+bridge away to the blue, and flooded out half the poor homes of natives
+and civilians dug in the sand of the river banks.
+
+
+     _Sunday, December 31, 1899._
+
+Most of my day was wasted in an attempt to get leave to visit Intombi.
+Colonel Exham (P.M.O.) and Major Bateson had asked me to go down and
+give a fair account of what I saw. General Hunter took my application to
+the Chief, but Sir George thought it contrary to his original agreement
+with Joubert, that none but medical and commissariat officers should
+enter the camp. So Intombi remains unvisited--a vision of my own. In
+high quarters I gather that, considering the great difficulties of the
+case, the camp is thought a successful piece of work, very creditable to
+the officers in charge. Otherwise the day was chiefly remarkable for the
+unusual amount of firing at the outposts, and the arrival by runner of
+a Natal newspaper with the news that Lord Roberts was coming out. As it
+was New Year's eve, we expected a midnight greeting from the Boer guns,
+and sure enough, between twelve and one, all the smaller guns in turn
+took one shot into vacancy and then were still.
+
+
+     _January 1, 1900._
+
+The Bulwan gun began the New Year with energy. He sent thirty of his
+enormous shells into the camps and town, eight or nine of which fell in
+quick succession among the Helpmakaar fortifications, now held by the
+Liverpools.
+
+Three or four houses in the town were wrecked by shells, the most
+decisive ruin being at Captain Valentine's. The shell went through the
+iron verandah, pierced the stone wall above the front door without
+bursting, and exploded against the partition wall of the passage and
+drawing-room. Throwing forward, it cleared away the kitchen wall, and
+swept the kitchen clean. Down a passage to the right the expansion of
+the air blew off a heavy door, and threw it across the bed of a wounded
+Rifle Brigade officer. He escaped unhurt, but a valued servant from the
+Irish Rifles got a piece of shell through back and stomach as he was
+preparing breakfast in the kitchen. He died in a few hours. His last
+words were, "I hope you got your breakfast all right, sir."
+
+The house had long been a death-trap. Perhaps the Boers aim at the
+telegraph-office across the road, or possibly spies have told them
+Colonel Rhodes goes there for meals. The General has now declared the
+place too dangerous for habitation.
+
+In the afternoon we were to have had a military tournament on the
+Islington model, but the General stopped it, because the enemy would
+certainly have thrown shells into our midst, and women and children
+would have been there. At night, however, the Natal Volunteers gave
+another open-air concert. In the midst we heard guns--real guns--from
+Colenso way. Between the reflected flash on the sky and the sound of the
+report one could count seventy-eight seconds, which Captain Lambton
+tells me gives a distance of about fifteen and a half miles. All day
+distant guns were heard from time to time. Some said the direction was
+changed, but I could hear no difference.
+
+The mayor and councillors relieve the monotony of the siege with
+domestic solicitude. To-day they are said to be preparing a deputation
+to the General imploring that the first train which comes up after the
+relief shall be exclusively devoted--not to medical stuff for the
+wounded, not to food for the hungry troops and fodder for the starving
+horses, not to the much-needed ammunition for the guns--but to their own
+women.
+
+
+     _January 2, 1900._
+
+Soon after daylight dropping bullets began to whiz past my window and
+crack upon the tin roof in quite a shower. The Boer snipers had crept up
+into Brooks's Farm, beyond the Harrismith railway, and were firing at
+the heads of our men on Junction Hill. Whenever they missed the edge of
+the hill the bullets fell on my cottage. At last some guns opened fire
+from our Naval battery on Cove Redoubt. Captain Lambton had permitted
+the Natal Naval Volunteers to blaze away some of their surplus
+ammunition at the snipers. And blaze they did! Their 3-pounders kept up
+an almost continuous fire all the morning, and hardly a sniper has been
+heard since. There was nothing remarkable about the bombardment.
+
+"Puffing Billy" gave us his four doses of big shell as usual. Whilst I
+was at the Intelligence Office a shell lit among some houses under the
+trees in front, killed two and wounded others. The action of another
+shell would seem incredible if I had not seen it. The thing burst among
+the 13th Battery, which stands under shelter of Tunnel Hill, in a
+straight line with my road, less than 300 yards away. I was just
+mounting my horse and stopped to see the burst, when a fragment came
+sauntering high through the air and fell with a thud in the garden just
+behind me. It was a jagged bit of outer casing about three inches thick,
+and weighing over 6 lbs. The extraordinary thing about it was that it
+had flung off exactly at right angles from the line of fire. Gunners say
+that melinite sometimes does these things.
+
+I rode south-west, over Range Post and a bit of the Long Valley to
+Waggon Hill, our nearest point to the relief column and the English
+mail. At no great distance--ten miles or so--I could see the hills
+overlooking the Tugela, where the English are. Far beyond rose the crags
+and precipices of the Drakensberg, illuminated by unearthly gleams of
+the setting sun, which found their way beneath the fringes of a purple
+thunder-shower and turned to amber-brown a cloud of smoke rising from
+the burning veldt.
+
+
+     _January 3, 1900._
+
+The quiet hour before sunrise was again broken by the crash of our Naval
+guns. "Bloody Mary" (now politely called the "Princess Victoria") threw
+five shells along the top of Bulwan. A Naval 12-pounder sent three
+against the face of the hill. Again it was intended to catch the Boer
+gunners and guard as they were getting up and preparing breakfast.
+
+
+     _January 4, 1900._
+
+No news came in, and it was a day as dull as peace, but for some
+amenities of bombardment.
+
+The Surprise Hill howitzer tried a longer range. At lunch "Bulwan Billy"
+made some splendid shots close to our little mess and burst the tanks at
+Taylor's mineral water works. In the wet afternoon the big gun's work
+was less dignified. He threw five shrapnel over the cattle licking up
+what little grass was left on the flat, and did not kill a single cow.
+
+The guides boast that to-day they killed one Boer by strategy used for
+tigers in India. Two or three of them went out to Star Kopje and loosed
+two miserable old ponies, driving them towards the Boer lines to graze.
+A Boer or two came for the prize and one was shot dead.
+
+At night the flash signals from Colenso were very brilliant on a black
+and cloudy sky. They only said, "Dearest love from your own Nance," or
+"Baby sends kisses," but the Bulwan searchlight tried hard to thwart
+their affectionate purpose by waving his ray quickly up and down across
+the flashing beam.
+
+
+     _January 5, 1900._
+
+There was little to mark the day beyond the steady shelling of snipers
+by the Natal Navals, and a great 96lb. shell from Bulwan which plunged
+through a Kaffir house, where black labourers live stuffed together,
+took off a Kaffir's foot, ricocheted over our little mess-room, just
+glancing off the roof, and fell gasping, but still entire, beside our
+verandah. I rode up to Caesar's Camp in the morning sun. It was a scene
+of sleepy peace, only broken by the faint interest of watching where the
+shells burst in the town far below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE GREAT ATTACK
+
+
+     _January 6, 1900._
+
+It has been a commonplace of the war that the Boers could cling to a
+position of their own choosing from behind stones, but would never
+venture to attack a position or fight in the open. Like all the
+comforting commonplaces about the Boers, this is now overthrown. The
+untrained, ill-equipt farmers have to-day assaulted positions of
+extraordinary strength, have renewed the attack again and again, have
+rushed up to breastworks, and died at the rifle's mouth, and have only
+been repulsed after fifteen hours of hard and gallant fighting on the
+part of the defence.
+
+Waggon Hill is a long, high spur of Caesar's Camp, running out south-west
+between Long Valley and Bester's Farm. At the extremity, as I have
+described, are the great gun-pits prepared for "Lady Anne" and a Naval
+12-pounder some weeks ago. "Lady Anne" was for the second time being
+brought up into position there last night, and ought to have been fixed
+the night before, but was stopped half-way by the wet.
+
+The Boer attack was probably not merely an attempt on the gun, but on
+the position, and the gun is being taken back to her usual position
+to-night. Besides the gun-pits, the hill has no defences except a few
+low walls, only two or three stones high, piled up at intervals round
+the edge, as shelters from long-range fire. The place was held only by
+three dismounted squadrons of Imperial Light Horse, but the 1st K.R.R.
+(60th) were in support in a large sangar about three-quarters of a mile
+along the same ridge, separated from Waggon Hill proper by the low "nek"
+where the two howitzers used to stand. From the 60th the ridge turns at
+an angle eastward, and becomes the long tableland of Caesar's Camp, held
+by the Manchesters and 42nd Battery (Major Goulburn). The top is broad
+and flat, covered with grass and loose stones. The whole position
+completely overlooks the town to the north, and if it fell into the
+enemy's hands we should either have to retake it or quit the camps and
+town. The edge measures 4,000 yards, and the Manchesters had only 560
+men to hold it.
+
+At a quarter to three a.m., while it was still dark, a small party of
+Boer sharpshooters climbed up the further (south-east) face of Waggon
+Hill, just left of the "nek." They were picked men who had volunteered
+for the exploit. Nearly all came from Harrismith. We had posted a picket
+of eight at the point, but long security had made them careless, or else
+they were betrayed by a mistake which nearly lost the whole position.
+From the edge of the hill the whole face is "dead" ground. It is so
+steep that an enemy climbing up it cannot be seen. It was almost a case
+of Majuba again.
+
+The Dutch crept up quite unobserved. At last a sentry challenged, and
+was answered with "Friend." He was shot dead, and was found with rifle
+raised and still loaded. The alarm was given, but no one realised what
+had happened. Captain Long (A.S.C.), who was superintending the
+transport of "Lady Anne," told me he could not understand how it was
+that bullets kept whistling past his nose. He thought the firing was
+from our own sentries. But the Dutch had reached the summit, and were
+enfilading the "nek" and the whole extremity of the hill from our left.
+As light began to dawn it was impossible to show oneself for a moment on
+the open top. The furthest range was not over 300 yards, and the top of
+a helmet, the corner of an arm, was sufficient aim for those deadly
+marksmen. Unable to stand against the fire, the Light Horse withdrew
+behind the crest of the hill, whilst small parties continued a desperate
+defence from the two big gun-pits.
+
+Nearly all the officers present have been killed or wounded, and it is
+difficult to get a clear account of what happened from any eye-witness.
+Four companies from each battalion of the K.R. Rifles came up within the
+hour, but no one keeps count of time in such a struggle. The Boers were
+now climbing up all along the face of the hill, and firing from the
+edge. All day about half the summit was in their possession. Three times
+they actually occupied the gun-pits and had to be driven out again.
+Leaning their rifles over the parapets they fired into the space inside.
+It was so that Major Miller-Wallnutt, of the Gordons, was killed. Old De
+Villiers, the Harrismith commandant, shot him over the wall, and was in
+turn shot by Corporal Albrecht, of the Light Horse, who was himself shot
+by a Field-Cornet, who was in turn shot by Digby-Jones, the sapper. So
+it went on. The Boers advanced to absolutely certain death, and they met
+it without hesitation--the Boers who would never have the courage to
+attack a position! One little incident illustrates their spirit. A
+rugged old Boer finding one of the I.L.H. wounded on the ground, stopped
+under fire and bound him up. "I feel no hatred towards you," he said,
+"but you have no reason to fight at all. We are fighting for our
+country." He turned away, and a bullet killed him as he turned.
+
+Before six o'clock the defence was further reinforced by a party of
+Gordons from Maiden Castle. They did excellent work throughout the day,
+though they, too, were once or twice driven from the top. But the credit
+of the stand remains with the I.L.H. and a few sappers like Digby-Jones,
+who held one of the little forts alone for a time, killed three Boers
+with his revolver, and went for a fourth with the butt. He would have
+had the V.C. if he had not fallen. So perhaps would Dennis, of the
+Sappers, though I am told he was present without orders. Lord Ava,
+galloper to General Ian Hamilton, commanding the defences, was shot
+through the head early in the day, about six o'clock. Sent forward with
+a message to the Light Horse, he was looking through glasses over a
+rock when the bullet took him. While I write he is still alive, but
+given up. A finer fellow never lived. "You'd never take him for a lord,"
+said an Irish sergeant, "he seems quite a nice gentleman." Equally sad
+was the loss of Colonel Dick-Cunyngham, of the Gordons. A spent bullet
+struck him in the back as he was leaving camp. The wound is mortal, and
+he had only just recovered from his wound at Elands Laagte.
+
+So the fight began. The official estimate of the Boers who gained the
+top is 600. Eye-witnesses put the number at anything between 100 and
+1,000. The struggle continued from 3 a.m. till nearly seven at night. It
+must be remembered that our men had nothing to eat from five the
+afternoon before, and got nothing till nine at night. Twenty-eight hours
+they were without food, and for about sixteen they were fighting for
+life and death. At 4 p.m. a tremendous thunderstorm with rain and hail
+came on, but the fire never slackened. The 21st and 67th Batteries were
+behind the position in front of Range Post, but were unable to give
+assistance for fear of killing our men. The 18th Hussars and 5th Dragoon
+Guards and some 5th Lancers came up dismounted to reinforce, but still
+the enemy clung to the rocks, and still it was death to creep out on the
+narrow level of the summit.
+
+It was now evident that the position must be retaken at all costs, or
+the enemy would hold it all night. The General sent for three companies
+of the Devons. Up they came, tramping through the storm--that glorious
+regiment of Western Englishmen. Colonel Park and four other officers led
+them on. It was about six o'clock when they reached the summit. Keeping
+well to the left of the "nek," between the extremity held by the Light
+Horse and the 60th's sangar, they took open order under cover of the
+ridge. Then came the command to sweep the position with the bayonet.
+They fixed, and advanced at the quick till they reached the open. Then,
+under a steady hail of bullets, they came on at the double--180 men,
+with the steel ready. Colonel Park himself led them. The Boers kept up
+an incessant fire till the line was within fifteen yards. Then they
+turned and ran, leaping down the steep face of the hill, and
+disappearing in the dead ground. Their retreat was gallantly covered by
+their comrades, who swept the ridge with an oblique fire from both
+sides.
+
+The Devons, edging a little to the right in their charge, got some cover
+from a low wall near the "nek" just quitted by the Boers. Even there the
+danger was terrible. It was there that four officers fell, three stone
+dead. It will be long before such officers as Lafone (already twice
+wounded in this war) and Field can be replaced. Lieutenant Masterson,
+formerly a private, and later a colour-sergeant in the Irish Fusiliers,
+was ordered back over the exposed space cleared by the first charge to
+bring up a small reinforcement further on the left. On the way he was
+shot at least three times, but staggered on and gave his order. He still
+survives, and is recommended for the Victoria Cross. He comes of a
+fighting Irish stock, and his great-grandfather captured the French
+Eagle at Barossa in the Peninsular War. He received his commission for
+gallantry in Egypt.
+
+But the day was won. The position was cleared. That charge finished the
+business. The credit for the whole defence against one of the bravest
+attacks ever made rests with the Light Horse, the Gordons, and the
+Devons. Yet it is impossible to forget the unflinching self-devotion of
+the King's Royal Rifle officers. They suffered terribly, and the worst
+is they suffered almost in vain. At one moment, when the defenders had
+been driven back over the summit's edge, Major Mackworth (of the
+Queen's, but attached to the King's Royal Rifles) went up again, calling
+on the men to follow him. Just with his walking-stick in his hand he
+went up, and with the few brave men who followed him he died.
+
+The attack on the main position of Caesar's Camp was much the same in
+plan and result. At 3 a.m. the Manchester pickets along the extremity's
+left edge (_i.e._, north-east) were surprised by the appearance of Boers
+in their very midst. Lieutenant Hunt-Grubbe, who was visiting the
+pickets, mistook them for volunteers. "Hullo! Boers!" he cried out. They
+laughed and answered, "Yes, burghers!" He was a prisoner in their hands
+for some hours. The whole of one section was shot dead at their post.
+The alarm was given, but the outlying sentries and piquets could not
+move from the little shelters and walls which alone protected them from
+the oblique fire from an unknown direction. Many were shot down. Some
+remained hidden at the bottom of their defence pits till late in the
+afternoon without being able to stir. Creeping up the dead ground on the
+cliffs face, which is covered with rocks and thick bushes, the Boers
+lined the left edge of the summit in great numbers. Probably about 1,000
+attacked that part alone, and about 200 advanced on to the top. They
+were all Transvaal Boers, chiefly volunteers from the commandoes of
+Heidelburg and Wakkerstroom. This main body was attempting to take our
+left (north) side of the hill in flank, and kept edging through the
+thorns and dongas near the foot. The Natal Police, supported by the
+Natal Mounted Rifles, had been set to prevent such a movement, but had
+left a gap of 500 yards between their right and three companies of
+Gordons stationed in front of "Fly" kraal on that side of the hill. At
+last, observing the enemy in a donga, they challenged, and were met by
+the answer, "For God's sake, don't fire; we're the Town Guard." At once
+they were undeceived by a volley which killed one of them and wounded a
+few others. How far they avenged this act of treachery I have not
+discovered. The Boers flanking movement was only checked by the 53rd
+Battery (Major Abdy), which was posted on the flat across the river from
+the show ground, and did splendid service all day. It shelled the side
+and top of the hill almost incessantly, though the big Bulwan gun kept
+pouring shrapnel and common shell right in front of it, making all the
+veldt look like a ploughed field.
+
+Meantime the Boers on the summit held their ground. Their movement was
+backed by three field guns and two automatics across the Bester's valley
+at ranges of 2,000 yards and 4,000 yards. Their further advance along
+the edge was really checked by two Manchester privates, Scott and Pitts,
+who kept up an incessant fire from their little wall at the extremity
+after all their comrades were shot. Three companies of the Rifle Brigade
+at last came up to reinforce. Then the G Company of the Gordons, under
+Captain Carnegie. But for a long time no one knew where the gap in our
+line really was. About half-past nine one could see the enemy still
+thick among the rocks and trees on the left of the extremity, though the
+shrapnel was dropping all among them from the 53rd Battery. It was just
+before this that Lieutenant Walker, watching with a telescope from the
+signal station on the Convent, saw two Boers creeping along the edge
+alone for about 150 yards under tremendous fire. Suddenly a shrapnel
+took them, and both fell down. They were father and son. About half-past
+ten the first assault was repulsed, and for a time the Boers
+disappeared, but one could see reinforcements massing behind a hill
+called the "Red Kopje," across the deep stream of the Bester's valley.
+The second main attack was delivered about one, and the third during the
+storm at five. I think, after the first assault, the Boer line never
+advanced beyond the cover of the edge. But their incessant fire was
+supported by a storm of long-range bullets from the heights across the
+valley. The position was not finally cleared till nearly seven.
+
+The attack and the defence were equally gallant, as at Waggon Hill. Our
+guns were of far more service than theirs, but probably the loss by
+rifle fire was not so great, the range being longer. The total force of
+the attack on both positions was probably about 7,000. Some 2,000
+Volunteers led the way--old Boer farmers and picked men who came forward
+after a prayer meeting on Friday. For immovable courage I think it would
+be impossible to beat our gunners--especially of the 42nd and 53rd
+Batteries. All through the action they continued the routine of gunnery
+just as if they were out for exercise on the sands.
+
+By seven o'clock the main positions on the south side of our defences
+were safe. On the north, fighting had been going on all day also. At
+about 4 a.m. the artillery and rifle fire was so violent around
+Observation Hill that I thought the main attack was on that point.
+Originally the Boers no doubt intended a strong attack there. The hill
+has always been one of the weakest points of our defence.
+
+The Boers began their attack on Observation Hill just before dawn with a
+rapid fire of guns and rifles at long range. At first only our guns
+replied, the two of the 69th doing excellent work with shrapnel over the
+opposite ridges. By about six we could see the Boers creeping forward
+over Bell Spruit and making their way up the dongas and ridges in our
+front. At about eight there was a pause, and it seemed as if the attack
+was abandoned, but it began again at nine with greater violence. The
+shell fire was terrific. Every kind of shell, from the 45-pounder of the
+4.7 in. howitzer down to the 1-1/2-pounder of the automatic, was hurled
+against those little walls, while shrapnel burst almost incessantly
+overhead.
+
+It is significant for our own use of artillery that not a single man
+'was killed by shells, though the air buzzed with them. The loose stone
+walls were cover enough. But the demoralising effect of shell fire is
+well known to all who have stood it. A good regiment is needed to hold
+on against such a storm. But the Devons are a good regiment--perhaps the
+best here now--and, under the command of Major Curry, they held. At
+half-past nine the rifle fire at short range became terrible.
+
+Boers were crawling up over what little dead ground there was, and one
+group of them reached an edge from which they began firing into our
+breastwork at about fifteen yards. One or two of them sprang up as
+though to charge. With bayonets they might have come on, but, standing
+to fire, they were at once shot down. Among them was Schutte, the
+commandant of the force. He was killed on the edge, with about ten
+others. Then the attacking group fell back into the dead ground. Our men
+got the order not to fire on them if they ran away. It was the best
+means of clearing them off the hill, and they made off one by one. The
+long-range fire continued all day, but there was no further rush upon
+our works. Our loss was only two men killed and a few wounded. The Boer
+loss is estimated at fifty, but it is impossible to know.
+
+The King's (Liverpools), who now hold the works built by the Devons on
+the low Helpmakaar ridge, were also under rifle and shell fire all day.
+About 3 p.m. about eighty Boers came down the deep ravine or donga at
+the further end of the ridge. A mounted infantry picket of three men was
+away across the donga, watching the road towards Lombard's Nek. Instead
+of retiring, they calmly lay down and fired into the thick of the Boers
+whenever they saw them. Apparently the Boers had intended some sort of
+attack or feint, but, instead of advancing, they remained hidden in the
+donga, firing over the banks. At last Major Grattan, fearing the brave
+little picket might be cut off, sent out two infantry patrols in
+extended order, and the Boers did not await their coming; they hurried
+up the donga into the shelter of the thorns, which just now are all
+golden with balls of sweet-smelling blossom.
+
+Soon after the sun set behind the storm of rain the fighting ceased. The
+long and terrible day was done. I found myself with the Irish Fusiliers
+at Range Post, where the road crosses to the foot of Waggon Hill. The
+stream of ambulance was incessant--covered mule-waggons, little
+ox-carts, green dhoolies carried by indomitable Hindoos, knee-deep in
+water, and indifferent to every kind of death. In the sixteen hours'
+fighting we have lost fourteen officers and 100 men killed, twenty-one
+officers and 220 men wounded. The victory is ours. Our men have done
+what they were set to do. But two or three more such victories, and
+where should we be?
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 7, 1900._
+
+The men remained on the position all night under arms, soaked through
+and hardly fed. Rum was issued, but half the carts lost their way in the
+dark, because the officers in charge had preferred to go fighting on the
+loose and got wounded. The men lay in pools of rain among the dead.
+Lieutenant Haag, 18th Hussars, kept apologising to the man next him for
+using his legs as a pillow. At dawn he found the man was a Rifleman long
+dead, his head in a puddle of blood, his stiff arms raised to the sky.
+Many such things happened. Under the storm of fire it had been
+impossible to recover all the wounded before dark. Some lay out fully
+twenty-four hours without help, or food, or drink. One of the Light
+Horse was used by a Boer as a rest for his rifle. When I reached Waggon
+Hill about nine this morning the last of the wounded were being brought
+down. Nearly all the Light Horse dead (twenty of them) had been taken
+away separately, but at the foot of the hill lay a row of the Gordons,
+bloody and stiff, their Major, Miller-Wallnutt, at their head,
+conspicuous by his size. The bodies of the Rifles were being collected.
+Some still lay curled up and twisted among the dripping rocks. Slowly
+the waggons were packed and sent off to the place of burial.
+
+The broad path up the hill and the tracks along the top were stained
+with blood. It lay in sticky pools, which even the rain could not wash
+out. It was easy to see where the dead had fallen. Most had lain behind
+some rock to fire and there met their end. On the summit some Kaffirs
+were skinning eight oxen which had been spanned to the "Lady Anne's"
+platform, and stood immovable during the fight. Four had been shot in
+the action, the others had just been killed as rations. Passing to the
+further edge where the Boers crept up I saw a Boer ambulance and an
+ox-waggon waiting. Bearded Boers in their slouch hats stood round them
+with an English doctor from Harrismith, commandeered to serve. Our men
+were carrying the Boer wounded and dead down the steep slope. The dead
+were laid out in line, and put in the ox-waggon. At that time there were
+seventeen of them waiting, but eight others were still on the hill, and
+I found them where they fell. Most were grey-bearded men, rough old
+farmers, with wrinkled and kindly faces, hardened by a grand life in sun
+and weather. They were dressed in flannel shirts, rough old jackets of
+brown cloth, rough trousers with braces, weather-stained slouch hats,
+and every variety of boot. Only a few had socks. Some wore the yellow
+"veldt-shoes," some were bare-footed; their boots had probably been
+taken. They lay in their blood, their glazed blue eyes looking over the
+rocks or up to the sky, their ashen hands half-clenched, their teeth
+yellow between their pale blue lips.
+
+Beside the outer wall of "Lady Anne's" sangar, his head resting on its
+stones, lay a white-bearded man, poorly dressed, but refined in face. It
+was De Villiers, the commandant of the Harrismith district--a relation,
+a brother perhaps, of the Chief Justice De Villiers, who entertained me
+at Bloemfontein less than four months ago. Across his body lay that of a
+much younger man, with a short brown beard. He is thought to have been
+one of the old man's field cornets, and had fought up to the sangar at
+his side till a bullet pierced his eye and brain.
+
+Turning back from the extremity of our position, I went along the whole
+ridge. The ground told one as much as men could tell. Among the rocks
+lay blood-stained English helmets and Dutch hats; piles of English and
+Dutch cartridge-cases, often mixed together in places which both sides
+had occupied; scraps of biltong and leather belts; handkerchiefs, socks,
+pieces of letters, chiefly in Dutch; dropped ball cartridges of every
+model--Lee-Metford, Mauser, Martini, and Austrian. I found a few
+hollow-nosed bullets, too, expanding like the Dum-Dum. The effect of
+such a bullet was seen on the hat of some poor fellow in the Light
+Horse. There was a tiny hole on one side, but the further side was all
+rent to pieces. I hear some "express" sporting bullets have also been
+taken to the Intelligence Office, but I have not seen them. Beside one
+Boer was found one of the old Martini rifles taken from the 52nd at
+Majuba.
+
+On the top of Caesar's Camp our dead were laid out for
+burial--Manchesters, Gordons, and Rifle Brigade together. The Boers
+turned an automatic Maxim on the burying party, thinking they were
+digging earthworks. In the wooded valley at the foot of the hill they
+themselves, under Geneva flags, were searching the bushes and dongas
+for their own dead, and disturbing the little wild deer beside the
+stream. On the summit parties of our own men were still engaged
+unwillingly in finding the Boer dead and carrying them down the cliff.
+Just at the edge of the summit, to which he had climbed in triumph, lay
+the body of a man about twenty. A shell had almost cut him in half....
+Only his face and his hands were untouched. Like most of the dead he had
+the blue eyes and light hair of the well-bred Boer. When first he was
+found, his father's body lay beside him, shattered also, but not so
+horribly. They were identified by letters from home in their pockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A PAUSE AND A RENEWAL
+
+
+     _January 8, 1900._
+
+All was ready to receive another attack, but the Boers made no sign
+beyond the usual bombardment. One of the wounded--a Harrismith man--says
+there is a strong party in favour of peace, men who want to get back to
+their farms and their families. We have heard that tale before, but
+still, here the Boers are fighting for freedom and existence if ever men
+did.
+
+To-day's bombardment nearly destroyed the tents and dhoolies of our
+field hospital, but did little else save beheading and mangling some
+corpses. The troops were changed about a good deal, half the K.R.R.
+being sent to the old Devon post on Helpmakaar road; half the Liverpools
+to King's Post, and the Rifle Brigade to Waggon Hill.
+
+At night there was a thanksgiving service in the Anglican Church. I
+ought to have mentioned earlier that on the night before the attack the
+Dutch held a solemn supplication, calling on God to bless their efforts.
+
+
+     _January 9, 1900._
+
+One long blank of drenching rain unrelieved by shells, till at sunset a
+stormy light broke in the west, and a few shots were fired.
+
+
+     _January 10, 1900._
+
+In the night the authorities expected an attack on Observation Hill.
+They hurried out two guns of the 69th Battery to a position outside
+King's Post. The guns were dragged through the heavy slush, but when
+they arrived it was found no guns could live in such a place, fully
+exposed to all fire, and unsupported by infantry. So back came the weary
+men and horses through the slush again, getting to their camp between 2
+and 3 a.m.
+
+At intervals in the night the two mountain guns on Observation Hill kept
+firing star-shell to reveal any possible attack. But none came, and the
+rest of the day was very quiet. My time was occupied in getting off a
+brief heliogram, and sending out another Kaffir with news of Saturday's
+defence. Two have been driven back. The Boers now stretch wires with
+bells across the paths, and it goes hard with any runner caught.
+
+
+     _January 11, 1900._
+
+The enemy was ominously quiet. Bulwan did not fire all day. From King's
+Post, whilst visiting the new fortifications and the guns in their new
+positions all about it, I watched the Boers dragging two field guns
+hastily southward along the western track, perhaps to Springfield Drift,
+over the Tugela. Then a large body--500 or 600--galloped hurriedly in
+the same direction.
+
+A sadness was thrown over the day by Lord Ava's death early in the
+afternoon. If he could have recovered the doctors say he would have been
+paralysed or have lost his memory. He was the best type of
+Englishman--Irish-English, if you will--excellently made, delighting in
+his strength and all kinds of sport, his eye full of light, his voice
+singularly beautiful and attractive. His courage was extraordinary, and
+did not come of ignorance. At Elands Laagte I saw him with a rifle
+fighting side by side with the Gordons. He went through the battle in
+their firing line, but he told me afterwards that the horror of the
+field had sickened him of war. In manner he was peculiarly frank and
+courteous. I can imagine no one speaking ill of him. His best epitaph
+perhaps is the saying of the Irish sergeant's which I have already
+quoted.
+
+The ration of sugar was increased by one ounce to-day, the mealies by
+two ounces, so as to give the men porridge in the morning. For a
+fortnight past all the milk has been under military control, and can
+only be obtained on a doctor's certificate. We began eating trek-oxen
+three days ago. Some battalions prefer horse-flesh, and get it.
+Dysentery and enteric are as bad as ever, but do not increase in
+proportion to the length of siege. There are 1,700 soldiers at Intombi
+sick camp now. A great many horses die every day, but not of the
+"horse-sickness." Their bodies are thrown on waste ground along the
+Helpmakaar road, and poison the air for the Liverpools and Rifles there.
+To-night the varied smell all over the town is hardly endurable.
+
+
+     _January 12, 1900._
+
+A quiet day again. Hardly a gun was fired. Wild rumours flew--the Boers
+were trekking north in crowds--they were moving the gun on Bulwan--all
+lies!
+
+I spent the whole day trying to induce a Kaffir to risk his life for
+L15. A Kaffir lives on mealie-pap, varied by an occasional cow's head.
+He drinks nothing but slightly fermented barley-water. Yet he will not
+risk death for L15! After four false starts, my message remains where it
+was. The last Kaffir who tried to get through the Boers with it was shot
+in the thigh by our pickets as he was returning. That does not encourage
+the rest.
+
+
+     _January 13, 1900._
+
+Between seven and eight in the morning the Bulwan gun hurled three
+shells into our midst, and repeated the exploit in the afternoon. But
+somehow he seemed to have lost form. He was not the Puffing Billy whom
+we knew. We greeted him as one greets an enemy who has come down in the
+world--with considerate indulgence. The sailors think that his carriage
+is strained.
+
+A British heliograph began flashing to us from Schwarz Kop, a hill only
+one and a half miles over Potgieter's or Springfield Drift on the
+Tugela. It is that way we have always expected Buller's main advance.
+Can this be the herald of it? Most of us have agreed never to mention
+the word "Buller," but it is hard to keep that pledge.
+
+In the afternoon I was able to accompany Colonel Stoneman (A.S.C.) over
+the scene of battle on Caesar's Camp. His duties in organising the food
+supply keep him so tied to his office--one of the best shelled places in
+the town--that he has never been up there before. All was quiet--the
+mountains silent in the sunset. The Boers had been moving steadily
+westward and south. They had taken some of their guns on carts covered
+with brushwood. We had not more than half a dozen shots fired at us all
+round that ridge which had blazed with death a week ago. In his tent on
+the summit we found General Ian Hamilton. It was to his energy and
+personal knowledge of his men that last Saturday's success was
+ultimately due. Not a day passes but he visits every point in his
+brigade's defences.
+
+All in camp were saddened by the condition of Mr. Steevens, of the
+_Daily Mail_. Yesterday he was convalescent. To-day his life hangs by a
+thread. That is the way of enteric.
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 14, 1900._
+
+Absolute silence still from the Tugela. On a low black hill beyond its
+banks I could see the British heliograph flashing. On a spur beside it
+I was told a British outpost was stationed. In the afternoon we thought
+we heard guns again, but it was only thunder. With a telescope on
+Observation Hill I saw the Boers riding about their camps. On the Great
+Plain they were digging long trenches and stretching barbed wire
+entanglements. To-day all was peaceful. The sun set amid crimson
+thunder-clouds behind the Drakensberg; there was no sign of war save the
+whistle of a persistent sniper's bullet over my head. Our weather-beaten
+soldiers were trying to make themselves comfortable for the night in
+their little heaps of stones.
+
+
+     _January 15, 1900._
+
+This is the day I had fixed upon long ago for our relief. There were
+rumours of fighting by the Tugela, and some said they had seen squadrons
+of our cavalry and even Staff officers galloping on the further limits
+of the Great Plain. But beyond the wish, there is no need to believe
+what they said.
+
+In the morning Steevens, of the _Daily Mail_, was so much worse that we
+sent off a warning message to Mrs. Steevens by heliograph. At least I
+climbed to all the new signal stations in turn, trying to get it sent,
+but found the instruments full up with official despatches. Major
+Donegan (R.A.M.C.) was called in to consult with Major Davis, of the
+Imperial Light Horse, who has treated the case with the utmost patience
+and skill. Strychnine was injected, and about noon we recovered hope. A
+galloper was sent to stop the message, and succeeded. Steevens became
+conscious for a time, and Maud, of the _Graphic_, explained to him that
+now it was a fight for life. "All right," he answered, "let's have a
+drink, then." Some champagne was given him, and he seemed better. When
+warned against talking, he said, "Well, you are in command. I'll do what
+you like. We are going to pull through." Maud then went to sleep at
+last, and between four and five Steevens passed quietly from sleep into
+death.
+
+Everything that could possibly be done for him had been done. For five
+weeks Maud had nursed him with a devotion that no woman could surpass.
+Two days ago we thought him almost well. He talked of what it would be
+best to do when the siege was raised, so as to complete his recovery.
+And now he is dead. He was only thirty. What is to most distinguished
+men the best part of life was still before him. In eight working years
+he had already made a name known to all the Army and to thousands
+beyond its limits. Beyond question he had the touch of genius. The
+individuality of his power perhaps lay in a clear perception transfused
+with an imaginative wit that never failed him. The promise of that
+genius was not fulfilled, but it was felt in all he said and wrote. And
+beyond this power of mind he possessed the attractiveness of courtesy
+and straightforward dealing. No one ever knew him descend to the tricks
+and dodges of the trade. There was not a touch of "smartness" in his
+disposition. On the field he was too reckless of his life. I saw him
+often during the fighting at Elands Laagte, Tinta Inyoni, and Lombard's
+Kop. He was usually walking about close to the firing line, leading his
+grey horse, a conspicuous mark for every bullet. Veteran officers used
+to marvel that he was not hit. In the midst of it all he would stand
+quite unconcerned, and speak in his usual voice--slow, trenchant,
+restrained by a cynicism that came partly from youth and an English
+horror of fuss. How different from the voice of unconsciousness which I
+heard raving in his room only this morning!
+
+To-night we buried him. The coffin was not ready till half-past eleven.
+All the London correspondents came, and a few officers, Colonel
+Stoneman (A.S.C.) and Major Henderson, of the Intelligence Department,
+representing the Staff. Many more would have come, but nearly the whole
+garrison was warned for duty. About twenty-five of us, all mounted,
+followed the little glass hearse with its black and white
+embellishments. The few soldiers and sentries whom we passed halted and
+gave the last salute. There was a full moon, covered with clouds, that
+let the light through at their misty edges. A soft rain fell as we
+lowered the coffin by thin ropes into the grave. The Boer searchlight on
+Bulwan was sweeping the half circle of the English defences from end to
+end, and now and then it opened its full white eye upon us, as though
+the enemy wondered what we were doing there. We were laying to rest a
+man of assured, though unaccomplished genius, whose heart had still been
+full of hopes and generosity. One who had not lost the affections and
+charm of youth, nor been dulled either by success or disappointment.
+
+
+    "From the contagion of the world's slow stain
+      He is secure; and now can never mourn
+    A heart grown old, a head grown grey, in vain--
+      Nor when the spirit's self has ceased to burn
+    With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn."
+
+
+     _January 16, 1900_.
+
+A day of unfulfilled expectation, unrelieved even by lies and rumours.
+From the top of Observation Hill I again watched the Dutch in their
+clustered camps, fourteen miles away across the great plain, whilst our
+heliograph flashed to us from the dark hill beyond them. But there was
+no sound of the expected guns, and every one lost heart a little.
+
+At the market, eggs were a guinea a dozen. Four pounds of oatmeal sold
+for 11s. 6d. A four-ounce tin of English tobacco fetched 30s. Out of our
+original numbers of about 12,000 nearly 3,000 are now sick or wounded at
+Intombi, and there are over 200 graves there. More helpers are wanted,
+and to-day Colonel Stoneman summoned 150 loafers from their holes in the
+river-bank, and called for twenty volunteers. No one came, so he has
+stopped their rations till they can agree among themselves to produce
+the twenty ready to start.
+
+
+     _January 17, 1900._
+
+The far-off mutter of Buller's guns began at half-past five a.m., and
+lasted nearly all day. From King's Post I watched the stretch of
+plain--Six Mile Flats, the official map calls it--leading away to
+Potgieter's Drift, where his troops are probably crossing. I could see
+three of the little Dutch camps, and here and there bodies of Boers
+moving over the country. Suddenly in the midst of the plain, just our
+side of the camp near "Wesse's Plantation," a great cloud of smoke and
+dust arose, and slowly drifted away. Beyond doubt, it was the bursting
+of a British shell. Aimed at the camp it overshot the mark, and landed
+on the empty plain. As a messenger of hope to us all it was not lost.
+The distance was only fourteen miles from where I stood--a morning's
+walk--less than an hour and a half's ride. Yet our relief may take many
+days yet, and it will cost hundreds of lives to cross that little space.
+The Boers have placed a new gun on the Bluebank ridge. It is disputed
+whether it faces us or Buller's line of approach over the Great Plain.
+The whole ridge is now covered from end to end with walls, traverses,
+and sangars.
+
+
+     _January 18, 1900._
+
+In the early morning the welcome sound of Buller's guns was not so
+frequent as yesterday. But it continued steadily, and between four and
+five increased to an almost unbroken thunder. From the extremity of
+Waggon Hill, I watched the great cloud of dust and smoke which rose from
+the distant plain as each shell burst. The Dutch camps were still in
+position, and we could only conjecture that the British were trying to
+clear the river-bank and the hills commanding it, so as to secure the
+passage of the ford.
+
+While I was there the enemy threw several shrapnel over the Rifle
+Brigade outpost. Major Brodiewald, Brigade Major to the Natal Volunteers
+under Colonel Royston, was sitting on the rocks watching Buller's shells
+like myself. A shrapnel bullet struck him in the mouth and passed out at
+the back of his neck. He was carried down the hill, his blood dripping
+upon the stones along the track. In the afternoon one of the bluejackets
+was also seriously wounded by shrapnel. The bombardment was heavy all
+day, the Bulwan gun firing right over Convent Hill and plunging shells
+into the Naval Camp, the Leicesters, and the open ground near
+Headquarters. It looks as if a spy had told where the General and Staff
+are to be found.
+
+The market quotations at this evening's auction were fluctuating. Eggs
+sprang up from a guinea to 30s. a dozen. Jam started at 30s. the 6lb.
+jar. Maizena was 5s. a pound. On the other hand, tobacco fell. Egyptian
+cigarettes were only 1s. each, and Navy Cut went for 4s. an ounce.
+During a siege one realises how much more than bread, meat, and water is
+required for health. Flour and trek-ox still hold out, and we receive
+the regulation short rations. Yet there is hardly one of us who is not
+tortured by some internal complaint, and many die simply for want of
+common little luxuries. In nearly all cases where I have been able to
+try the experiment I have cured a man with any little variety I had in
+store or could procure--rice, chocolate, cake, tinned fruit, or soups. I
+wonder how the enemy are getting on with the biltong and biscuit.
+
+
+     _January 19, 1900._
+
+Before noon, as I rode round the outposts, I found the good news flying
+that good news had come. It was thought best not to tell us what, lest,
+like children, we should cry if disappointed. But it is confidently said
+that Buller's force has crossed the Tugela in three places--Wright's
+Drift eastward, Potgieter's Drift in the centre, and at a point further
+west, perhaps Klein waterfall, where there is a nine-mile plain leading
+to Acton Homes. The names of the brigades are even stated, and the
+number of losses. It is said the Boers have been driven from two
+positions. But there may not be one word of truth in the whole story.
+
+I was early on Observation Hill, watching that strip of plain to the
+south-west. No shells were bursting on it to-day, and the sound of guns
+was not so frequent. Our heliograph flashed from the far-off Zwartz Kop,
+and high above it, looking hardly bigger than a vulture against the pale
+blue of the Drakensberg precipices, rose Buller's balloon, showing just
+a point of lustre on its skin.
+
+The view from Observation Hill is far the finest, but the whiz of
+bullets over the rocks scarcely ever stops, and now and again a shell
+comes screaming into the rank grass at one's feet.
+
+To-day we enjoyed a further variety, well worth the risk. At the foot of
+Surprise Hill, hardly 1,500 yards from our position, the Boers have
+placed a mortar. Now and then it throws a huge column of smoke straight
+up into the air. The first I thought was a dynamite explosion, but after
+a few seconds I heard a growing whisper high above my head, as though a
+falling star had lost its way, and plump came a great shell into the
+grass, making a 3ft. hole in the reddish earth, and bursting with no end
+of a bang. We collected nearly all the bits and fitted them together.
+It was an eight or nine-inch globe, reminding one of those "bomb-shells"
+which heroes of old used to catch up in their hands and plunge into
+water-buckets. The most amusing part of it was the fuse--a thick plug of
+wood running through the shell and pierced with the flash-channel down
+its centre. It was burnt to charcoal, but we could still make out the
+holes bored in its side at intervals to convert it into a time-fuse.
+This is the "one mortar" catalogued in our Intelligence book. It was
+satisfactory to have located it. Two guns of the 69th Battery threw
+shrapnel over its head all morning; then the Naval guns had a turn and
+seem to have reduced it to silence.
+
+In the afternoon there was an auction of Steevens's horses and camp
+equipment. Many officers came, and the usual knot of greedy civilians on
+the look-out for a bargain. As auctioneer I had great satisfaction in
+running the prices up beyond their calculation. But in another way they
+got the best of the old country to-day. Colonel Stoneman, having
+discovered a hidden store of sugar, was selling it at the fair price of
+4d. a pound to any one who pledged his word he was sick and in need of
+it. Round clustered the innocent local dealers with sick and sorry
+looks, swearing by any god they could remember that sugar alone would
+save their lives, paid their fourpences, and then sold the stuff for 2s.
+outside the door.
+
+
+     _January 20, 1900._
+
+Again I was on Observation Hill two or three times in the day. It is
+impossible to keep away from it long. The rumble of the British guns was
+loud but intermittent, but the Boer camps remain where they were. With
+us the bombardment continued pretty steadily. After a silence of two
+days "Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, threw one shell into the town and six
+among the Devons. His usual answer to the report that he has worn
+himself out or been carried away. Whilst he was firing I tried to get
+sight of a small mocking bird, which has learnt to imitate the warning
+whistle of the sentries. In the Gordons the Hindoo, Purriboo Singh, from
+Benares, stands on a huge heap of sacks under an umbrella all day and
+screams when he sees the big gun flash. But in the other camps, as I
+have mentioned, a sentry gives warning by blowing a whistle. The mocking
+bird now sounds that whistle at all times of the day, and what is even
+more perplexing, he is learning to imitate the scream and buzzle of the
+shell through the air. He may learn the explosion next. I mention this
+peculiar fact for the benefit of future ornithologists, who might
+otherwise be puzzled at his form of song.
+
+Another interesting event in natural history occurred a short time ago
+up the Port road. A Bulwan shell, missing the top of Convent Hill,
+lobbed over and burst at random with its usual din and circumstance.
+People rushed up to see what damage it had done, but they only found two
+little dead birds--one with a tiny hole in her breast, the other with an
+eye knocked out. Ninety-six pounds of iron, brass, and melinite, hurled
+four miles through the air, at unknown cost, just to deal a true-lovers'
+death to two sparrows, five of which are sold for one farthing!
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 21, 1900._
+
+After varying my trek-ox rations by catching a kind of barbel with a
+worm in the yellow Klip, I went again to Observation Hill, and with the
+greater interest because every one was saying two of the Boer camps were
+in flames. Of course it was a lie. The camps stood in their usual places
+quite undisturbed. But I saw one of our great shells burst high up the
+mountain side of Taba Nyama (Black Mountain) instead of on the plain at
+its foot, and with that sign of forward movement I was obliged to be
+content.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+"WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE"
+
+
+     _January 22, 1900._
+
+Twelve weeks to-day since Black Monday, when our isolation really began!
+A heliogram came from Buller to say all was going well, and in this
+evening's Orders we were officially informed that relief is "within
+measurable distance." I don't know about time, but in space that
+measurable distance is hardly more than fifteen miles. From Observation
+Hill I again watched the British shells breaking over the ridge above
+the ford. The Boers had moved one of their waggon laagers a little
+further back, but the main camps were unchanged. With a telescope I
+could make out where their hospital was--in a cottage by a wood--and I
+followed an ambulance waggon driving at a trot to three or four points
+on ridge and plain, gathering up the sick or wounded, and returning to
+hospital.
+
+The mass of Boers appeared to be lying under the shelter of Taba Nyama
+(or Intaba Mnyama--Black Mountain). It is a nine-mile range of hills
+running east and west, nearly parallel to the Tugela, and having
+Potgieter's Drift on its left. The left extremity, looking over the
+Drift, rises into double peaks, and is called Mabedhlane, or the Paps,
+by Zulus. The main Boer position appears to be halfway up these peaks
+and along the range to their right. To-day it is said that the relieving
+force intends to approach the mountain by parallels, sapping and mining
+as it goes, and treating the positions like a mediaeval fortress, or one
+of those ramparted and turreted cities which "Uncle Toby" used to
+besiege on the bowling green.
+
+One's only fear is about the delay. The population at Intombi is now
+approaching 4,000, nearly 3,000 being sick. I doubt if we could put
+4,000 men in the field to-day. Men and horses crawl feebly about, shaken
+with every form of internal pain and weakness. Women suffer even more.
+The terror of the shells has caused thirty-two premature births since
+the siege began. It is true a heliogram to-day tells us there are
+seventy-four big waggons waiting at Frere for our relief--milk,
+vegetables, forage, eleven waggons of rum, fifty cases of whisky, 5,000
+cigarettes, and so on. But all depends upon those parallels, so slowly
+advancing against Taba Nyama, and our insides are being sapped and mined
+far more quickly.
+
+Towards noon a disaster occurred, which has depressed the whole town.
+Two of the _Powerful's_ bluejackets have lately been making what they
+called a good thing by emptying unexploded Boer shells of their charges,
+so that the owners might display them with safety and pride when the
+siege is over. For this service they generally received 10s. each. It is
+only two days since they were in my cottage--chiselling out the melinite
+from a complete "Long Tom" shell which alighted in my old Scot's garden.
+I watched them accomplish that task safely, and this morning they set to
+work upon a similar shell by order of the Wesleyan minister, who wished
+to keep it in his window as a symbol of Christianity. One of the men was
+holding it between his knees, while the other was quietly chipping away,
+when suddenly it exploded. Fragments of one of the men strewed the
+minister's house--the other lay wondering upon the ground, but
+without his legs. Whilst I write he is still nominally alive, and keeps
+asking for his mate. One of his legs has been picked up near the Town
+Hall--about 150 yards away.
+
+[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF BOER SHELLS]
+
+A lesser disaster this morning befel Captain Jennings Bramley, of the
+19th Hussars. Whilst on picket he felt something slide over his legs,
+and looking up he saw it was a snake over 5ft. long. The creature at
+once raised its head also, and deliberately spat in his face, filling
+both eyes with poison. That is the invariable defence of the "Spitting
+Snake" (_Rinkholz_ in Dutch, and _Mbamba Twan_ or child catcher in
+Zulu). The pain is agonising. The eye turns red and appears to run with
+blood, but after a day or two the poison passes off and sight returns.
+The snake is not otherwise poisonous, but apparently can count on
+success in its shots at men, leopards, or dogs.
+
+
+     _January 23, 1900._
+
+Soon after dawn our own guns along the northern defences from Tunnel
+Hill to King's Post woke me with an extraordinary din. They could not
+have made more noise about another general attack, but there was no
+rifle fire. Getting up very unwillingly at 4.30 a.m., I climbed up
+Junction Hill and looked up the Broad valley, but not a single Boer was
+in sight. The firing went on till about six, and then abruptly ceased. I
+heard afterwards that Buller had asked us to keep as many Boers here as
+possible. I suppose we expended about 200 rounds of our precious
+ammunition. A cool and cloudy sky made the heliograph useless, but in
+the night the clouds had served to reflect the brilliance of Buller's
+searchlight.
+
+So far the Boers have passed us all round in strategy, but in
+searchlights they are nowhere, though Bulwan makes a grand attempt. All
+day from King's Post or Waggon Hill I watched the Great Plain of Taba
+Nyama as usual. Now and then we could see the shells bursting, but the
+Boer camps have not moved.
+
+The ration coffee has come to an end, except a reserve of 3 cwt, which
+would hardly last a day. The tea ration is again reduced. The flour
+mixed with mealy meal makes a very sour bread. The big 5th Lancers
+horses are so hungry that at night they eat not only their picket ropes
+but each other's manes and tails. They are so weak that they fall three
+or four times in an hour if the men ride them. Enteric is not quite so
+bad as it was, but dysentery increases. The numbers of military sick
+alone at Intombi, not counting all the sick in the camps and hospitals
+here, are 2,040 to-day.
+
+
+     _January 24, 1900._
+
+The entire interest of the day was centred on Taba Nyama--that black
+mountain, commanding the famous drift in its front and the stretch of
+plain behind. It is fifteen miles away. From Observation Hill one could
+see the British shells bursting along this ridge all morning, as well as
+in the midst of the Boer tents half-way down the double peaks, and at
+the foot of the hill. The firing began at 3 a.m., and lasted with
+extreme severity till noon, the average of audible shells being at least
+five a minute. We could also see the white bursts of shrapnel from our
+field artillery. In the afternoon I went to Waggon Hill, and with the
+help of a telescope made out a large body of men--about 1,000 I
+suppose--creeping up the distant crest and spreading along the summit. I
+could only conjecture them to be English from their presence on the
+exposed ridge, and from their regular though widely extended formation.
+They were hardly visible except as a series of black points.
+Thunderclouds hung over the Drakensberg behind, and the sun was
+obscured. Yet I had no doubt in my own mind that the position was won.
+It was five o'clock, or a little later.
+
+Others saw large parties of Boers fleeing for life up dongas and over
+plains, the phantom carriage-and-four driving hastily north-westward
+after an urgent warning, and other such melodramatic incidents, which
+escaped my notice. The position of the falling shells, and the movement
+of those minute black specks were to me enough of drama for one day's
+life.
+
+In the evening, I am told, the General received a signal from Buller:
+"Have taken hill. Fight went well." No one thought or talked of anything
+but the prospect of near relief. Yet (besides old Bulwan's violent
+bombardment of the station) there was one other event in the day
+deserving record. Hearing an unhappy case of an officer's widow left
+destitute, Colonel Knox, commanding the Divisional Troops, has offered
+twelve bottles of whisky for auction to-morrow, and hopes to make L100
+by the sale. I think he will succeed, unless Buller shakes the market.
+
+
+     _January 25, 1900._
+
+Before 6 a.m. I was on Observation Hill again, watching. One hopeful
+sign was at once obvious. The Boer waggon-laagers were breaking up. The
+two great lines of waggons between the plantations near Pinkney's farm
+were gone. By 6.30 they were all creeping away with their oxen up a road
+that runs north-west among the hills in the direction of Tintwa Pass. It
+was the most hopeful movement we had yet seen, but one large laager was
+still left at the foot of Fos Kop, or Mount Moriah.
+
+The early morning was bright, but a mist soon covered the sun. Rain
+fell, and though the air afterwards was strangely clear, the heliograph
+could not be used till the afternoon. We were left in uncertainty.
+Shells were bursting along the ridge of Taba Nyama, on the double peaks
+and the Boer tents below. Only on the highest point in the centre we
+could see no firing, and that in itself was hopeful. About 8 a.m. the
+fire slackened and ceased. We conjectured an armistice. Through a
+telescope we could see little black specks on the centre of the hill;
+they appeared to be building sangars. The Naval Cone Redoubt, having the
+best telescope, report that the walls are facing this way. In that case
+the black specks were probably British, and yet not even in the morning
+sun did we get a word of certainty. We hardly know what to think.
+
+In the afternoon the situation was rather worse. We saw the shelling
+begin again, but no progress seemed to be made. About 4 p.m. we
+witnessed a miserable sight. Along the main track which crosses the
+Great Plain and passes round the end of Telegraph Hill, almost within
+range of our guns, came a large party of men tramping through the dust.
+They were in khaki uniforms, marched in fours, and kept step.
+Undoubtedly they were British prisoners on their way to Pretoria. Their
+numbers were estimated at fifty, ninety, and 150 by different look-out
+stations. In front and rear trudged an unorganised gang of Boers,
+evidently acting as escort. It was a miserable and depressing thing to
+see.
+
+At last a cipher message began to come through on the heliograph. There
+was immense excitement at the Signal Station. The figures were taken
+down. Colonel Duff buttoned the precious paper in his pocket. Off he
+galloped to Headquarters. Major De Courcy Hamilton was called to
+decipher the news. It ran as follows: "Kaffir deserter from Boer lines
+reports guns on Bulwan and Telegraph Hills removed!"
+
+It was dated a day or two back. To-day both guns mentioned have been
+unusually active. Their shells have been bursting thick among us, and
+the sound of their firing must have been quite audible below. Yet this
+was the message.
+
+Eggs to-night fetched 30s. 6d. per dozen; a sucking pig 35s.; a chicken
+20s. In little over a week we shall have to begin killing our horses
+because they will have nothing to eat.
+
+
+     _January 26, 1900._
+
+Full of hopes and fears, I rode early up to Observation Hill as usual,
+and saw at once that the Boer waggon-laagers, which I watched departing
+yesterday, had returned in the night. Perhaps there were not quite so
+many waggons, and the site had been shifted a few hundred yards. But
+still there they stood again. Their presence is not hopeful, but it does
+not imply disaster. They may have gone in haste, and been recalled at
+leisure. Buller may have demanded their return under the conditions of a
+possible armistice. They may even have found the passes blocked by our
+men. Anyhow, there they are, and their return is the only important news
+of the day.
+
+No message or tidings came through. The day was cloudy, and ended in
+quiet rain. We saw a few shells fall on the plain at the foot of Taba
+Nyama, and what looked like a few on the summit. But nothing else could
+be made out, except that the Boer ambulances were very busy driving
+round.
+
+Among ourselves the chief event was the feverish activity of the
+Telegraph Hill big gun. Undeterred by our howitzers, he continued nearly
+all morning throwing shells at every point within sight. By one supreme
+effort, tilting his nose high up into the air, he threw one sheer up to
+the Manchesters on Caesar's Camp--a range of some 12,000 yards, the
+gunners say. Perhaps he was trying to make up for the silence of his
+Bulwan brother. It is rumoured that Pepworth Hill is to have a successor
+to the "Long Tom" of earlier and happier days. Six empty waggons with
+double spans of oxen were seen yesterday wending towards Bulwan.
+
+Our hunger is increasing. Men and horses suffer horribly from weakness
+and disease. About fifteen horses die a day, and the survivors gasp and
+cough at every step, or fall helpless.
+
+Biscuits are to be issued to-night instead of bread, because flour is
+running short. It is believed that not 500 men could be got together
+capable of marching five miles under arms, so prevalent are all diseases
+of the bowels. As to luxuries, even the cavalry are smoking the used
+tea-leaves out of the breakfast kettles. "They give you a kind of hot
+taste," they say.
+
+
+     _January 27, 1900._
+
+I was again on Observation Hill, watching. Nothing had changed, and
+there was no sign of movement. The Boers rode to and fro as usual, and
+their cattle grazed in scattered herds. Now and then a big gun fired,
+but I could see no bursting shells, and the sound seemed further away. I
+crossed the broad valley to Leicester Post. Our cattle and horses were
+trying to pick up a little grass there, while the howitzer and automatic
+"pom-pom" shelled them from Surprise Hill. "Pom-poms" are elegant little
+shells, about five inches long, and some with pointed heads were
+designed for the British Navy, but rejected. The cattle sniff at them
+inquisitively, and Kaffirs rush for a perfect specimen, which fetches
+from 10s. to 30s. For they are suitable presents for ladies, but
+unhappily all that fell near me to-day exploded into fragments.
+
+The telescope on Leicester Post showed me nothing new. Not a single man
+was now to be seen on Spion Kop or the rest of Taba Nyama. At two
+o'clock the evil news reached us. The heliograph briefly told the
+story; the central hill captured by the British on Wednesday afternoon,
+recaptured at night by the Boers, and held by them ever since. Our loss
+about five hundred and some prisoners.
+
+It was the worst news we have yet received, all the harder to bear
+because our hopes had been raised to confidence. It is harder to face
+disappointment now than six weeks ago. Even on biscuit and trek-oxen we
+can only live for thirty-two days longer, and nearly all the horses must
+die. The worst is that in their sickness and pain the men could hardly
+resist another assault. The sickness of the garrison is not to be
+measured by hospital returns, for nearly every one on duty is ill,
+though he may refuse to "go sick." The record of Intombi Camp is not
+cheering. The total of military sick to-day is 1,861, including 828
+cases of enteric, 259 cases of dysentery, and 312 wounded. The numbers
+have slightly diminished lately because an average of fourteen a day
+have been dying, and all convalescents are hurried back to Ladysmith.
+The number of graves down there now is 282 for men and five for
+officers, but deaths increase so fast that long trenches are dug, and
+the bodies laid in two rows, one above the other. "You see," said the
+gravedigger, "I'm goin' to put Patrick O'Connor here with Daniel
+Murphy."
+
+
+     _Sunday, January 28, 1900._
+
+From my station on Observation Hill I could see a new Boer laager drawn
+up, about six miles away, at the far end of the Long Valley. Otherwise
+all remains quiet and unmoved. Three or four distant guns were heard in
+the afternoon, but that was all.
+
+On the whole the spirit of the garrison was much more cheerful. We began
+to talk again of possible relief within a week. The heliograph brought a
+message of thanks from Lord Roberts for our "heroic, splendid defence."
+Every one felt proud and happy. The words were worth a fresh brigade.
+
+In the morning a consultation was held on the condition of the cavalry
+horses. At first it was determined to kill three hundred, so as to save
+food for the rest, but afterwards the orders were to turn them out on
+the flat beyond the racecourse, and let them survive if they could. The
+artillery horses must be fed as long as possible. The unfortunate walers
+of the 19th Hussars will probably be among the first to go. Coming
+straight from India, they were put to terribly hard work on landing,
+and have never recovered. Walers cannot do on grass which keeps local
+horses and even Arabs fat enough. What the average horse is chiefly
+suffering from now is a kind of influenza, accompanied by a frightful
+cough. My own talking horse kept trying to lie down to-day, and said he
+felt languid and queer. When he endeavoured to trot or canter a cough
+took him fit to break his mother's heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+HOPE DEFERRED
+
+
+     _January 29, 1900._
+
+The only change to-day was the steady passage of Boers westward, to
+concentrate afresh round Taba Nyama. Their new laager up the Long Valley
+had disappeared. Large bodies of men had been seen coming up from
+Colenso. The crisis of the war in Natal is evidently near. Meantime
+Kaffir deserters brought in a lot of chatter about the recent fighting.
+On one point they generally agreed--that Kruger himself was with his
+men. It is very likely. The staunch old prophet and patriot would hardly
+stay away when the issue involves the existence of his people.
+
+But when the Kaffirs go on to say that Kruger, Joubert, and Steyn stood
+together on Mount Moriah (Loskop) to witness the battle, the addition
+may be only picturesque. It would be well if that were the worst fiction
+credulity swallowed. One of the head nurses from Intombi told me to-day
+that the Boers had bribed an old herbalist--she thought at Dundee or
+somewhere--to reveal a terrible poison, into which they dipped their
+cartridges, and even the bullets inside their shrapnel! To this she
+attributed the suppuration of several recent wounds. Of the garrison's
+unhealthy condition she took no account whatever. No, it was poison. She
+had heard the tale somewhere--from a railway official, she thought--and
+believed it with the assurance of the Christian verity. Nearly every one
+is like that, and the wildest story finds disciples.
+
+Rations are again reduced to-day to the following quantities: tinned
+meat 1/2 lb., or fresh meat 1 lb.; biscuit 1/2 lb., or bread 1 lb.; tea,
+1/6 oz.; sugar, 1-1/2 ozs.; salt, 1/2 oz., and pepper 1/36 oz.
+
+It has also been decided to turn all the horses out to grass, except the
+artillery, three hundred from the cavalry, seventy officers' chargers,
+and twenty engineers' draught. These few are to be kept fed with rations
+of 3 lbs. of mealies, 4 lbs. of chaff, 16 lbs. of grass, 1-1/2 ozs. of
+salt. The artillery horses will get 2 lbs. of oats or bran besides. In
+the Imperial Light Horse they are killing one of their horses every
+other day, and eating him.
+
+
+     _January 30, 1900._
+
+Mortals depend for their happiness not only on their circulation but on
+the weather. To-day was certainly the gloomiest in all the siege. It
+rained steadily night and morning, the steaming heat was overpowering,
+and we sludged about, sweating like the victims of a foul Turkish bath.
+Towards evening it suddenly turned cold. Black and dismal clouds hung
+over all the hills. The distance was fringed with funereal indigo. The
+wearied garrison crept through their duties, hungry and gaunt as ghosts.
+There was no heliograph to cheer us up, and hardly a sound of distant
+guns. The rumour had got abroad that we were to be left to our fate,
+whilst Roberts, with the main column, diverted all England's thoughts to
+Bloemfontein. Like one man we lost our spirits, our hopes, and our
+tempers.
+
+The depression probably arose from the reduction of rations which I
+mentioned yesterday. The remaining food has been organised to last
+another forty-two days, and it is, of course, assumed we shall have to
+use it all, whereas the new arrangement is only a precaution. Colonel
+Ward and Colonel Stoneman are not to be caught off their guard. One of
+their chief difficulties just now is the large body of Indians--bearers,
+sais, bakers, servants of all kinds--who came over with the troops, and
+will not eat the sacred cow. Out of about 2,000, only 487 will consent
+to do that. The remainder can only get very little rice and mealies.
+Their favourite ghi, or clarified butter, has entirely gone, and their
+hunger is pitiful. The question now is whether or not their religious
+scruples will allow them to eat horse.
+
+Most of us have been eating horse to-day with excellent result. But one
+of the most pitiful things I have seen in all the war was the
+astonishment and terror of the cavalry horses at being turned loose on
+the hills and not allowed to come back to their accustomed lines at
+night. All afternoon one met parties of them strolling aimlessly about
+the roads or up the rocky footpaths--poor anatomies of death, with
+skeleton ribs and drooping eyes. At about seven o'clock two or three
+hundred of them gathered on the road through the hollow between Convent
+Hill and Cove Redoubt, and tried to rush past the Naval Brigade to
+the cavalry camp, where they supposed their food and grooming and
+cheerful society were waiting for them as usual. They had to be driven
+back by mounted Basutos with long whips, till at last they turned
+wearily away to spend the night upon the bare hillside.
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN BAKERY]
+
+
+     _January 31, 1900._
+
+Again the sky was clouded, and except during an hour's sunshine in the
+afternoon no heliograph could work. But below the clouds the distance
+was singularly clear, and one could see all the Dutch camps, and the
+Boers moving over the plain. The camps are a little reduced. Only four
+tents are left in the white string that hung down the side of Taba
+Nyama.
+
+Two parties, of forty Boers apiece, passed north along the road behind
+Telegraph Ridge whilst I was on Observation Hill in the morning. But
+there was no special meaning in their movements, and absolutely no news
+came in. Only rumours, the rumours of despair--Warren surrounded,
+Buller's ammunition train attacked and cut to pieces, the whole
+relieving force in hopeless straits.
+
+In the town and camps things went on as usual, under a continued weight
+of depression. The cold and wet of the night brought on a terrible
+increase of dysentery, and I never saw the men look so wretched and
+pinched. When officers in high quarters talk magnificently about the
+excellent spirits of the troops, I think they do not always realise what
+those excellent spirits imply. I wish they had more time to visit the
+remnants of battalions defending the hills--out in cold and rain all
+night, out in the blazing sun all day, with nothing to look forward to
+but a trek-ox or a horse stewed in unseasoned water, two biscuits or
+some sour bread, and a tasteless tea, generally half cold. No beer, no
+tobacco, no variety at all. To me, one of the highest triumphs of the
+siege is the achievement of MacNalty, a young lieutenant of the Army
+Service Corps. For nights past he has been working in the station engine
+shed at an apparatus of his own invention for boiling down horses into
+soup. After many experiments in process and flavouring, and many
+disappointments, he has secured an admirable essence of horse. This will
+sound familiar and commonplace to people who can get a bottle of such
+things at grocer's, but it may save many a good soldier's life none the
+less. I hope to see the process at work, and describe it later on.
+
+Mr. Lines, the town clerk, who has quietly stuck to his duties in spite
+of confusion and shells, gave me details to-day of the rations allowed
+to civilians. During the siege there has been a fairly steady white
+population of 560 residents and 540 refugees, or 1,100 in all. This does
+not include the civilians at Intombi, whose numbers are still
+unpublished. Practically all the civilians are drawing rations, for
+which they apply at the market between 5 and 7 p.m. They get groceries,
+bread or biscuit, and meat in the same quantities as the soldiers.
+Children under ten receive half rations. Each applicant has to be
+recommended by the mayor or magistrate, and brings a check with him. I
+suppose the promise to pay at the end of the siege is only a nominal
+formula.
+
+The civilian Indians and Kaffirs number 150 and 300 respectively, and
+draw their rations at the station, the organisation being under Major
+Thompson, A.C.G., as is the whole of the milk supply, now set aside for
+the sick. The Indian ration is atta, 4 oz.; rice, 3 oz.; mealie meal, 9
+oz.; salt, 1/2 oz.; goor, 1-1/4 oz.; amchur, 1/4 oz. And those who will
+eat meat get 8 oz. twice a week instead of mealies. The Kaffir ration
+is simpler: fresh meat, 1 lb.; mealie meal, 3/4 lb.; salt, 1/2 oz.
+
+
+     _February 1, 1900._
+
+How we should have laughed in November at the thought of being shut up
+here till February? But here we are, and the outlook grows more
+hopeless. People are miserably depressed. It would be impossible to get
+up sports or concerts now. Too many are sick, too many dead. The
+laughter has gone out of the siege, or remains only as bitter laughter
+when the word relief is spoken. We are allowed to know nothing for
+certain, but the conviction grows that we are to be left to our fate for
+another three weeks at least, while the men slowly rot. A Natal paper
+has come in with an account of Buller's defeat at Taba Nyama on the
+25th. We read with astonishment the loud praises of a masterly retreat
+over the Tugela without the loss of a single man. When shall we hear of
+a masterly advance to our aid? Do we lose no men?
+
+To-day the morning was cold and cloudy, as it has been since Monday, but
+the sun broke out for an hour or two, in the afternoon, and official
+messages could be sent through by heliograph. For information and
+relief we received the following words, and those only:--
+
+     "German specialist landed Delagoa Bay pledges himself to dam up
+     Klip River and flood Ladysmith out."
+
+That was all they deigned to tell us.
+
+
+     _February 2, 1900._
+
+After a misty dawn, soaked with minute rain, the sky slowly cleared at
+last, letting the merry sunshine through. At once the heliograph began
+to flash. I sent off a brief message, and soon afterwards the signal
+"Line clear" was sent from Zwartz Kop over the Tugela. The "officials"
+began to arrive, and we hoped for news at last. Three or four messages
+came through, but who could have guessed the thrilling importance of the
+first? It ran:--
+
+     "Sir Stafford Northcote, Governor of Bombay, has been made a peer."
+
+The other messages were vague and dull enough--something about the
+Prince of Wales reviewing Yeomanry, and the race for some hunt cup in
+India. But that peerage! To a sick and hungry garrison!
+
+We were shot at rather briskly all day by the enemy's guns. The groups
+of wandering horses were a tempting aim. The poor creatures still try to
+get back to their lines, and some of them stand there motionless all
+day, rather than seek grass upon the hills. The cavalry have made
+barbed-wire pens, and collect most of them at night. But many are lost,
+some stolen, and more die of starvation and neglect. An increasing
+number are killed for rations, and to-day twenty-eight were specially
+shot for the chevril factory. I visited the place this afternoon. The
+long engine-shed at the station has been turned to use. Only one engine
+remains inside, and that is used as a "bomb-proof," under which all
+hands run when the shelling is heavy. Into other engine-pits cauldrons
+have been sunk, constructed of iron trolleys without their wheels, and
+plastered round with clay. A wood fire is laid along under the
+cauldrons, on the same principle as in a camp kitchen. The horseflesh is
+brought up to the station in huge red halves of beast, run into the
+shed on trucks, cut up by the Kaffirs, who also pound the bones, thrown
+into the boiling cauldron, and so--"Farewell, my Arab steed!"
+
+There is not enough hydrochloric or pepsine left in the town to make a
+true extract of horse, but by boiling and evaporation the strength is
+raised till every pint issued will make three pints of soup. A punkah is
+to be fitted to make the evaporation more rapid, and perhaps my horse
+will ultimately appear as a jelly or a lozenge. But at present the stuff
+is nothing but a strong kind of soup, and at the first issue to-day the
+men had to carry it in the ordinary camp-kettles.
+
+Every man in the garrison to-night receives a pint of horse essence hot.
+I tasted it in the cauldron, straight from the horse, and found it so
+sustaining that I haven't eaten anything since. The dainty Kaffirs and
+Colonial Volunteers refuse to eat horse in any form. But the sensible
+British soldier takes to it like a vulture, and begs for the lumps of
+stewed flesh from which the soup has been made. With the joke, "Mind
+that stuff; it kicks!" he carries it away, and gets a chance, as he
+says, of filling--well, we know what he says. The extract has a
+registered label:--
+
+[Illustration: Superior Ladysmith
+
+CHEVRIL
+
+RESURGAM
+
+Trade Mark
+
+"The Iron Horse"]
+
+Under the signature of Aduncus Bea and Co. acute signallers will
+recognise the official title of Colonel Ward.
+
+Since the beginning of the siege one of the saddest sights has been the
+Boer prisoners lounging away their days on the upper gallery of the
+gaol. They have been there since Elands Laagte, nearly four months now,
+with no news, nothing to do, and nothing to see except one little bit of
+road visible over the wall.
+
+The solitude has so unnerved them that when the shells fall near the
+gaol or whiz over the roof the prisoners are said to howl and scream. On
+visiting them to-day I found that only seven real prisoners of war are
+left here, the others being suspects or possible traitors, arrested on
+suspicion of signalling or sending messages to the enemy. Among them is
+the French deserter I mentioned weeks ago. The little man is much
+reduced in girth, and terribly lonely among the Dutch, but he appears to
+grow no wiser for solitude and low living.
+
+Among the twenty-three suspects it was pleasant to see one new arrival
+who has been the curse of the town since the beginning of the siege,
+when he went about telling the terrified women and children that if they
+were not blown to bits by the shells the Boers would soon get them. So
+he has gone on ever since, till to-day Colonel Park, of the Devons, had
+him arrested for the military offence of "causing despondency." He had
+kept asking the Devons when they were going to run away, and how they
+would like the walk to Pretoria when Ladysmith surrendered. There are
+about thirty Kaffirs also in the prison, chiefly thieves, but some
+suspects. They are kept in the women's quarters, for the kind of woman
+who fills Kaffir gaols has lifted up her blankets and gone to Maritzburg
+or Intombi Camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SUN AND FEVER
+
+
+     _February 3, 1900._
+
+The day was fairly quiet. Old "Bulwan Billy" did not fire at us at all,
+and there was no movement in the distant Boer camps, though the
+universal belief is that the enemy is concentrating round Ladysmith for
+a fresh attack.
+
+In the evening the rations were issued to the civilians under Major
+Thompson's new regulations in the Market House. Each child, or whoever
+else is sent, now brings his ticket; it is verified at a table, the cost
+is added daily to each account, the child is sent on down the shed to
+draw his allowance of tea and sugar, his loaf, and bit of horse. The
+organisation is admirable, but one feels it comes a little late in the
+day. The same is true of the new biscuit tins which are to be put up as
+letter-boxes about the camp for a local post, and of the new plan of
+making sandals for the men out of flaps of saddles and the buckets for
+cavalry carbines. For a fortnight past, 120 of the Manchesters have gone
+barefoot among the rocks.
+
+
+     _Sunday, February 4, 1900._
+
+The sun shone. Women and children went up and down the street. I even
+saw two white-petticoated girls climbing the rocks of Cove Redoubt to
+get a peep at "Princess Victoria"--otherwise "Bloody Mary." It was a day
+of peace, but every one believes it to be the last. To-night an attack
+is confidently expected. The Boers are concentrating on the north-west.
+A new gun was seen yesterday moving towards Thornhill's Kopje, and
+sounds of building with stones were heard there last night. It is
+thought the attack will be upon the line from Observation Hill to Range
+Post. Every available man is warned. Even the military prisoners are
+released and sent on duty again. The pickets are doubled and pushed far
+out. A code of signals by rocket has been arranged to inform Buller of
+what is going on. It is felt that this is the enemy's last chance of
+doing so big a thing as capturing this garrison.
+
+But all that is still uncertain, and in the quiet afternoon I harnessed
+up my cart for a gentle drive with Sergeant-Gunner Boseley, of the 53rd
+Battery. He is a red Irishman, born at Maidstone, and has done eleven
+years' service. During the attack on the 6th he was sitting beside his
+gun waiting for Major Abdy's word to fire in his turn, when a 96lb.
+shell from "Bulwan" struck him in its flight, and shattered his left arm
+and leg. He says he was knocked silly, and felt a bit fluttered, but had
+no pain till they lifted him into the dhoolie. He broke the record, I
+believe, by surviving a double amputation on the same side, which left
+him only about 6 in. of thigh and 4 in. of arm. For every movement he is
+helpless as a log. Four of us hoisted him into the cart, and then we
+drove round to see his old battery, where the greetings of his mates
+were brief, emphatic, and devoid of all romance. We then went up to the
+tin camp, and round the main positions, which he regarded with silent
+equanimity. I thought he was bored by the familiar scene, but at the end
+he told me he had enjoyed it immensely, never having seen Ladysmith by
+daylight before! The man is now in magnificent health, rosy as a rose,
+and no doubt has a great career before him as a wonder from the war.
+
+
+     _February 5, 1900._
+
+The noise of guns boomed all day from the Tugela. It sounded as though a
+battle was raging along miles of its banks, from Colenso right away west
+to Potgieter's Drift. I could see big shells bursting again on Taba
+Nyama and the low nek above the ford. Further to the left they were
+bursting around Monger's Hill, nearly half-way along the bank to
+Colenso. From early morning the fire increased in intensity, reaching
+its height between 3 and 4 p.m. At half-past four the firing suddenly
+slackened and stopped. That seems like victory, but we can only hope.
+
+
+     _February 6, 1900._
+
+Firing was again continuous nearly all day along the Tugela, except that
+there appeared to be a pause of some hours before and after midday. The
+distance was hazy, and light was bad. The heliograph below refused to
+take or send messages, and we had no definite news. But at night it was
+confidently believed that relief was some miles nearer than in the
+morning. For myself, the sun and fever had hold of me, and I could only
+stand on Observation Hill and watch the far-off bursting of shells and
+the flash of a great gun which the Boers have placed in a mountain
+niche upon the horizon to our left of Monger's Hill, overlooking the
+Tugela. Sickness brought despondency, and I seemed only to see our
+countrymen throwing away their lives in vain against the defences of a
+gallant people fighting for their liberty.
+
+One cannot help noticing the notable change of feeling towards the enemy
+which the war has brought. The Boers, instead of being spoken of as
+"ignorant brutes" and "cowards" have become "splendid fellows,"
+admirable alike for strategy and courage. The hangers-on of Johannesburg
+capitalism have to keep their abusive contempt to themselves now, but
+happily only one or two of them have cared to remain in the beleaguered
+town.
+
+At a mess where I was to-night, all the officers but one agreed there
+was not much glory in this war for the British soldier. It would only be
+remembered as the fine struggle of an untrained people for their liberty
+against an overwhelming power. The defence of the Tyrol against Ney was
+quoted as a parallel. The Colonel, it is true, pathetically anxious to
+justify everything to his mind and conscience, and trying to hate the
+enemy he was fighting, stuck to his patriotic protests; but he was
+alone, and the conversation was significant of a very general change.
+Not that this prevents any one from longing for Buller's victory and our
+relief, though the field were covered with the dead defenders of their
+freedom.
+
+
+     _February 7, 1900._
+
+We have now but one thought--is it possible for Buller to force his way
+across that line of hills overlooking the Tugela? The nearest summits
+are not more than ten miles away. We could ride out there in little more
+than an hour and join hands with our countrymen and the big world
+outside. Yet the barrier remains unbroken. Firing continued nearly all
+day, except in the extreme heat of afternoon. We could watch the columns
+of smoke thrown up by the Boers' great gun, still fixed above that niche
+upon the horizon. The Dutch camps were unmoved, and at the extremity of
+the Long Valley a large new camp with tents and a few waggons appeared
+and increased during the day. Some thought it was a hospital camp, but
+it was more likely due to a general concentration in the centre. Here
+and there we could see great shells bursting, and even shrapnel. The
+sound of rifles and "pom-poms" was often reported. Yet I could not see
+any real proof of advance. Perhaps fever and sun blind me to hope, for
+the staff are very confident still. They even lay odds on a celebration
+of victory next Sunday by the united forces, and I hear that Sir George
+is practising the Hundredth Psalm.
+
+
+     _February 8 to February 24, 1900._
+
+I had hoped to keep well all through the siege, so as to see it all from
+start to finish. But now over a fortnight has been lost while I have
+been lying in hospital, suffering all the tortures of Montjuich, "A
+touch of sun," people called it, combined with some impalpable kind of
+malaria. On the 8th I struggled up Caesar's Camp again, and saw parties
+of Boers burning all the veldt beyond Limit Hill, apparently to prevent
+us watching the movements of the trains at their railhead. On the 9th I
+could not stand, and the bearers, with their peculiar little chant, to
+keep them out of step, brought me down to the Congregational Chapel in a
+dhoolie. There I still lie. The Hindoo sweepers creep about, raising a
+continual dust; they fan me sleepily for hours together with a look of
+impenetrable vacancy, and at night they curl themselves on the ground
+outside and cough their souls away. The English orderlies stamp and
+shout, displaying the greatest goodwill and a knowledge of the nervous
+system acquired in cavalry barracks. Far away we hear the sound of
+Buller's guns. I did not know it was possible to suffer such atrocious
+and continuous pain without losing consciousness.
+
+Of course we have none of the proper remedies for sunstroke--no ice, no
+soda-water, and so little milk that it has to be rationed out almost by
+the teaspoonful. Now that the fever has begun to subside I can only hope
+for a tiny ration of tea, a brown compound called rice pudding,
+flavoured with the immemorial dust of Indian temples, and a beef-tea
+which neighs in the throat. That is the worst of the condition of the
+sick now; when they begin to mend it is almost impossible to get them
+well. There is nothing to give them. At Intombi, I believe it is even
+worse than here. The letters I have lately seen from officers recovering
+from wounds or dysentery or enteric are simply heart-rending in their
+appeals.
+
+
+     _February 25, 1900._
+
+Nearly all the patients who have passed through the field hospital
+during the fortnight have been poor fellows shot by snipers in arms or
+legs. Except when their wounds are being dressed, they lie absolutely
+quiet, sleeping, or staring into vacancy. They hardly ever speak a word,
+though the beds are only a foot apart. On my left is the fragment of the
+sergeant gunner whom I took for a drive. His misfortunes and his
+cheerful indifference to them make him a man of social importance. He
+shows with regret how the shell cut in half a marvellous little Burmese
+lady, whose robes once swept down his arm in glorious blues and reds,
+but are now lapped over the bone as "flaps."
+
+Another patient was a shaggy, one-eyed old man, between whose feet a
+Bulwan shell exploded one afternoon as he was walking down the main
+street. Beyond the shock he was not very seriously hurt, but his calves
+were torn by iron and stones. He said he was the one survivor of the
+first English ship that sailed from the Cape with settlers for Natal. He
+was certainly very old.
+
+On the night of the 22nd a man was brought into the hospital where I
+lay--also attacked by sunstroke--his temperature 107 degrees, and all
+consciousness happily gone. It was Captain Walker, the clever Irish
+surgeon, who has served the Gordons through the siege as no other
+regiment has been served, making their bill of health the best, and
+their lines a pleasure to visit. His skill, especially in dysentery,
+was looked to by many outside the Gordons themselves. Nothing could save
+him. He was packed in cold sheets, fanned, and watched day and night.
+For a few moments he knew me, and reminded me of a story we had laughed
+over. But yesterday evening, after struggling long for each breath, he
+died--one of the best and most useful men in camp.
+
+If it was fated that I should be laid up for a fortnight or more of the
+siege it seems that this was about the best time fate could choose. From
+all the long string of officers, men, telegraph clerks, and civilians,
+who, with unceasing kindliness have passed beside my bed bringing news
+and cheering me up, I have heard but one impression, that this has been
+the dullest and deadliest fortnight of the siege. There has been no
+attack, no very serious expectation of Buller's arrival. The usual
+bombardment has gone wearily on. Sometimes six or seven big shells have
+thundered so close to this little chapel, that the special kind of
+torture to which I was being subjected had for a time to be interrupted.
+Really nothing worthy of note has happened, except the building by the
+Boers of an incomprehensible work beside the Klip at the foot of Bulwan.
+About 300 Kaffirs labour at it, with Boer superintendents. It is
+apparently a dam to stop the river and flood out the town. No doubt it
+is the result of that German specialist's arrival, of which we heard.
+
+On coming to my first bit of bread to-day I found it uneatable. In the
+fortnight it has degenerated simply to ground mealies of maize--just the
+same mixture of grit and sticky dough as the peasants in Pindus starve
+upon. Even this--enough in itself to inflame any English stomach--is
+reduced to 1/2 lb. a day. As I stood at the gate this afternoon taking
+my first breath of air, I watched the weak-kneed, lantern-jawed soldiers
+going round from house to house begging in vain for anything to eat. Yet
+they say the health of the camp as a whole has improved. This they
+attribute to chevril.
+
+During my illness, though I cannot fix the exact day, one of the saddest
+incidents of the siege has happened. My friend Major Doveton, of the
+Imperial Light Horse, a middle-aged professional man from Johannesburg,
+who had joined simply from patriotism, was badly wounded in the arm in
+the great attack of the 6th. Mrs. Doveton applied to Joubert for leave
+to cross the Boer lines to see her husband, and bring medical
+appliances and food. The leave was granted, and she came. But amputation
+was decided upon, and the poor fellow died from the shock. He was a fine
+soldier, as modest as brave. Often have I seen him out on the hillside
+with his men, quietly sharing in all their hardships and privations. I
+don't know why the incident of his wife's passage through the enemy's
+lines should make his death seem sadder. But it does. On Saturday night
+I drove away from the hospital in my cart, though still in great pain
+and hardly able to stand. I was unable to endure the depression of all
+the hospital sights and sounds and smells any longer. Perhaps the worst
+of all is the want of silence and darkness at night. The fever and pain
+both began to abate directly I got home to my old Scot.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL RT. HON. SIR REDVERS HENRY BULLER, V.C., G.C.B.,
+K.C.M.G., K.C.B.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+RELIEVED AT LAST
+
+
+     _Tuesday, February 27, 1900._
+
+This is Majuba Day, and in the afternoon the garrison was cheered by the
+news that Roberts had surrounded Cronje and compelled him to surrender.
+For ourselves, relief seems as far off as ever, though it is said shells
+were seen bursting not far beyond Intombi Camp. The bread rations are
+cut down again to half, after a few days' rise; though, indeed, they can
+hardly be called bread rations, for the maize bread was so uneatable
+that none is made now. The ration is biscuits and three ounces of mealie
+meal for porridge.
+
+Towards evening I went for my first drive through old familiar scenes
+that have come to look quite different now. The long drought has turned
+the country brown, and it is all the barer for the immense amount of
+firewood that has been cut. It was decided about a week ago not to issue
+any more horse as rations till the very last of the oxen had been
+killed.
+
+
+     _February 28, 1900._
+
+From early morning it was evident that the Boers were much disturbed in
+mind. Line after line of waggons with loose strings of mounted men kept
+moving from the direction of the Tugela heights above Colenso, steadily
+westward, across the top of Long Valley, past the foot of Hussar Hill,
+out into the main road along the Great Plain, over the Sandspruit Drift
+at the foot of Telegraph Hill, and so to the branching of the roads
+which might lead either to the Free State passes or to Pepworth Hill and
+the railway to the north. All day the procession went on. However
+incredible it seemed, it was evident that the "Great Trek" had begun at
+last.
+
+Soon after midday a heliogram came through from Buller, saying he had
+severely defeated the enemy yesterday, and believed them to be in full
+retreat. Better still, about three the Naval guns on Cove Redoubt and
+Caesar's Camp (whither "Lady Anne" was removed three days ago) opened
+fire in rapid succession on the great Bulwan gun. The Boers were
+evidently removing him. They had struck a "shearlegs" or derrick upon
+the parapet. One of our first shots brought the whole machinery down,
+and all through the firing of the Naval guns was excellent.
+
+About six I had driven out (being still enfeebled with fever) to King's
+Post, to see the tail-end of the Boer waggons disappear. On returning I
+found all the world running for all they were worth to the lower end of
+the High-street and shouting wildly. The cause was soon evident. Riding
+up just past the Anglican Church came a squadron of mounted infantry.
+They were not our own. Their horses were much too good, and they looked
+strange. Behind them came another and another. They had crossed the
+drift that leads to the road along the foot of Caesar's Camp past Intombi
+to Pieter's, and Colenso. There was no mistake about it. They were the
+advance of the relief column, and more were coming behind. It was Lord
+Dundonald's Irregulars--Imperial Light Horse, Natal Carbineers, Natal
+Police, and Border Mounted Rifles.
+
+The road was crammed on both sides with cheering and yelling
+crowds--soldiers off duty, officers, townspeople, Kaffirs, and coolies,
+all one turmoil of excitement and joy. By the post office General White
+met them, and by common consent there was a pause. Most of his Staff
+were with him too. In a very few words he welcomed the first visible
+evidence of relief. He thanked his own garrison for their splendid
+service in the defence, and added that now he would never have to cut
+down their rations again, a thing that always went to his heart.
+
+Then followed roar after roar of cheering--cheers for White, for Buller,
+for Ward, for many others. Then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves
+shouting the National Anthem in every possible key and pitch. Then more
+cheering and more again.
+
+But it was getting dark. The General and Staff turned towards
+Headquarters. The new arrivals had to be settled in their quarters for
+the night. Most were taken in by the Imperial Light Horse--alas! there
+is plenty of room in their camp now! To right and left the squadrons
+wheeled, amid greetings and laughter and endless delight. By eight
+o'clock the street was almost clear, and there was nothing to show how
+great a change had befallen us.
+
+About ten a tremendous explosion far away told that the Boers were
+blowing up the bridges behind them as they fled.
+
+And so with to-night the long siege really ends. It is hardly credible
+yet. For 118 days we have been cut off from the world. All that time we
+have been more or less under fire, sometimes under terrible fire. What
+it will be to mix with the great world again and live each day in
+comparative security we can hardly imagine at present. But the peculiar
+episode called the Siege of Ladysmith is over.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+HOW LADYSMITH WAS FED
+
+
+     LADYSMITH, _March 23, 1900_.
+
+_Where all worked so well it would be a shame to say Ladysmith was saved
+by any particular branch of the service--the naval guns, the Army
+Service Corps, or the infantry soldier. But it is quite certain that
+without the strictest control on the food supply we could not have held
+out so long, and by the kindness of one whose authority is above
+question I am able to give the following account of how the town was fed
+for the seventeen weeks of the siege._
+
+
+THE PROBLEM.
+
+A celebrated French writer on military matters has said: "There are two
+words for war--_le pain et la poudre_."
+
+In a siege _le pain_ is of even greater importance than _la poudre_, for
+"hunger is more cruel than the sword, and famine has ruined more armies
+than battle." Feeding must go on at least three times a day, and every
+day, or the men become ineffective, and the hospitals filled.
+
+At the beginning of November, 1899, Ladysmith, containing over 20,000
+souls, with 9,800 horses and mules, and 2,500 oxen and a few hundred
+sheep, was cut off from the outer world, and nothing in the way of
+supplies was brought in for 119 days, except a few cattle which our
+guides looted at night from the besieging enemy. The problem was how to
+utilise the food supplies which were in the place, and those who had the
+misfortune (or, as some say, the good fortune) to go through that trying
+period will say that the problem was very satisfactorily solved in spite
+of the enormous difficulties the Army Service Corps had to contend with.
+
+The two senior officers of that corps--Colonel E.W. D. Ward, C.B., and
+Lieut.-Colonel Stoneman--recognising the possibility of a siege, and
+also that a big margin is everything in army administration, had caused
+enormous quantities of supplies to be sent up from the base to
+Ladysmith. The articles were not even tallied or counted as received, in
+spite of the remonstrances of the consignors; but by means of Kaffir
+labourers, working night and day, the trucks were off-loaded as fast as
+possible, and again sent down the line to bring up more food.
+
+
+STORES AT THE BEGINNING.
+
+The quantities of the various articles in hand at the beginning of
+November were as follows:--
+
+                                    lbs.
+  Flour                           979,996
+  Preserved Meat                  173,792
+  Biscuits                        142,510
+  Tea                              23,167
+  Coffee                            9,483
+  Sugar                           267,699
+  Salt                             38,741
+  Maize                         3,965,400
+  Bran                            923,948
+  Oats                          1,270,570
+  Hay, &c.                      1,864,223
+
+and a large amount of medical comforts, such as spirits, wines,
+arrowroot, sago, beef tea, &c.
+
+In addition to the above we had rice, _ghi_, _goor_, _atta_, &c., for
+the natives of the Indian contingent. (_Ghi_ is clarified butter;
+_goor_, unrefined sugar; _atta_ is whole meal.)
+
+At the beginning of the siege the scale of rations was as follows:--
+
+   Bread, 1-1/4 lb, or biscuit, 1 lb.
+   Meat (fresh), 1-1/4 lb., or preserved meat, 1 lb.
+ { Coffee, 1 oz.,
+ {      or
+ { Tea, 1/2 oz.
+   Sugar, 3 oz.
+   Salt, 1/2 oz.
+   Pepper, 1/36 oz.
+ { Vegetables (compressed), 1 oz.,
+ {      or
+ { Potatoes, 1/2 lb.
+
+Cheese, bacon, and jams were frequently issued as an extra, in addition
+to the above.
+
+
+REQUISITIONING.
+
+The above quantities of articles, large as they appear, would not have
+sufficed to supply our wants for the long siege. The military
+authorities therefore very wisely determined at a very early date to
+make use of the Requisition. This power of seizing at a certain price
+from their owners all articles required by the troops has to be used
+very carefully and tactfully, as otherwise the people hide or bury their
+goods. A civilian, commanding the confidence of the people, was
+appointed by the local authorities to fix the prices in co-operation
+with a military officer, who represented the interests of her Majesty's
+Government. In this way a large quantity of food, &c., was obtained at a
+fair price. These quantities were:--
+
+  Cattle, 1,511.
+  Goats and sheep, 1,092.
+  Mealies or maize, 1,517,996 lbs.
+  Kaffir corn, or a kind of millet, 68,370 lbs.
+  Boer meal, or coarse wheat-meal, 108,739 lbs.
+
+All spirits and wines were taken and a fair price paid.
+
+In December, when the cases of enteric fever and dysentery began to be
+very numerous, it was determined to take possession of the milch cows,
+and to see that the milk was used for the sick alone. So under the
+supervision and control of Colonel Stoneman and Captain Thompson, a
+dairy farm was started, and the milk was issued to civilians and
+soldiers alike on medical certificate. Owing to the scarcity of milk,
+and to the great necessity for it in cases of enteric and dysentery,
+the dairy farm is still going (March 23, 1900), the owners of the cows
+being paid 1s. per quart; a careful account being kept of the milk
+produced.
+
+In connection with the requisitioning of cows by Colonel Stoneman, a
+quaint incident is recorded. A gentleman of Ladysmith of a stubborn
+temperament on receiving the requisition wrote to Colonel Stoneman in
+the following terms: "SIR,--Neither you nor any one else shall take my
+cow. If you want milk for your sick apply to Joubert for it. Get out
+with you, and get your milk from the Dutch." The cow was promptly taken.
+
+
+POULTRY AND EGGS.
+
+These soon became very scarce, and the price demanded for eggs was
+enormous. The highest price reached was L2 10s. for twelve eggs, but
+they were often sold at sums from 30s. to 44s. per dozen. As eggs were
+so important a food in the dietary of the sick, it was determined, under
+the authority of the Lieutenant-General commanding, to requisition the
+poultry and eggs of those persons who would not sell them at a
+reasonable rate. A good price was paid to the owners for their eggs and
+chickens, which were issued only on medical certificate.
+
+A well-known official of the Natal Government Railway had thirty-six
+tins of condensed milk. At the auction which took place three times a
+week in the town, 6s. 6d. a tin was offered for this, but the unselfish
+and unsympathetic owner did not consider this price sufficient; he
+declined to sell under 7s. 6d. a tin. This fact being brought to the
+notice of Colonel Stoneman, he requisitioned the whole lot at 10d. a
+tin.
+
+I have stated that 1,511 cattle were requisitioned from their owners for
+slaughter purposes. This was a great trial both to the officer who
+carried out this duty and to the owners. The Kaffir lady Ugumba did not
+want to part with her pet cow, which was the prop of her house, had been
+bred up amongst her children, and had lived in the back yard. The white
+owners discovered suddenly that their cattle were of the very highest
+breed, and had been specially imported from England or Holland at
+enormous cost. However, most of these cattle, except milch cows, had to
+be taken. The proprietors of high-bred stock were directed to claim
+compensation, over the meat value, from the "Invasion Losses Commission"
+now sitting.
+
+
+FAIR SALE.
+
+Colonels Ward and Stoneman having requisitioned considerable quantities
+of food-stuffs at the beginning of the siege, they determined to sell
+some of them, such as sugar, sardines, &c., &c., at the same price as
+was paid. One or two fathers with sick children were supplied with 4 oz.
+of brandy on medical certificate. There was no liquor to be had in the
+town, and the fathers with sick children grew in numbers with suspicious
+rapidity.
+
+In the month of February the pinch began to be felt. Most men were
+without smiles, and most women were scarcely able to suppress their
+tears--tears of weakness and exhaustion. The scale of rations was then
+reduced to a fine point. Many a man begged for suitable food for his
+sick wife and little baby, many mothers asked for a little milk and
+sugar for their young children, and many sick men, both at Intombi and
+in Ladysmith, wrote, or caused to be written, pathetic letters for
+"anything in the way of food" that could be granted.
+
+The "Chevril" factory was started to supply soup, jellies, extracts, and
+even marrow bones made from horses; a sausage factory was instituted;
+and a biltong factory was run in order to utilise the flesh of horses
+which would have otherwise died from starvation. A grass-cutting labour
+gang was organised to go out and (under fire) cut grass and bring it in
+for our cattle and horses; a wood-cutting labour gang went out daily and
+cut wood for fuel--being "sniped at" by the Boers constantly; mills were
+worked by the A.S.C. for the purpose of grinding maize, &c., as food;
+arrangements were made by the A.S.C. for a pure water supply by means of
+condensation and filtration; coffee was made by roasting and grinding
+mealies; the gluten necessary to maize to make bread was supplied by
+Colman's starch; and in short nothing was left undone that ingenuity
+could devise.
+
+
+LOWEST RATIONS.
+
+And yet, in spite, of all that human power could do, as the days dragged
+out the supplies grew shorter. The scale of rations, much to the sorrow
+of the lieut.-general commanding, had been several times reduced, and
+once more, on February 27, it was again found necessary to cut them
+down, with a view to holding out until April if necessary. On that day
+the ration scale was as follows per man, per day, this being the extreme
+limit:--
+
+  For Whites--Biscuit, 1/4 lb.; Maize meal, 3 oz.
+  For Indians and Kaffirs--Maize meal, 8 oz.
+  Europeans--Fresh meat, 1 lb.
+  Kaffirs--Fresh meat, 1-1/4 lbs. (Chiefly horseflesh.)
+  For White men--Coffee or tea, 1/12 oz.; pepper, 1/64 oz.; salt, 1/3 oz.;
+                 sugar, 1 oz.; mustard, 1/20 oz.; Vinegar, 1/12 gill.
+  For Indians--a little rice.
+
+The Indian, it will be observed, would have fared the worst, much
+against the will of the authorities, for he does not eat beef, much less
+horseflesh.
+
+We had not, however, to spend the month of March on this scale of diet,
+for to our great joy, about midday on the 28th, we received the
+following message from General Buller:--"I beat the enemy thoroughly
+yesterday, and my cavalry is now pursuing as fast as bad roads will
+permit. I believe the enemy to be in full retreat." The ration scale was
+at once doubled, and that evening Lord Dundonald's cavalry arrived.
+
+
+
+
+UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH & WEST OF LADYSMITH]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ladysmith, by H. W. Nevinson
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