ed and sixty wounded.

This highly successful night attack was, strategically speaking, of
prodigious value. The hostile hordes that were advancing to the south
with the intention of overrunning the Colony of Natal were summarily
disposed of, their treatment at the hands of Colonel Kitchener and his
small force being such that they preferred not to try conclusions with
him again for some time to come. They at once took themselves off to
Colenso, and in a very short space of time the telegraph lines and rails
between Weston, Estcourt, and Frere were restored. The arrival of the
first trains in camp was greeted with uproarious cheers.

LADYSMITH

The inhabitants of Ladysmith had almost begun to accustom themselves to
the promiscuous arrival of shells at odd hours throughout the day, when
General Joubert hit on the happy idea of varying the monotony of the
daily routine by making the night into a "lurid inferno"--the term is
borrowed from the Boers. Now no sooner were the besieged wrapped in
slumber than boom! bang! a shower of 94-pound shells was launched into
their midst. In an instant all was confusion. Strange forms, some weird,
some grotesque, all terrified, fled from their beds and hung hovering in
gardens and verandahs, uncertain whether to believe their eyes and ears.
The nights were mostly dark, and from the black ridges occupied by the
enemy came with a swish and a roar red tongues of flame and the
spitting, splitting fury of bursting steel, which produced in the mind
of those who had recently been folded in the arms of Morpheus a
sensation as of fevered nightmare or threatened madness. But the sturdy
soon attuned themselves to the terrific reality, though for some days,
while the midnight cannonading continued, many of the more nervous were
well-nigh distraught. The bombardment was accounted for in different
ways. Some said it was to celebrate a victory over the advance-guard of
Hildyard's brigade, others declared that the firing had been attracted
by some companies of the Liverpool Regiment who had gone to cut
firewood, and were visible in the gleams of the moonlight. This midnight
uproar continued for several days with more or less vigour, and then it
languished, possibly from economy, possibly because the Boers themselves
desired to sleep. On the 18th Dr. Stark, a naturalist who had come to
Natal to study birds, was killed as he was standing near the door of the
Royal Hotel,