d 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 again