[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-da