ill 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 authoritie