ases 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