there when the Boers were at a more respectful
distance. It is an entangled and puzzling country, full of rocks and
hills and hidden valleys. It was only some falling boulders that caused
the ruin--a few casual shots--and the stampeding mules. That ammunition
mule has always a good deal to bear, but now the burden put on him
officially is almost too heavy for any four-legged thing.

CHAPTER VII

HEMMED IN

LADYSMITH, _November 2, 1899_.

"Long Tom" opened fire at a quarter-past six from Pepworth Hill, and was
replied to by the Naval Brigade. Just as I walked up to their big 4.7
in. gun on the kopje close to the Newcastle road, a shell came right
through our battery's earthwork, without bursting. Lieutenant Egerton,
R.N., was lying close under the barrel of our gun, and both his legs
were shattered. The doctors amputated one at the thigh, the other at the
shin. In the afternoon he was sitting up, drinking champagne and smoking
cigarettes as cheery as possible, but he died in the night. "Tom" went
on more or less all day. In the afternoon Natal correspondents dashed
down to the Censor with telegrams that he had been put out of action.
They had seen him lying on his side. I started to look for myself, and
at the first 100 yards he threw a shell right into the off-side of the
street, as though to save me the trouble of going further. Another
rumour, quite as confidently believed by the soldiers, was that the
Devons had captured him with the bayonet and rolled him down the hill. I
heard one of them "chipping" a Gordon for not being present at the
exploit. Now "Tom" is a 15-centimetre Creusot gun of superior quality.

All morning I spent in the Manchesters' camp on the top of the long hill
to the south-west, called Caesar's Camp. There had been firing from a
higher flat-topped mountain--Middle Hill--about 3,000 yards beyond,
where the Boers have taken up one of their usual fine positions,
overlooking Ladysmith on one side and Colenso on the other. At early
morning a small column under General Hunter had attacked a Boer commando
on the Colenso road unawares and gave them a bad time, till an order
suddenly came to withdraw. Sir George White had heard Boer guns to the
west of their right rear, and was afraid of another disaster such as
befell the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers. The men came back sick
with disappointment, and more shaken than by defeat.

I found the Manchesters building small and almost