ss of
the 5th Lancers, who arrested me and sent me from pillar to post, just
as if I was seeking information at the War Office. At last they took
me--the Colonel himself, three privates with rifles and a mounted
orderly with a lance--took me to the General Staff, and there the
absurdity ended. But seriously, what is the good of having the very
highest and most authoritative passes possible--one from the War Office
and one from the head of the Intelligence Department here--if any
conscientious colonel can refuse to acknowledge them, and drag a
correspondent about amid the derision of Kaffirs and coolies, and of
Dutchmen who are known perfectly well to send every scrap of
intelligence to their friends outside? I lost two hours; probably I lost
my chance of getting a runner through. I had complied with the
regulations in every possible respect. My pass was in my hand; and what
was the good of it?

But after all we are in the midst of a tragedy. Let us not be too
serious. Dishevelled women are peering out of their dens in the rocks
and holes in the sand. They crawl into the evening light, shaking the
dirt from their petticoats and the sand from their back hair. They rub
the children's faces round with the tails of their gowns. They tempt
scraps of flame to take the chill off the yellow water for the
children's tea. After sundown a steady Scotch drizzle settles down upon
us.

_November 7, 1899._

To-day the melodrama has begun in earnest. "Long Tom" and four or five
smaller guns from Bulwan, and a nearer battery to the north-west, began
hurling percussion shell and shrapnel upon the Naval batteries at
half-past seven. Our "Lady Anne" answered, but after flinging shells
into the immense earthworks for an hour or two without much effect, both
sides got tired of that game. But the Boer fire was not quite without
effect, for one of the smaller shells burst right inside the "Lady
Anne's" private chamber and carried away part of the protecting gear,
not killing any men. Then "Long Tom" was deliberately turned upon the
town, especially upon the Convent, which stands high on the ridge, and
is used as a hospital. His shells went crashing among the houses, but
happily land is cheap in South Africa still, and the houses, as a rule,
are built on separate plots, so that as often as not the shells fall in
a garden bush or among the clothes-lines. Only two Indian bearers were
wounded and a few horses and cattle killed. Things we