e guns, fired at certain intervals, were
sending on a code message to Colenso. Rumours, having their origin in
the fertile imaginations of those who think that British troops can
achieve wonderful things for our relief, crowd fast upon us. Now we hear
of a column marching into Bloemfontein and an hour later men tell
gravely of a force under General French having captured Dundee But by
some means ill news travels faster even than these absurdly impossible
rumours. A Boer doctor has been to Intombi Camp this morning and told
the people there that our armoured train was captured yesterday of on
Friday near Colensa, and many prisoners taken, including Lord Randolph
Churchill's son. That was the doctor's way of cheering up our sick and
wounded. We might have doubted the story, but circumstances confirm it,
and we have so little faith in armoured trains that it seems quite
natural for them to fall into the enemy's hands.

_November 20._--Dense white mists rising from the river-bends, and
spreading across the plains to hang in a thinner haze about the shady
sides of hills, put a stop to bombardment most of the morning. Up to
noon there had been practically no shelling, but only an exchange of
rifle-shots between Bell's Spruit by Pepworth and Observation Hill. The
enemy, however, made up for lost time later by sending several shells
into town and camp. One fell near Captain Vallentin's house, where
Colonel Rhodes and Lord Ava shared the brigade mess; another, passing
close to Mr. Fortescue Carter's house, where several officers of the
Intelligence Staff live, shattered the church porch beyond; from
Surprise Hill several came into the 18th Hussar camp, where three men
were hit, one so badly that his leg had to be amputated; one into the
Gordon camp, wounding Lieutenant Maitland and a private; and one from
"Long Tom" of Pepworth's into the little group of tents that now serve
for all that are left here of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. This shot must
have been fired at a range of over 11,000 yards. It came down like a
bolt straight from the blue overhead, penetrated the stiff soil to a
depth of five feet seven inches, and rebounded on impact with some more
solid substance at the bottom so quickly that it left the mark of its
penetration perfect, and only broke up on reaching the surface again. In
this case there was no burst, but only a detonation of the fuse. After
nine at night we were astonished to see the beams of a searchlight
s