cavalry regiment with which they are brigaded.

Such brilliant achievements as the above might, it was soon felt,
be more difficult in future, the enemy having been put upon his
guard; but all the good-comradeship in the world could not prevent
some jealousy being felt, and nobody can pretend to regret that a
spirit of noble emulation has thus been roused. There had never
been any lack of men ready for work of that kind from the first day
of investment. Devons and Gordons had volunteered weeks before to
take the Boer guns from which the defenders suffered most
annoyance, any night the General might give them permission; but
those fine battalions were wanted for important duties in the
purely defensive scheme, and so they had to lie behind earthworks
or in bomb-proof structures, half tent, half cave, shelled when
they ventured to move out by day, kept on the alert through many
hours of weary night, and called to arms again an hour before dawn.
They had shown--and the same is true of every corps and detachment
in the garrison--the most splendid endurance. Indeed, the only
signs of impatience seen among the troops were the outcome of an
eager desire to be led out against the enemy, that they might get
some satisfaction for the losses and annoyance to which they had
been subjected from the long-range fire of Boer artillery.

Now, however, the regulars, who had long been ready for any
service, in view of the brilliant performance of the irregulars,
regarded inaction as a slur upon their particular regiments. The
feeling resulted in a second attempt being made, this time to
destroy the enemy's big gun on Surprise Hill. Though it failed to
win an equal success, it was a hardly less brilliant performance,
and forms another engrossing page in Mr. Pearse's story. Writing on
11th December, he thus describes the enterprise from its inception:--

Lieut.-Colonel Metcalfe of the 2nd Rifle Brigade gave expression
yesterday to a general desire that the regulars should be allowed a
chance to prove their mettle, by sending to Sir George White a request
that his battalion might be allowed to attack the Boer position on
Surprise Hill and silence the howitzer there. This request had to be
sanctioned by Brigadier-General Howard, who, as an old Rifle Brigade
officer, was nothing loth to add strong reason