but somehow the ill tidings had
travelled fast and with more fulness of detail than the Intelligence
Department thought fit to divulge. There has been gloom over Ladysmith
to-day, which blazing sunshine cannot dispel, and Colonials in their
anger use strong language, for which a temperature of 107 deg. in the shade
may be in some measure accountable.

Mr. Pearse's notes for the next few days are mainly devoted to the
bombardment, which now became hotter and more persistent than ever,
their success at the Tugela having inspired the enemy with new
hopes of reducing the town. On Monday the 18th

the shelling began at daybreak, and lasted with little intermission
until nearly dark from Boer guns all round our positions. Bulwaan began
by throwing a shrapnel, which burst low over the camp of Natal
Carabineers when the men were at morning stables. Four of them were
killed, seven wounded, and a private of the Royal Engineers so badly hit
that he lingered only a few hours. The same shell killed eleven horses
in the Carabineer lines. In the town many people had narrow escapes when
Bulwaan's 6-inch Creusot swept round, bringing its fire to bear with
destructive effect on several prominent houses. One man lying in bed had
a shell pass over him from head to foot within a few inches of his body.
It burst on striking the floor, and well-nigh stifled him with dust and
sulphurous fumes. When Bulwaan ceased Telegraph Hill began throwing
shells even to the Manchester sangars on Caesar's Camp, wounding three or
four men, and one private of that regiment was killed by a Pom-Pom shot
from the ridge beyond Bester's Farm.

On the following day, an hour after dawn, the shelling became hot about
headquarters, then, however, changed its direction nearer to Captain
Vallentin's house, in which Colonel Rhodes was generally found about
breakfast, lunch, and dinner-time as a member of the 7th Brigade mess.
Later the Police Station, or some building near it, seemed to have a
curious fascination for the gunners of Bulwaan. They dropped shells now
in front, then in rear, of the Court-house, but always in the same line,
so that, for half an hour or so, Colonel Dartnell and his men had a warm
time. One of their tents was hit, but luckily nobody happened to be in
it at that moment. On Wednesday the 20th, too, one of the first shells
from Bulwaan burst close to the Police Camp after passing through a row
of slender trees and along the