the finish in possession of its own position,
but on us who watched every phase, first with confidence and then with
increasing anxiety, the impression made was a very unpleasant one,
closely akin to humiliation.

The Boers were left in command of heights on which, if given time, they
may plant artillery to shell the town and camp with a fire to which we
can make no effective reply until the quick-firing naval guns of heavy
calibre and long range are mounted. Bluejackets have been working hard
to that end all day, unmolested by the enemy, who have declared a truce
for twenty-four hours in order that the wounded of both sides may be
placed in comparative safety.

General Joubert has sent to us an ambulance with wounded under parole
from the captured column, and in exchange his surgeons have taken a
similar number of Boer wounded from our hospitals. All who have come in
speak highly of the treatment they have received at the enemy's hands.

CHAPTER III

LADYSMITH INVESTED

The exodus of the townsfolk--Communications threatened--Slim Piet
Joubert--Espionage in the town--Neglected precautions--A truce that
paid--British positions described--Big guns face to face--Boers
hold the railways--French's reconnaissance--The General's
flitting--A gauntlet of fire--An interrupted telegram--Death of
Lieutenant Egerton--"My cricketing days are over"--Under the
enemy's guns--"A shell in my room"--Colonials in action--The
sacrifice of valuable lives.

October closed without further hostilities, and its last day was
uneventful in a military sense, though full of forebodings in the
town, because all knew that the Boers were taking advantage of a
brief armistice to bring up reinforcements. On this last day of the
month civilians eager to get away from Ladysmith crowded every
train. Writing on November 1st, Mr. Pearse said:--

All Saints' Day is observed with some strictness by Boers who do not
show similar veneration for other festivals in the Church Calendar.
There have at any rate been no hostilities to-day, but from Captain
Lambton's Battery on Junction Hill, where the naval 4.7-inch
quick-firing gun is being mounted, we have by the aid of the signalman's
powerful telescope watched a significant Boer movement going on for
hours. We can see them among the scrubby trees between Lombard's Kop and
Umbulwaana (or Bulwaan as it is more generally called), an