inters tearing through the air, sometimes just
over one's head, like the crack of a very long whip, manipulated by a
master-hand. The smallest piece of one of these fragments was sufficient
to kill a man, and scarcely anyone wounded with a shell ever seemed to
survive, the wounds being nearly always terribly severe, and their
poison occasioning gangrene to set in. There were many comic as well as
tragic incidents connected with the shells of the big gun. A monkey
belonging to the post-office, who generally spent the day on the top of
a pole to which he was chained, would, on hearing the alarm-bell,
rapidly descend from his perch, and, in imitation of the human beings
whom he saw taking shelter, quickly pop under a large empty biscuit-tin.
Dogs also played a great part in the siege. One, belonging to the
Base-Commandant, was wounded no less than three times; a rough Irish
terrier accompanied the Protectorate Regiment in all its engagements;
and a third amused itself by running after the small Maxim shells,
barking loudly, and trying to retrieve pieces. On the other hand, the
Resident Commissioner's dog was a prudent animal, and whenever she heard
the alarm-bell, she would leave even her dinner half eaten, and bolt
down her master's bomb-proof. On one occasion I remember being amused at
seeing a nigger, working on the opposite side of the road, hold up a
spade over his head like an umbrella as the missile came flashing by,
while a fellow-workman crawled under a large tarpaulin that was
stretched on the ground. These natives always displayed the most
astonishing sang-froid. One day we saw a funny scene on the occasion of
a Kaffir wedding, when the bridegroom was most correctly attired in
morning-dress and an old top-hat. Over his frock-coat he wore his
bandolier, and carried a rifle on his shoulder; the bride, swathed in a
long white veil from head to foot, walked by his side, and was followed
by two young ladies in festive array, while the procession was brought
up by more niggers, armed, like the bridegroom, to the teeth. The party
solemnly paraded the streets for fully half an hour, in no wise
disconcerted by a pretty lively shelling and the ring of the Mausers on
the corrugated iron roofs.

Quite as disagreeable as "Creechy," although less noisy, was the enemy's
1-pound Maxim. A very loud hammering, quickly repeated, and almost
simultaneously a whirring in the air, followed by four quick explosions,
and then we knew th