llowing
them to know when it was safe for them to seek their homes and their
beds. There was a general feeling of relief when "Creechy" had boomed
her bloodthirsty "Good-night." Only once during the whole siege was she
fired in the small hours of the morning, and that was on Dingaan's Day
(December 16), when she terrified the sleeping town by beginning her
day's work at 2.30 a.m., followed by a regular bombardment from all the
other guns in chorus, to celebrate the anniversary of the great Boer
victory over the Zulus many years ago. Frequent, however, were the
volleys from the trenches that suddenly broke the tranquillity of the
early night, and startling were they in their apparent nearness till one
got accustomed to them. At first I thought the enemy must be firing in
the streets, so loud were the reports, owing to the atmosphere and the
wind setting in a particular direction. The cause of these volleys was
more difficult to discover, and, as our men never replied, it seemed
somewhat of a waste of ammunition. Their original cause was a sortie
early in the siege, when Captain Fitzclarence made a night attack with
the bayonet on their trenches. Ever afterwards an animal moving on the
veldt, a tree or bush stirred by the wind, an unusual light in the town,
was sufficient for volley after volley to be poured at imaginary foes.
By nine o'clock these excitements were usually over, and half an hour
afterwards nearly every soul not on duty was asleep, secure in the
feeling that for every one who reposed two were on watch; while, as
regards Colonel Baden-Powell, he was always prowling about, and the
natives revived his old Matabele nickname of "the man that walks by
night."

CHAPTER XI

LIFE IN A BESIEGED TOWN

"There is a reaper whose name is Death."--LONGFELLOW.

We celebrated Christmas Day, 1899, by a festive luncheon-party to which
Colonel Baden-Powell and all his Staff were invited. By a strange and
fortunate coincidence, a turkey had been overlooked by Mr. Weil when the
Government commandeered all live-stock and food-stuffs at the
commencement of the siege, and, in spite of the grilling heat, we
completed our Christmas dinner by a real English plum-pudding. In the
afternoon a tea and Christmas-tree for the Dutch and English children
had been organized by some officers of the Protectorate Regiment.
Amongst those who contributed to the amusement of these poor little
white-faced things, on whom the cl