night before, nor did I see them under fire at any part of the day.
Thus ended our brief battle, and only those who took part in it can
tell the bitterness of having to retreat, utterly routed and
defeated as we were."

THE SIEGE OF PRETORIA

As may be remembered, Sir Owen Lanyon's proclamation announcing
martial law was read, and the town handed over to the military
government. Colonel Gildea (introduced by Colonel Bellairs) acted as
Commandant of the Garrison, Major F. Mesurier, R.E., was in charge
of the Infantry Volunteers, and Captain Campbell, 94th Regiment,
filled the post of Provost-Marshal. Sympathisers with the Boers were
ordered to leave the place on pain of being handed over to the
Provost-Marshal to be dealt with by military law.

It was decided to evacuate the town, and form two laagers, one at
the camp, and one between the Roman Catholic church and the jail. In
the camp the women and children were to be placed, while the
Infantry Volunteers garrisoned the convent laager. Within the
convent, women and children were packed tightly as sardines, while
the nuns turned out on errands of mercy. All night and all day,
scarcely stopping to eat a mouthful, men worked, sandbagging windows
and doors--building barricades and defences of various kinds.
Waggons were sent round to gather all families within the shelter of
the camp. Rich and poor, good and bad, some 4000 souls, were herded
together in tents for their protection. Here they remained for three
months, enduring hardships of the most variegated and worrying kind,
and loyally waiting for the relieving column that never came.

Descriptions of the rations served out to each man daily are not
appetising: Bread, 1-1/4 lb., or biscuit, 1 lb.; coffee, 2/3 oz.;
sugar, 2-1/2 oz.; meat, 1-1/4 lb.; tea, 1/6 oz.; and salt, 1/2 oz.
These were reduced as the siege proceeded. The meat was _trek_ beef,
a leathery substitute for steak, and the biscuits were veterans,
having "served" in the Zulu and Sekukuni campaigns, and now being
nothing better than a swarm of weevils. Life in Pretoria was
enlivened by occasional sorties against the Boer laagers, where the
enemy was supposed to number some 800 strong. The laagers were
distributed at distances of four and eight miles from the town, and
were connected by a system of patrolling, which rendered
communication from within or without almost impossible. A few
messengers (natives) occasionally came into the t