or the purpose of reestablishing
communication with the town, but the train had to return without
accomplishing its mission. In spite of this, the proprietor of a hotel
in Ladysmith very cleverly managed to travel from the beleaguered town
to Estcourt without being captured by the Boers. He made a detour along
Kaffir paths in order to elude the Boer outposts, riding all night and
arriving at his destination unharmed. At that time, as may be imagined,
the investment of Ladysmith was almost complete. The enemy's big guns
dominated the town east, north, and west, "Long Tom" pursuing its
annoying and disquieting vocation with intermittent vigour. Most of the
people had now quitted their homes and were taking refuge in the caves
before described, while the shops, in default of customers, were closed.
The convent, which was occupied by nuns together with the wounded, was
struck by a shell, but happily without injury to its inmates. The
neutrals betook themselves to a camp under Mount Umbulwana, which some
inventive person appropriately christened "Funkumdorf," but there some
plucky women and children refused to go, preferring to cast in their lot
with the valiant defenders of the little town. At this time people and
horses were still in good condition and spirits; the military
inhabitants amused themselves with polo and cricket, as though there was
no chance of being bowled out by "Long Tom," while the ladies gave
little concerts for the amusement of the select circle. So great was the
pluck of this little community, that they even edited a paper called the
_Ladysmith Lyre_, a species of Transvaal edition of _Truth_, which, if
not _vero_, was certainly _ben trovato_.

A new instance of the Boers' treachery soon took place. They sent in
under a flag of truce a number of refugees from the Transvaal. They were
met outside the pickets by a flag of truce from Ladysmith, but no sooner
had the parties separated, and before the British could reach the
pickets, than the Boers fired upon them. These continued breaches of the
laws of civilised warfare continued to exasperate the troops, who,
whenever they got a chance, naturally tried to wipe off old scores.

On the 9th November, the King's Royal Rifles and the Rifle Brigade in
the north, and the Manchester Regiment in the south, succeeded in
repelling two simultaneous attacks, inflicting on the Boers a loss
roughly estimated at about 700 to 1000. A deep trench which had been
made by t