gain we turned our faces to beleaguered
Ladysmith, having collected, in all, two killed and fifteen wounded
men, many of them badly hurt, poor fellows.

'The two following days were unusually quiet, and on the Sunday I
was enabled to hold four services, which were very well attended,
and to us all seasons of rich blessing. But on Sunday night the
Rifle Brigade made an attack upon Surprise Hill, capturing a gun
that for weeks past had been worrying us considerably, and blowing
it into fragments in the air. The attack was well planned, and
would have resulted in very small loss to us, only in blowing up
the gun the first fuse used proved defective, and another train had
to be laid, thus causing a delay of over ten valuable minutes. The
result was that the Boers had time to turn out in force from a
neighbouring laager, and were waiting to receive our men as they
came down the hill. Then ensued a scene of indescribable
confusion; in the darkness it was impossible to distinguish friend
from foe, and the shouts of our men were answered in English by the
enemy, thus making the confusion a hundred times worse. One who was
present told me that it was the most terrible experience of his
life. They came down the hill between a lane of blazing rifles,
sometimes the flash not being more than five yards from them. Few
ever expected to get out alive, but the men behaved splendidly,
charging with the bayonet again and again, and when at last the
foot of the hill was reached asking their Colonel (Lieut.-Colonel
Metcalfe) for permission to charge again.

=Within the Boer Lines.=

'Of course, as soon as it was light the doctors of the Bearer
Company, with dhoolies, were out to seek amongst the rocks for the
wounded and the slain, and it was not long before I was on my way
to join them. But on reaching our outpost on Observation Hill I was
told that the Boers were so infuriated at the loss of another gun
that they had taken the doctors prisoners and were going to send
them to Pretoria. But just at that moment a native came in with a
note from the senior medical officer, asking that surgical
necessaries be sent at once, for many of the wounded were seriously
hurt. After much parley through the telephone with head-quarters,
it was at last decided that the things be