e had a little fuller information about Buller;
News about Sir Redvers Buller, and his famous Army Corps;
Information of the General and his fighting Army Corps.
Only this and nothing more!

And the midnight shells uncertain, whistling through the night's
black curtain,
Thrill us, fill us with a touch of horror never felt before.
So to still the beating of our hearts, we kept repeating
"Some late visitor entreating entrance at the chamber door,
This it is; and nothing more!"

Oh how slow the shells come dropping, sometimes bursting, sometimes
stopping,
As though themselves were weary of this very languid war.
How distinctly we'll remember all the weary dull November;
And it seems as if December will have little else in store;
And our Christmas dinner will be bully beef and plain stickfast.
Only this and nothing more!

Letham, Letham, tell us truly if there's any news come newly;
Not the old fantastic rumours we have often heard before:--
Desolate yet all undaunted! Is the town by Boers still haunted?
This is all the news that's wanted--tell us truly we implore--
Is there, _is there_ a relief force? Tell us, tell us, we implore!
Only this and nothing more.

For we're waiting rather weary! Is there such a man as Clery?
Shall we ever see our wives and mothers, or our sisters and our brothers?
Shall we ever see those others, who went southwards long before?
Shall we ever taste fresh butter? Tell us, tell us, we implore!
We are answered--nevermore!

When twenty months later the Scots Guards again found themselves in
Pretoria they too began dolorously to enquire, "Shall we ever see our
wives and mothers, or our sisters and our brothers?" But meanwhile
much occurred of which the following chapters are a brief record.

CHAPTER XI

FROM PRETORIA TO BELFAST

On reaching Pretoria, almost unopposed, our Guardsmen jumped to the
hasty and quite unjustifiable conclusion that the campaign was
closing, and that in the course of about another fortnight some of us
would be on our homeward way. They forgot that after a candle has
burned down into its socket it may still flare and flicker wearisomely
long before it finally goes out. War lights just such a candle, and no
extinguisher has yet been patented for the instant quenching o