ole scene is laid bare.
The Boer lines run in a great crescent along the hills. Tier above tier
of trenches have been scored along their sides, and the brown streaks
run across the grass of the open country south of the river. After tea
in the captain's cabin--I should say tent--Commander Limpus of the
'Terrible' kindly invited me to look through the telescope and mark the
fall of the shots.

The glass was one of great power, and I could plainly see the figures of
the Boers walking about in twos and threes, sitting on the embankments,
or shovelling away to heighten them. We selected one particular group
near a kraal, the range of which had been carefully noted, and the great
guns were slowly brought to bear on the unsuspecting target. I looked
through the spy-hole at the tiny picture--three dirty beehives for the
kraal, a long breastwork of newly thrown up earth, six or seven
miniature men gathered into a little bunch, two others skylarking on the
grass behind the trench, apparently engaged in a boxing match. Then I
turned to the guns. A naval officer craned along the seventeen-feet
barrel, peering through the telescopic sights. Another was pencilling
some calculations as to wind and light and other intricate details. The
crew, attentive, stood around. At last all was done. I looked back to
the enemy. The group was still intact. The boxers were still
playing--one had pushed the other down. A solitary horseman had also
come into the picture and was riding slowly across. The desire of murder
rose in my heart. Now for a bag! Bang! I jumped at least a foot,
disarranging the telescope, but there was plenty of time to reset it
while the shell was hissing and roaring its way through nearly five
miles of air. I found the kraal again and the group still there, but all
motionless and alert, like startled rabbits. Then they began to bob into
the earth, one after the other. Suddenly, in the middle of the kraal,
there appeared a huge flash, a billowy ball of smoke, and clouds of
dust. Bang! I jumped again; the second gun had fired. But before this
shell could reach the trenches a dozen little figures scampered away,
scattering in all directions. Evidently the first had not been without
effect. Yet when I turned the glass to another part of the defences the
Boers were working away stolidly, and only those near the explosion
showed any signs of disturbance.

The bombardment continued for half an hour, the shells being flung
sometime