_December 9, 1899._

The Dutch left us pretty much alone. Sickness is becoming serious. The
cases average thirty a day, chiefly enteric. A Natal newspaper only a
week old was brought in by a runner. It contained a few details of
Methuen's fight on Modder River, but hardly any English news. Captain
Heath, of the balloon, told me he could see the Boers concentrating in
much larger camps than before, especially about Colenso and at
Springfield further up the Tugela.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL

_Sunday, December 10, 1899._

Just as we were lazily washing our clothes and otherwise enjoying the
Sabbath rest and security at about eight in the morning, "Puffing
Billy," of Bulwan, began breaking the Fourth Commandment with
extraordinary recklessness and rapidity. He sent nine of his shells into
the town, as fast as he could fire them. "Bloody Mary" flung two over
his head and one into his earthwork, but he paid no attention to her
protests. The fact was, the 5th Dragoon Guards, trusting to Boer
principles, had left their horses fully exposed to view instead of
leading them away under cover as usual at sunrise. The gunners, probably
Germans, thought this was presuming too much on their devotion to the
Old Testament, and set their scruples aside for twenty minutes under
the paramount duty of slaughtering men and horses. Happily no serious
harm was done, and the rest of the day was as quiet as Sunday usually
is.

On our side we were engaged all day in preparing a new home for "Lady
Anne" on Waggon Hill, south-west of the town. The position, as I have
often described, gives a splendid view of the country towards Basutoland
and the Free State mountains. It also commands some four miles of the
Maritzburg road towards Colenso and the guns which the Boers have set up
there to check the approach of a relieving force. By late afternoon the
enormous sangar was almost finished. The gun will be carried over on a
waggon at night. I watched the work in progress from Rifleman's Post, an
important outpost and fort, held by the 2nd K.R.R. (60th). It also
commands the beginning of the Maritzburg road, where it passes across
the "Long Valley," between Range Post and Bluebank.

The doctors and ambulance men who went out after the brief cavalry
action on Friday morning report they were fired on while carrying the
dead and wounded in the dhoolies. The Boers retaliate with a similar
charge against us in Modder R