rity were in the habit of asserting.

There was a good deal of musketry fire whilst the scouts were out, and
it was supposed that shots were being exchanged with the Boer snipers;
but when the marksmen, who were posted on the hills near the Orange Free
State Junction Station and just above the abandoned piggery, came back
with portions of the carcasses of pigs, it was evident that all the
firing had not been at Transvaal Boers.

Lieutenant Price-Dent died at 6 a.m. on the 31st December in the Intombi
Hospital. It was found that a piece of shell had penetrated his brain
and lodged there. He was buried in the Intombi cemetery.

Up to the end of December things had been going fairly well with the
besieged. The Regiment had had plenty of hard work to keep them fit,
although they had been exposed to the elements and had had to rough it
considerably. But nothing in the way of disease had troubled them. With
the advent of January, however, whether it was from want of exercise or
from the surroundings of their new camp, disease in the form of fever
and dysentery became rife. They had been situated formerly for the most
part on a well-drained kopje, whereas now they were down on the flat,
and in a position that was not altogether healthy. There were no longer
any comforts in the shape of tobacco, etc., and the news given to them
from the outside world in the place of food was of so poor a quality
that the men's minds as well as their bodies were becoming affected.

The Regiment kept heart under the depressing circumstances in a
wonderful manner, and when Sir Redvers Buller kept putting off his
arrival from day to day and week to week, the news that he was coming at
last was generally received with a smile as if it was rather a joke.

The Boers were very busy on New Year's Day, 1900. It was supposed that a
number of excursion trains filled with the youth and beauty of the
Transvaal had arrived, and consequently the young Boer blood was all for
showing off. The big gun on Bulwana threw in the aggregate during the
day 1-1/2 tons of iron into the town, with the result that two men were
killed. There was likewise a good deal of sniping, chiefly at the Indian
"grass cuts."

One shell thrown into Ladysmith on New Year's Day had engraved on it
"Compliments of the season," and contained a bursting charge of
liquorice in the place of melinite, and a paper on which was written:--

"Good morning Mr. Franchise, don't be so
cow