her officer in this country about Boers and
their methods of fighting, and he has every thread of information at
command if he were allowed to use native scouts in his own way. He would
have made the best possible chief of an Intelligence Staff, but
unfortunately military etiquette or jealousy bars his employment in that
capacity. If his advice is asked for he gives it readily as at Dundee,
and though he has no authority to act in the way that would be most
congenial to his fearless and active nature, he is as ready as ever to
render a service when wanted. Some of us know too how much civilians
have been encouraged in their endurance of a long siege by Colonel
Dartnell's cheery example. Nothing disheartens him. He is always the
same whether the day's news be good or bad, and perhaps his
unostentatious services will be adequately recognised in the end. If
they had been taken advantage of in the beginning there would be fewer
blunders to regret.

To-day Colonel Stoneman had more than one narrow escape. Two shells
burst within splinter range of the office in which he and his assistants
have worked steadily at supply details since the bombardment began. A
third passed through the roof over that office after a ricochet, and
then, without bursting, rolled to the ground in front of a stoup where
several Army Service officers were sitting. That shell will be cherished
after extraction of its fuse and melinite charge. Fire from other Boer
guns proved more disastrous. Surprise Hill's howitzer threw one shell to
the little encampment behind Range Point, where it killed one man and
wounded four of the unfortunate Royal Irish Fusiliers.

But the time seems now ripe for larger events. On the following day
the Boers made their supreme attempt upon the defences of the town.
Their best and their bravest were pitted against the siege-worn
British soldier; but though they gained all the advantage of a
night surprise, though their fierce energy placed them at this
point and that several times within an inch of victory, they were
hurled back by a foeman whose determination was greater than their
own, and whose courage and spirit of self-sacrifice rose superior.

CHAPTER X

THE GREAT ASSAULT

Why the Boers attacked--Interesting versions--A general
surprise--Joubert's promise--Boer tactics reconsidered--Erroneous
estimates--Under cover of night--A bare-footed advance--The