n listened to for a moment
by some generals, but Sir George White, being anxious apparently to
propitiate an enemy whose guns commanded the town, full as it was of
helpless women and children, yielded that point, and so the ambulance
with its swaggering Boer escort came into town neither blindfolded nor
under any military restrictions whatever. Among this mounted escort
Ladysmith people recognised several well-known burghers, who were
certainly not doctors or otherwise specially qualified for attendance on
wounded men. They were free to move about the town, to talk with Boer
prisoners, and to drink at public bars with suspected Boer
sympathisers--all this while they probably picked up many interesting
items as to the number of troops in Ladysmith, the position of ordnance
stores and magazines, and the general state of our defences, which were
chaotic at that moment. One among the visitors was particularly curious
about the names of officers who dined habitually at the Royal Hotel
mess, and very anxious to have such celebrities as Colonel Frank Rhodes,
Dr. Jameson, and Sir John Willoughby pointed out to him. Does anybody in
his senses believe that such careful inquiries were made without an
object, or that the Red Cross badge was regarded as a sacred symbol
sealing the lips of a Boer as to all he had seen and heard in Ladysmith?

When Joubert's artillery began shelling the town their fire was directed
on important stores, the locality of which could only have been
indicated to them by secret agents, and on places where officers are
known to assemble at certain hours. These may all have been merely
strange coincidences, but, at any rate, they are noteworthy as showing
that in some way, whether by accident or cunning design, General
Joubert's gunners were able to profit by the truce that was agreed upon
without any exact stipulation on either side as to its duration. The
tacit understanding seems to have been that both forces should have time
to collect their wounded and bury their dead.

It is certain that the Boers took a little more time than was necessary
for this purpose, and turned it to good use for themselves by
strengthening the earthworks behind which "Long Tom" is mounted, while
we in turn were enabled to get a second naval gun of heavy calibre into
position before the bombardment began again. The necessity for doing
this was probably chief among reasons which kept our artillery silent
during the last two days,