on their nerves, become so accustomed to the hurtling of huge
projectiles through the air that they show no sign of fear when danger
is close to them. Women are often braver than men in these
circumstances. There is one whose courageous example alone keeps native
servants and coolie waiters at their posts, but she, when little more
than a child, saw some of the horrors of the Zulu War, and she speaks
with pride of her father as one of the few farmers who, refusing to quit
their homes, kept wives and families about them, and fought like heroes
in defence of all they held dear.

Not all in Ladysmith are of this heroic temper, but very few make open
parade of fear if they have any, and though precautions are taken
against exposure to unnecessary risks, there is no sign of panic yet.
Soldiers, every one of whom may be very valuable as a fighting unit
before this siege closes, are ordered to protect themselves by such
shelter trenches or bomb-proofs as can be constructed out of loose
stones, sandbags, forage bales, or other material that lies ready at
hand. The works have to be built under shell-fire, but when finished
they will be an inestimable advantage to regiments that occupy day and
night hill-crests where they might be enfiladed by long-range artillery
fire. That risk must, of course, be taken if the enemy's riflemen should
harden their hearts for a determined frontal attack upon any position
supported by flank fire from guns, but until such a critical moment
arrives the men not actually on duty as sentries or outlying pickets
will be little harassed by bursting shells or flying splinters or
showers of shrapnel bullets, if they dig themselves good pits to lie in,
with sufficiently thick coverings overhead.

The 1st Devon battalion, which, as one of the best here, and trusted for
its steadiness in all circumstances, was given the most vulnerable point
to hold, has busied itself in the formation of works that promise to
make Helpmakaar Hill impregnable, though its long, low spur is exposed
to artillery fire from Bulwaan and Lombard's Kop and the scrub-screened
nek between them. The works there show what can be done under
difficulties by a good regiment toiling cheerfully to carry out the
orders of good officers. The original breastworks were traced by
engineers who had in view rather the necessity of throwing up light
defences against rifle fire than the probability that these works would
be battered at by heavy artill