aim and far-reaching effect, as if to disprove
all the theories that led to the error of abandoning that position.

This morning fallacious prophecies were further shattered by a shell
from works placed far back on the table top of Bulwaan. It did not
demolish anything else, but it makes us very chary now about predicting
what the Boers can or cannot do. Through telescopes they had been
watched building that strong fort, and everybody knew it was being
thrown up as an emplacement for heavy artillery, yet few people thought
that another gun, akin to "Long Tom" in calibre and range, could have
been mounted there so soon, until they saw the dense cloud of smoke from
a black powder charge, and heard the familiar gurgling screech of a big
shell, followed by the thundering report.

"Puffing Billy" was the appropriate name bestowed on this new enemy by
Colonel Rhodes, who has an amusing faculty for applying quaintly
descriptive phrases to every fresh development in this state of siege. I
am told on high authority that the word "siege" is not quite applicable
to our case here, but if the Boers are not sitting down before Ladysmith
in a very leisurely way, intent upon keeping us under bombardment as
long as they may choose to stay, I do not know the meaning of such
movements. It was we who provoked "Puffing Billy" to his first angry
roar by a trial shot from one of our big naval guns into the Bulwaan
battery. "Long Tom" presently joined in the chorus, and it took our two
4.7 quick-firers all their time to keep down that cross-fire. Though
"Lady Anne's" twin-sister had been mounted some days, her voice was
seldom heard, until this morning, when, after a few rounds, "Long Tom"
paid silent homage to her sway, and in celebration of that temporary
knock-out, Captain Lambton christened his new pet "Princess Victoria,"
but the bluejackets called it by another name, to indicate their faith
in its destructive effect.

It was interesting to watch these weapons at work. Their gunners would
wait until they saw a flash from "Long Tom" or "Puffing Billy" and then
fire, their shells getting home first by two or three seconds, owing to
the greater velocity imparted by cordite charges. Soon after ten o'clock
the enemy's artillery fire from different directions grew brisker. The
damage, whatever it may have been, inflicted on "Long Tom," or his crew,
having been made good under cover of a white flag, which the Boers seem
to think they are at li