e had thought in all seriousness, the traditional
sporting instincts of our race; and though it was not over-pleasing to
our traditional pride, the destruction of our dogmas had not been taken
to heart. Our faith in the invincibility of the British army had long
continued unshaken. The interval between the expiry of the period (of
three weeks) which with the collective wisdom of all the wizards we had
decreed to be a synonym for the Siege's duration, and the morning of the
pronouncement relative to the advance of the Column from Orange River,
had had its tedium neutralised by a cheerful vituperation of
Gladstone's defective statesmanship in the year of 'eighty-one and his
wicked efforts at a later date to "give Ireland away too." The move from
Orange River had occasioned general rejoicings. Unaccountable delay
ensued. One disappointment was followed by another. Anxiety began to
manifest itself. The dire stage of doubt was reached. Hunger, thirst,
and horseflesh succeeded in due order; until at last we saw:--

What shadows we are,
And what shadows we pursue.

We pursued them no longer--in the Siege sense. "All the pleasing
illusions, which make power gentle and obedience liberal," were gone.
The eating and the drinking were gone. Even the surreptitious read in
bed was but a relic of joy; the penalty of burning the candle at both
ends was being paid. To have a bath was a crime; a little water was
allowed for tea and soup _only_. Soda-water was the sole product of the
lemonade factories; but the quality of Adam's ale tasted worse and was
more suggestive of typhoid in that form than in any other. Made into tea
it was better, until the Military, with fears for the nerves of the
"Military Situation," indirectly curbed our excesses in the cup that
does _not_ inebriate. A proclamation was issued which actually went so
far as to establish by "Law" the number of ounces of fuel to be used by
householders! Expert landladies declared the number (six ounces)
insufficient; the cynical boarders said it was _too much_! The medical
men had been entreating us--vainly, for the most part--to boil the water
before drinking it in any form, and had proclaimed it inimical to
health in its raw state. But the "Military Situation," bless you! could
not be compromised by microbes, and if extravagance in fuel involved a
possibility so awful it had to be crushed with an uncompromising hand.

Such were the anomalies prevailing; taken in conj