to our waggon.
They have just placed two shells, one fifty yards in front of it, and
the other fifty yards behind; one of them burst on impact, the other
didn't. The progress of a shell sounds far off like the hum of a
mosquito, rising as it nears to a hoarse screech, and then "plump." We
mind them very little now. There is great competition for the
fragments, as "curios." It is cold, grey, and sunless today. Last
night there was heavy rain, and our blankets are wet still. It seems
the Boers are firing a Krupp at 7000 yards; our guns are only sighted
up to 5000 yards, but we have managed to reach them by sinking the
trail in the ground, and other devices.

_(12.30 P.M.)_--A long halt here, with nothing doing. The Boer gun has
ceased to fire, and we call it "silenced," possibly with truth, but
the causes of silence are never quite certain. As far as I can make
out, it was on the extreme left of their position, while our main
attack is threatening their centre. It is raining hard, but we have
made a roaring fire of what is the chief fuel in this country, dry
cow-dung, and have made cocoa in our mess-tins, from a tin sent me a
month ago; also soup, out of the scrapings of Maconochie tins.

----. What seemed likely to be a dull day turned out very exciting.
About two a staff officer came up with orders, and we marched down
from our kopje and attacked another one[A] (which I made out to be
their centre), taking up several positions in quick succession. The
Boers had a gun on the kopje, which we dislodged, and the infantry
took the position. (About 2.30 it began to rain again and poured all
the afternoon in cold, slashing torrents.) We finally went up the
kopje ourselves, over a shocking bit of rocky ground near the top,
fired on the retreating Boers from there, and then came down on the
other side. Soon afterwards came an old story. It was about five, and
had cleared up. A staff officer had said that there were no Boers
anywhere near now, and that we were to march on and bivouac. We and
the Munsters and some Yeomanry were marching down a valley, whose
flanks were supposed to have been scouted, the infantry in column of
companies, that is, in close formation, and all in apparent security.
Suddenly a storm of rifle-fire broke out from a ridge on our right
front and showed us we were ambushed. The Munsters were nearest to the
ridge, about 600 yards, I should say. We were a bit further off. I
heard a sort of hoarse murmur go u