here we could plainly see large bodies of the enemy,
evidently resting, and camping in some beautifully wooded, shady country
about three or four miles away. Apparently something had gone wrong
somewhere. While the Northern Army marched some nine or ten miles in that
awful heat, their enemies had probably not done more than three or four
miles. But the Northern Army had won the day. It had also been arranged
that--no matter which side did win the battle that day, on the next
morning the Northern Army was to retire again, fighting a rear-guard
action. Lord Wolseley was by no means pleased with the day's work. It was
reported that after listening at the usual pow-wow to what the officer
commanding the Southern Army, Buller, had to say about the movements of
his troops during the day, he expressed his opinions in fairly forcible
terms.

Operations were to commence again at six o'clock the next morning. A few
captive balloons were being used for observation purposes by both sides.
It was presumed that the Southern Army would take the opportunity, after
the comparative rest of the day before, of showing their mettle, and a
fairly ding-dong fight was expected. So we were early in the field, back
to the old ridge on the Downs, where the battle had ceased the day
before. We were not disappointed.

I personally spent some unprofitable hours up in the air. One of the
captive balloons, in charge of an engineer officer, was just being
prepared ready to ascend when the officer, whom I knew well, invited me
to go up with him. I handed my horse to the orderly and jumped into the
basket, and we were soon up some hundreds of feet in the air. It was an
interesting sight to see the southern force making its way to the attack
through the valleys between the ridges. It was not pleasing to notice a
half-squadron of cavalry suddenly emerge from under cover of a farm near
by and charge straight for the wagon of our captive balloon. I wondered
what was going to happen. Could the wagon get away out of reach in time?
It didn't seem possible. My host had no intention of being captured; he
cut off the balloon from the wagon, which was duly taken. The day turned
out as hot as the day before. There was hardly a breath of air and our
balloon hung poised over the enemy's troops now passing under it. If we
came down we would, of course, fall into their hands as prisoners. My
host was determined not to be caught and refused to come down. A couple
of bat