the people—­huddled away in holes—­contained intelligence of the deaths of a well-known lady and her infant child; they had been struck down as they emerged from their shelter for a breath of fresh air.  In Woodly Street a huge missile went clean through the roof of a house, shot past the heads of a lady and gentleman seated on the stoep, fell on a soft patch in front of the door, and burst with a deafening thud five feet under ground.  With the aid of a pick and shovel the fragments were exhumed and pieced together in the presence of the pallid spectators; and had the next shell fallen on or near the same spot (as sometimes happened) the results would have been more calamitous.  Many persons had an idea that they were safer in the streets than in houses where the additional danger of flying furniture was ever present.  Several exciting escapes were witnessed in the Market Square, and shells fell thickly in the vicinity of the fire station.  A telephone pole had a semi-lunar lump neatly cut out by a passing missile.  With undiminished fury the bombardment proceeded, battering down walls and gables, and filling hearts with a desire, a longing for vengeance, to be duly indulged when the fates were propitious.

It was growing late on this tragic Friday when a profound sensation was caused by a rumour which excited universal awe.  George Labram had been killed by a shell at the Grand Hotel.  It sounded incredible, so improbable and astounding, that he of all others, he who had achieved greatness in adverse circumstances by constructing a large gun, the famous Long Cecil—­that he should be a victim.  Labram dead!  Was it a fabrication?  Alas! no; it was true; a sad, a lurid incident, hardly needed to mark the day memorable.  There was a pathetic strangeness in the fatality that gave rise to philosophic reflections.

Emboldened by a conviction that we should presently be glad to supplicate for food and quarter, the enemy relaxed not their energy.  It must not be supposed that our guns were idle all this time.  Long Cecil plied pluckily to hit back, and succeeded in frustrating the ambitious efforts of the Boers to draw their guns still nearer.  They were rather too close as things were, however, and with the aid of the Maxims we successfully besought the enemy to fling away ambition.  To that limited extent we defeated Boer designs.  Lord Methuen’s sympathetic coughs in the bed of the Orange River were heard at intervals throughout the day, the long, enervating day which did terminate at last.  Worn out by its trials though we were, sleep was not easily coaxed to weigh our eyelids down; like other “necessaries,” it was rare indeed.