the Boers had made, the repulse of which, at the beginning of the siege, undoubtedly saved the town.  From there we looked through the telescope at “Creechy,” whose every movement could be watched from this point of vantage, and whose wickedly shining barrel was on the “day of rest” modestly pointed to the ground.  Returning, we rode through the native stadt, quite the most picturesque part of Mafeking, where the trim, thatched, beaver-shaped huts, surrounded by mud walls, enclosing the little gardens and some really good-sized trees, appeared to have suffered but little damage from the bombardment, in spite of the Boers having specially directed their fire against the inhabitants (the Baralongs), who were old opponents of theirs.  These natives were only armed by the authorities when the invaders specially selected them for their artillery fire and made raids on their cattle.  The variety and sizes of these arms were really laughable.  Some niggers had old-fashioned Sniders, others elephant guns, and the remainder weapons with enormously long barrels, which looked as if they dated back to Waterloo.  To their owners, however, the maker or the epoch of the weapon mattered little.  They were proud men, and stalked gravely along the streets with their precious rifles, evidently feeling such a sense of security as they had never experienced before.

On the Sunday I alluded to, after our ride we attended morning service, held as usual in the neat little church, which, with the exception of a few gashes in the ceiling rafters, caused by fragments of shell, had up to date escaped serious injury.  The Dutch Church, on the other hand, curiously enough, was almost demolished by shell-fire at the beginning of the siege.  We then drove up to the hospital, where Miss Hill, the plucky and youthful-looking matron, received us and showed us round.  This girl—­for she was little more—­had been the life and prop of the place for the past two months, during which time the resources of the little hospital had been taxed almost past belief.  Where twenty was the usual number of patients, there were actually sixty-four on the occasion of my first visit.  The staff was composed of only a matron and three trained nurses.  In addition to their anxieties for the patients, who were being so frequently brought in with the most terrible injuries, these nurses underwent considerable risks from the bombardment, which, no doubt from accident, had been all along directed to the vicinity of the hospital and convent, which lay close together.  The latter had temporarily been abandoned by the nuns, who were living in an adjacent bomb-proof, and the former had not escaped without having a shell through one of the wards, at the very time a serious operation was taking place.  By a miraculous dispensation no patient was injured, but a woman, who had been previously wounded by a Mauser bullet while in the laager, died of fright.