and exploding in close proximity to our hospital.  The Red Cross flag had four bullet-holes.  Two of the mules, standing in harness and attached to one of our ambulance wagons, were killed.  The operating tent, in which Dr. Smyth was attending to a wounded man, had two bullet-holes through it.  One tent had four bullet-holes.  Part of the seat of one of our ambulance baggage wagons had the red cross on its right side cut clean away by a shell.  Pieces of shell struck the wheels of our ambulance wagon, and one of our Cape Medical Staff Corps was slightly wounded in the foot by a segment of a shell while close to the ambulance wagon.  We had one mule whilst in harness cut in two by a shell and three mules wounded, so that they had to be shot.  One mule was shot while tied to an ambulance wagon bearing the red cross; shrapnel and common shell were fired.  It was considered absolutely necessary to cast up a parapet as a protection from the shot and shell fire, and we all threw off our coats, and with pick and shovel worked away until about midnight casting up earthworks.

[Illustration:  SOLDIERS’ HOME ON THE FIELD.]

’The firing ceased at dusk.  The men slept in their positions in the ridges, and without either food or water.  At eight p.m., hearing that Captain Kelly was slightly wounded in the head, we scaled the heights, and took him and some of his men a little water; but it was very little.  Still he seemed grateful.  He would not leave his men, but slept with them on the ridges.  In stumbling over boulders amongst the bushes on the ridges, whom should I meet but the Earl of Rosslyn, who had escaped from the Boer lines, and had come into our camp in the afternoon.  He had rather a rough time of it, for our men, not knowing who he was, and mistaking him for an enemy, fired upon him, but fortunately without effect.  He very kindly told me that I might sleep in his buggy, which was near the ambulance party.  However, I did not avail myself of his kind offer, but slept near the trenches.  Captain Tennant, R.A., our Intelligence officer, came down from the fighting lines at night, and said to the five Dutch prisoners whom our mounted infantry had captured the day before, “You now see how your own men are firing upon our hospital, and if you are killed or hurt it will be by the shells of your own people, and not by ours.”  They saw at once the perilous position they were in, and asked for permission to dig a trench for themselves, which was granted.  The natives also followed suit, and digged one for themselves.

’We were not molested during the night, but the battle was resumed the next morning (Wednesday, the 4th), and was fiercer than ever, until at last it was evident that the position was taken, and we surrendered at nine o’clock a.m.  The enemy immediately galloped in, tore down the Union Jack, which they burnt, disarmed our men, and marched them off as quickly as they could in a column five or six deep.  They