February 27.—­Majuba Day.  We expected the Boers to celebrate it at daybreak or before by a salute of shotted guns, but they are silent, apparently watching as we watch, and awaiting the issue of events elsewhere.  We know that a fierce fight is raging not twelve miles distant.  The thuds of big guns are frequent, we hear the booming of field artillery in salvos, and the shrill ripple of rifles is almost incessant.  But our view is narrowed by hills, and we can only see shells bursting on the crests of Grobelaar’s Kloof and about flat-topped Table Hill.  From their commanding position on Bulwaan the Boers can overlook Pieter’s Station to the earthworks that girdle Grobelaar’s Kloof, and part of the road by which our troops must advance from Colenso if they advance at all.  Noon passed without any Majuba Day salute, but an hour later Bulwaan battery fired twelve shots up Bester’s Valley at cattle and men cutting grass, then turned to shell Cove Ridge and Observation Hill, on which one of Captain Christie’s howitzers had been mounted during the night.  Thus they made up a salute of twenty-one guns.  “Puffing Billy” seemed bent on showing what he could do.  Three shells burst near where I stood, on the extreme western shoulder of Observation Hill, just missing the howitzer, and one went far beyond the longest range yet reached by any of the enemy’s Creusots.  For a long time I watched Boer movements, and saw their waggons hurrying back in some confusion from the Helpmakaar road across Conrad Pieter’s farm towards Elandslaagte.

At night came a signal from General Buller, “Doing well,” followed by a longer message announcing that Cronje was a prisoner in Lord Roberts’s camp, having surrendered with all his army unconditionally this morning.  Hurrahs are ringing through every camp at this news.  Majuba Day has brought glad tidings to us after all!

February 28.—­The fortune of war is on our side now.  Every sign points to that conclusion.  Ladysmith was alarmed soon after midnight by what seemed to civilians the beginning of another attack.  Rifles rang out sharply round the whole of our positions.  The furious outburst began on Gun Hill.  Surprise Hill took it up.  It ran along the dongas in which Boer pickets lie hidden, and was carried on to the south beyond Bester’s Valley.  Our troops did not fire a shot, but still the fusillade continued for half an hour.  The Boers were evidently in a state of nervous excitement, brought on by nothing more formidable than twelve men of the Gloucesters who, under Lieutenant Thesbit, had gone out to destroy a laager at the foot of Limit Hill.  This incident showed clearly enough that no news had come from Colenso to give our enemies confidence.  Few of us, however, were prepared for the sight that met our eyes as we looked from Observation Hill across the broad plain towards Blaauwbank when the mists of morning cleared.  There we saw Boer convoys trekking northward from the Tugela past