lightning, brilliant as moonlight, and then turn in before black clouds break in a terrific thunderstorm.  I have remarked before on the advantage of being on a hill to watch the picturesque effects of a storm such as we have here.  But there are some disadvantages, especially if you have to sleep in a patrol tent no higher than a fair-sized dog-kennel, and a tent-pole happens to give way.  Then you wake with wet canvas flapping about you.  The rain pours down in a deluge that makes you shiver at the mere thought of turning out to put the tent-pole right.  Let the rain drift and the canvas flap with sounds like gunshots.  It is better at any rate than lying as Tommy does on the hillside yonder with only one blanket to roll himself in, and with that thought, perhaps, you may be able to cuddle yourself off to sleep again in spite of the storm.

November 23.—­Notwithstanding Sir George White’s protest, Boer guns are still laid to bear on the Town Hall, and shells frequently fall in the enclosure near it, and have hit the building, sending splinters in all directions, by one of which a dhoolie-bearer was killed.  This seems to me a scandalous violation of all the rules of civilised warfare, which certainly entitle us to a field-hospital in addition to one at the base.  If Schalk-Burger had objected on the ground that the Town Hall so long as it was used for sick and wounded came in the line of fire from his guns to our batteries or defensive works, he would have been within his rights, but all the same there would have been no truth in that contention, and at any rate it rests with him to clear himself from the charge of having fired on a Red Cross flag without warning.  Meanwhile other guns on Surprise Hill have been searching for the 18th Hussars in their bivouac where Klip River runs through a deep ravine, and “Long Tom” of Pepworth’s has thrown a shell into Mrs. Davy’s house, opposite Captain Vallentin’s, wounding its owner, who is the first woman hit, though numbers of them, having got over their first panic, go about their domestic duties all day as if there were no such thing as a bombardment, and never think of taking shelter in a riverside cave now.  This shot brought upon “Long Tom” the vengeance of oar Naval Battery, which must have battered him or his gunners severely.

All the afternoon Boer rifles have been dropping bullets into posts held by the Rifle Brigade and Leicesters.  Perhaps the men were showing signs of being harassed when General Hunter visited them.  With a laugh he stood bolt upright on a rock, saying, “Now let us see whether these Boers can shoot or not;” and there he remained in full view of them for nearly a minute, while Mauser bullets hummed about him like a swarm of wasps.  Such an act may seem like senseless bravado, but those who know Archibald Hunter well know that he had an object in giving this example of coolness and pluck.