to that end all day, unmolested by the enemy, who have declared a truce
for twenty-four hours in order that the wounded of both sides may be
placed in comparative safety.

General Joubert has sent to us an ambulance with wounded under parole
from the captured column, and in exchange his surgeons have taken a
similar number of Boer wounded from our hospitals. All who have come in
speak highly of the treatment they have received at the enemy's hands.




CHAPTER III

LADYSMITH INVESTED

The exodus of the townsfolk--Communications threatened--Slim Piet
Joubert--Espionage in the town--Neglected precautions--A truce that
paid--British positions described--Big guns face to face--Boers
hold the railways--French's reconnaissance--The General's
flitting--A gauntlet of fire--An interrupted telegram--Death of
Lieutenant Egerton--"My cricketing days are over"--Under the
enemy's guns--"A shell in my room"--Colonials in action--The
sacrifice of valuable lives.


October closed without further hostilities, and its last day was
uneventful in a military sense, though full of forebodings in the
town, because all knew that the Boers were taking advantage of a
brief armistice to bring up reinforcements. On this last day of the