month civilians eager to get away from Ladysmith crowded every
train. Writing on November 1st, Mr. Pearse said:--

All Saints' Day is observed with some strictness by Boers who do not
show similar veneration for other festivals in the Church Calendar.
There have at any rate been no hostilities to-day, but from Captain
Lambton's Battery on Junction Hill, where the naval 4.7-inch
quick-firing gun is being mounted, we have by the aid of the signalman's
powerful telescope watched a significant Boer movement going on for
hours. We can see them among the scrubby trees between Lombard's Kop and
Umbulwaana (or Bulwaan as it is more generally called), and hurrying off
behind that hill along the road that leads southwards. That road cuts
the railway not more than six or seven miles out, and their movement
threatens our line of communications that way, unless we can manage to
check it by judicious use of cavalry and mounted troops. The flight of
townsfolk southward continues. They do not even trouble about luggage
now, but lock their doors and clear off. Half the houses are empty, and
many shops closed.

It was early shown that the enemy had not undertaken the war in a
half-hearted manner. He let no possible opportunity escape to
better his position; and in the choice of means he was not inclined
to risk his reputation for "slimness." On this point Mr. Pearse has
a good deal to say in his next letter:--

_November 2._--For two whole days after the battle of Lombard's Kop
there was absolute cessation of hostilities, and this lull the Boers
turned to account in a manner very characteristic. There can be hardly
any doubt that we might have taken advantage of it also to safeguard our
line of communications by posting a force where it might have checkmated