rifle. This roused the whole camp, and soldiers everywhere stood to
their arms until the cause of this false alarm was discovered.

_November 6._--At daybreak this morning, Second Lieutenant Hopper, 5th
Lancers, came into camp, having got through the Boer lines by a ruse as
clever as it was sportsmanlike. He brought despatches from the General
commanding at Estcourt. His difficulties show that though a soldier may
get through the Boer lines, they are now tightening round us, and unless
a British force strong enough to break through can be assembled quickly,
we are in for a long siege here. Nobody gave the Boers credit for so
much enterprise, and if Sir George White made a mistake, as I think he
did, in not sending all the women and children away from Ladysmith when
Dundee was abandoned, this error probably arose from faulty information,
for which those who thought they knew the Boers and their resources were
in the first instance responsible.

Our defences begin to take shape, so that their strong and weak points
can be estimated. Southward is a long brown hog-backed hill, which the
local people call Bester's Ridge, though military authorities divide it
into Cæsar's Camp, with Maiden's Castle forming a spur in the inner
curve towards Ladysmith, and Waggon Hill. Altogether it is three miles
in length, and being the key of the position will want holding. For that
purpose the trusty Manchester battalion is placed there, having roughly
constructed sangars for rallying points. This ridge forms one horn of
the roughly-shaped horse-shoe which I have already spoken of, the toe of
which sweeps round from Maiden's Castle in low but rugged kopjes
overlooking slopes of open veldt to where Klip River loops the old camp
which, being constructed of corrugated iron, is called "Tin Town." That
would be a weak point, but that it is protected by an outlying kopje
known as Rifleman's Post on the far side of the river. This is occupied