seldom heard, until this morning, when, after a few rounds, "Long Tom"
paid silent homage to her sway, and in celebration of that temporary
knock-out, Captain Lambton christened his new pet "Princess Victoria,"
but the bluejackets called it by another name, to indicate their faith
in its destructive effect.

It was interesting to watch these weapons at work. Their gunners would
wait until they saw a flash from "Long Tom" or "Puffing Billy" and then
fire, their shells getting home first by two or three seconds, owing to
the greater velocity imparted by cordite charges. Soon after ten o'clock
the enemy's artillery fire from different directions grew brisker. The
damage, whatever it may have been, inflicted on "Long Tom," or his crew,
having been made good under cover of a white flag, which the Boers seem
to think they are at liberty to use whenever it suits them, Rietfontein
called to Bulwaan, and Blaauwbank in the west echoed the dull boom that
came from the distant flat-topped hill in the east. Then along our main
positions, against the Leicesters and Rifles on one side, and the
Manchesters on another, an attack by rifles developed quickly.

Intermittently these skirmishes lasted most of the day, our enemy never
pressing his attack home, but contenting himself with long-range
shooting from good cover. Neither heavy guns nor small arms did much
damage. Major Grant, R.E., of the Intelligence Staff, was slightly
wounded as he sat coolly sketching the scene of hostilities as he saw it
from the front of Cæsar's Camp. A lieutenant of the Manchesters and
three men of the Leicester Regiment were also hit by rifle bullets or
shell splinters, but none very seriously.