Part 2

An ideal of Arcady--Rebel Burghersdorp--Its monuments--Dopper theology--An interview with one of its professors 19

IV. WILL IT BE CIVIL WAR?

On the border of the Free State--An appeal to the Colonial Boers-- The beginning of warlike rumours--A commercial and social boycott-- The Boer secret service--The Basutos and their mother, the Queen-- Boer brutality to Kaffirs 28

V. LOYAL ALIWAL: A TRAGI-COMEDY.

The Cape Police--A garrison of six men--Merry-go-rounds and naphtha flares--A clamant want of fifty men--Where are the troops?--"It'll be just the same as it was in '81" 35

VI. THE BATTLE OF ELANDSLAAGTE.

French's reconnaissance--An artillery duel--Beginning of the attack-- Ridge after ridge--A crowded half-hour 43

VII. THE BIVOUAC.

A victorious and helpless mob--A break-neck hillside--Bringing down the wounded--A hard-worked doctor--Boer prisoners--Indian bearers-- An Irish Highlander in trouble 56

VIII. THE HOME-COMING FROM DUNDEE.

Superfluous assistance--A smiling valley--The Border Mounted Rifles-- A rain-storm--A thirty-two miles' march--How the troops came into Ladysmith 66

IX. THE STORY OF NICHOLSON'S NEK.

An attenuated mess--A regiment 220 strong--A miserable story--The white flag--Boer kindness--Ashamed for England 74

X. THE GUNS AT RIETFONTEIN.

A column on the move--The nimble guns--Garrison gunners at work-- The veldt on fire--Effective shrapnel--The value of the engagement 81

XI. THE BOMBARDMENT.

Long Tom--A family of harmless monsters--Our inferiority in guns-- The sensations of a bombardment--A little custom blunts sensibility 92

XII. THE DEVIL'S TIN-TACKS.

The excitement of a rifle fusilade--A six-hours' fight--The picking off of officers--A display of infernal fireworks--"God bless the Prince of Wales" 106

XIII. A DIARY OF DULNESS.

The mythopoeic faculty--A miserable day--The voice of the pompom-- Learning the Boer game--The end of Fiddling Jimmy--Melinite at close quarters--A lake of mud 114

XIV. NEARING THE END.

Dulness interminable--Ladysmith in 2099 A.D.--Sieges obsolete hardships--Dead to the world--The appalling features of a bombardment 124

XV. IN A CONNING-TOWER.

The self-respecting bluejacket--A German atheist--The sailors' telephone--What the naval guns meant to Ladysmith--The salt of the earth 134

THE LAST CHAPTER. By VERNON BLACKBURN 144

MAPS.

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