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signal, and do the rest of the distance in skirmishing order, gaining a wall which I intended to line, and which lay close under the hill. What followed would be dictated by circumstances.

Meanwhile my mounted men, now thirty strong, were to ascend the hill on its right, and, riding along the top, clear it of any lurking Boers under cover of my fire, when I could follow myself and occupy the hill. In front of the wall we were bound for was a farmhouse, known to be the sleeping-place of the Boer picket which held the heights; and we intended to surprise this party in the house, to prevent them giving the alarm to the main body.

We set out across the soppy veldt, the grass often up to our knees. The noise our feet made was really astounding, causing me to break out at intervals at the men for insisting on marching in step. Poor fellows; all their service they had been taught the old way to walk" right, left, right, left"and now they were told not to do it, and habit was too strong for them. It was now that I recognised the enormous difficulty in making a night attack: the plain we were crossing by daylight had seemed absolutely level, now it was full of holes, drains, and pitfalls; big stones caught us on the toes, and tripped us up with many a smothered cry, each loud enough to tell the enemy we were coming, so it seemed. Every place looked changed, and but for Stander's Kop in front, whither we were bound, looming big and black against the sky, we should have wandered hopelessly.

Everything depended on our reaching the wall unperceived. There were patrols about, possibly sentries; all was unknown to us; and the men's feet made such a

VOL. CXXX.-NO. DCCLXXXIX.

noise, I was on tenter-hooks lest we should be heard. One of them with a cough was sent back sharp to camp. Noses were allowed to remain unattended to. When halfway, the time came to extend; and, on raising my hand, the two bodies opened outwards, and formed into a line of skirmishers as neatly as if it were broad daylight and we were on parade at Aldershot. Whispering a word of command to a line of men two hundred yards in length is not so easy; but the men did all they could, and passed it along till they moved on, keeping excellent distance and direction. Presently a black hill showed up in front quite unexpectedly, and I halted the line and went on to see what it was, for it had not been there yesterday. I had not gone fifty yards when the hill turned into a wall, the object of our march-a good high wall, capable of sheltering my men from any fire. So I went back and brought them up, letting them lie down just six feet apart. By peering over I could distinguish the house in which the Boer guard was lying, about a hundred yards in front; behind it the hillside, steep and frowning. It was just half-past three; at four it would be getting light enough to attack the house. No sentries could be seen; all was still as death. The men lay in the long, dank grass which fringed the wall, and hardly moved; while I kept my bare head just above it to watch for any sign of the enemy. Every minute I expected to see my mounted men on the top, barely another hundred yards beyond the house. This, again, was quite quiet; two small windows on either side of the door, all closed with green shutters; a second building a little apart, and the garden between us and them, grey with oats; then the wall, strongly built with piled-up stones,

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and under it those long dark things, half hidden in the grass, beside each a rifle, shining cold and hard-all so very quiet, yet all low-breathing -pent-up life and action waiting my word to rise and line that wall with fire.

However, that was not to be. We had waited an hour, and the night was going out, objects around growing distinct in shape, less ghostly than they had been, when there came a sound of galloping, the first sound since leaving camp; a great rush of horses, out of sight, yet near enough to let us hear their hoofs striking the ground. One minute and I thought it was the Boers, and felt I had them. The sound was on our right, and the way they had to come lay across my rear towards my left: if they only came that road, we should catch them beautifully. This was but for a few minutes. Then amid the galloping I heard a voice shouting in English, and I knew it was my own men in full

retreat.

And what from? If from the Boers, what was I to do? I did not like to go back at once after getting so near them, yet I could not afford to lose my men; and for a bit I had an anxious time of it.

About five minutes we waited in suspense. The galloping died out behind us; no Boer picket showed up from the house; all was very still, when a single horseman rode cautiously into sight, coming towards where we lay from the right. It was just light enough to see that he was in civilian clothes, wearing a broad-brimmed hat such as the Boers affect, and in his hand held a carbine ready. Was he friend or Boer the advance-scout of the Dutch who had sent our men back? He still rode on very cautiously, peering about, his carbine, as it seemed, always half-way to his shoulder, his horse picking his

steps, his head bent forwards, looking out; and the men on my right where the wall ended could see him too, and clutched their rifles, and only waited for a word.

Still he rode on, inclining towards the house, and I could see now he was dark-faced, almost black; a little more, and I recognized him as one of my own men with a rag of red round his hat; and I stood up and beckoned to him, and he rode down, holding up his carbine in token he was a friend. He little knew how near death he had been. He was sent to tell us that the mounted men had retreated before a large force of Dutch who were coming on behind the hill. There was nothing for it but to go too. My mounted men, just half my force, were in full retreat; close above me was the big hill, which, if once occupied, commanded my line of retreat for a full mile. All I knew was that a large force was coming on; that might mean anything, and I had only thirty men. So I gave the word, and we turned back, leaving the wall we had won so well, and moved towards the fort. We had gone about eighty yards, and opened the neck of land lying between the big hill we had faced and a second one lying on its left, when the Boers rode into it in a black crowd, perhaps two hundred yards away.

I think we saw each other at the same moment; from which side came the first shots I am not sure. I faced my men half round and took up the fire as soon as I saw them, and the sudden sight of thirty rifles puffing in the grass checked them effectually. How those Dutchmen galloped !-just a whiff of smoke here and there when one dismounted, fired, and was off again. How the rifles flashed out, bright and sharp, our own bullets racing past me as I stood directing them, answered by the thud of

those that sought us out upon the of the friends we left behind us turf!

The Boers made for the second hill, where was good cover in the kraals of the long-since-departed Makatees, about four hundred yards from us, and dismounting, opened a hot fire from behind the stones. How their bullets did tear the grass up, casting up little clouds of dust in the men's faces kneeling down to fire back! Not a man winced; they knelt and fired as cool as if at exercise, putting up their sights quite cheerily when I told them the distance. I had to shout to them to make them keep on retiring: they quite enjoyed the fun.

This lasted about ten minutes, and then a line of fire on my right opened, and I felt that we had come within our own lines again. The 58th had orders to come out and protect my flank if it was attacked, and the brave fellows were there, lining the further slope between us and the Dutch, and keep ing down their fire. And this was furious for five minutes more, and formed a pretty sight for the townspeople roused out of bed by the incessant shots, and safe a mile or more away, as they told us afterwards. We were on a hillside above them, and they could see the little figures skirmishing, dotted with puffs of smoke, like dolls out playing; and beyond that again the hill, the Dutch were on it amid a blaze of fire and shrouding smoke.

After a bit the Boer fire slackened as it had done before, and we got their range and turned them out; not easily, only by threes and fours, making gaps in their line from which no fire came, each widening till the hill was quiet once again, and in the distance tiny-looking crowd galloping away. A short half-hour, and we were safe in the fort, taking the cup of coffee waiting for us, and receiving the congratulations

at our safe return; happier still to count our men and find that thirty went and the same came back again untouched. And that was our first turn in the open against the Dutch who were investing us.

Up to this time our wounded men had been in a sort of hospital in the fort formed out of a tin store which had been pulled down to meet the military exigencies of the time, the roof remaining only; but it was exposed to the fire of the rebels, and was hot and confined. So in place of it I took possession of the Dutch church in town, a spacious stone building, which when the benches and reading-desk were removed, was capable of holding two rows of beds, fifteen in each, with ease.

The Dutch who still remained in the town tried to get up a small demonstration about the misappropriation of their church by the rooi batjees, but after a bit calmed down at the sight of the sad faces that soon occupied it.

The prayer and hymn books, all in Dutch, fared worse than the benches, as a couple of soldiers, seeing them in the deserted building, calmly took them away, for what reason never appeared, the books being utterly unsaleable, and the British soldier not given to studying hymns, especially when written in a language of which he cannot understand one word.

One of the difficulties of the siege was to check robberies by the men and volunteers; and if ever temptation to steal existed, it was during the siege of Standerton. Many houses had been deserted by their owners, and left with doors and windows open, the families having set off full speed for the Free State on the commencement of the war. Later on, when fuel ran short, I had to go through these houses in search of wood, and was

surprised to find how much furniture and effects were in them, and how little had been touched under the circumstances. Rooms stood just as they had been left, the chairs round the table, the clock on the mantelpiece, the beds unmade as the good people last slept in them, even the cooking-pots in the kitchen. Liquor of course had disappeared, as was natural, but

little else.

A newspaper, 'The Standerton Times,' was started by some of the civilians, and lasted for the first month, when it fell through, partly from want of time on the part of the editor-who, as a volunteer, was wanted more than he expected on the defences and mostly, I fancy, from the difficulty of finding new and interesting matter in a small community shut off from all communication with the outside world. Advertisements were its strong point-those breathing much fire and smoke predominating. So we read of the baker and confectioner who "turned out the finest chainshot pies ever supplied in Standerton. Artillerymen supplied gratis." The butcher being of a hopeful turn, tells his customers that "everybody can't have under-cut, as he has smelt out the column." While Erasmus and Co., well-known Boer malcontents fighting against us, announce that "they are selling off their entire stock of Dutch courage and Dutch pluck at greatly reduced prices, to make room for a large stock of English Lead shortly expected."

The local and general column was open to funny bits such as this, headed "A Long Shot:" "We hear that a gallant Swashbuckler potted a Boer lately at 1416 yards. This shows that our mounted comrades have some capital shots among them; but we must

remind them that the deceased leaves a grandmother, a child, and fourteen small wives to mourn their loss. We suggest they start a subscription-list." While a Mr. Polglase remarks that " as starvation is imminent he has raised the price of * * and bacon"-the stars standing for "three-star brandy," a common form of nourishment with thirsty colonists.

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"Our paper" could be in earnest also, the editor writing: "We opine that the curious would have to search well the pages of history to find a parallel for the state of feeling in Standerton during the present siege. A visitor dropping down in our midst would scarcely be able to realise the fact that the town is completely invested by a band of ruthless rebels. Civilians and military men, and women and children, appear, now that the grim reality of the position has come home to them, to have determined to be self-sacrificing and cheerful. When these troublous times are past, those who here with us have taken part in them will be able to look back with feelings of pride to the parts they have played in the drama. It was touching to note at our musical gathering how the pathos of the songs of home chime in with the sterner sounds of the war-strains; and it is encouraging to note the cordiality existing between officers and men, between soldier and volunteer. Of the behaviour of the women we need say nothing. Courage, which is especially supposed to be the attribute of man, is found here, as at Lucknow, Paris, and Richmond, to be blended in the women with that other noble quality, patience. We trust this state of feeling will continue, for it is calculated to stand us in good stead."

(To be continued.)

REMINISCENCES OF PRISON-LIFE.

In the days of our grandfathers the prison was built according to the wisdom of the local magnates of the district, guided by an architect who was as ready to plan a house or a church as a place of detention and punishment. The triumphs of science and uniformity have, however, now reached this gloomy region of architectural skill. A group of ground-plans, on the last accepted model, would show us buildings radiating from centres, like so many great wheels. The officers in charge are arrayed in the uniform of honour, the prisoners in the uniform of shame. Where the regulation is perfect, it is held that in every cell everything should Occupy the same place, from the sleeping-bed or hammock to the towel and the piece of soap. It is said that this uniformity of conditions, great and small, not only neutralises the prisoner's plea of mistake in the commission of any petty irregularity, but at once puts the new officer at home when he is drafted from one prison to another. It may be noted, as of some historical interest, that the same idea once prevailed in a nobler sphere. Uniformity was an avowed object in the Roman system of castrametation, so that the soldier transferred from Spain or Italy to Britain, could find his proper place in the intrenched camp even if he reached it during night.

Among the uniform features of the conventional prison of the day, is the circular airing-yard. This arrangement has had a moral influence in exemplifying the marvellous power of discipline. The stranger is often seen visibly to start when a door opens, and he is

led into a high-walled yard, where a hundred ruffians are taking their exercise under the government of four or five officers. This exercise is taken by rapid walking round and round on circular pavements. The number trained at exercise on each of these stone circles corresponds with a circle of pegs. If any tendency towards association is noticed-if any are seen advancing towards those in front, or loitering so as to be joined by companions in the rear, there is a call of "Halt!" and then each convict must stop at the peg immediately in front of him.

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This phenomenon, like many others peculiar to prison-life, exemplifies and illustrates one of the strange mysteries in the criminal character. Much of course is done by sheer force or terror to subdue the prisoner to the exigencies of his lot; but much, too, is accomplished by the facilities-the amiable facilities they might be called of the criminal nature. An officer in the service, addicted to cynical remarks, used to maintain that his birds, and others of the same class, were the only perfect human beings to be found in the world. In sobriety and the other cardinal virtues they were models. Regularity, method, tidiness, punctuality, and all the petty accomplishments and restraints that go to make up the virtuous and worthy member of society, they practised to perfection. And there was one peculiarly charming attribute of their daily conduct in life, that one always found them at home when calling on them.

There is something, however, deeper than such trifling peculiari

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