man--intimated in reply that the families in question had already twice
refused to leave him, and that he could not force nor drive them. The
Boers, we gathered from their envoy, were sick with typhoid fever, sick
with dysentry, sick of the war altogether--so sick, indeed, that part of
our visitor's mission was to borrow medicines and a doctor. That we
should have proven so obstinate in our resistance had not been
anticipated. Well, the Colonel could not refuse the medicines; he
sympathised with the sufferers; but in view of the fact that the
borrowers had already commandeered a doctor, he could not see his way to
lend another.

We had set the ball rolling with such success in the morning that it was
determined to give it the last kick in the evening as well. To make
certain of this, a gun was charged and "sighted" while there was yet
light; and at nine o'clock a shell was sent hurtling through the shades
of night. Its effect, of course, was not observable; but if it were to
startle the enemy as much as the gun's boom did the whole of us, C. J.
R. and his unseasonable "compliments" must have fallen foul of some
"remarks."

Next morning the gift was not at all gracefully acknowledged. The
unfortunate brickfields were pelted again; it was enigmatical; that Mr.
Rhodes should be reckoned "a brick," by Boers, was improbable; rumour
had it that his blood was hungered for. Some shells were hurled also at
the grand stand of the race-course. Finally, the enemy appeared to
suspect that the cattle might have had a hand in the despatch of the
nine o'clock missile, and he bombarded Kenilworth with great gusto.

The houses of a number of our citizens were built immediately outside
the city boundary; and a strong feeling existed not only against