But that was nothing to the Christmas Day feat of seven of our
sea-planes--one for every day of the week--which, accompanied by light
cruisers and destroyers, with several submarines, made a daring and
unparalleled attack on Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the Elbe, and several
war-ships lying at anchor there--unparalleled, by reason of the fact
that this was the first "combined assault of all arms" known to the
sea--namely, from the air, the water, and from under the water. Both at
Yarmouth and Scarborough the German bombarding cruisers were so nervously
afraid of being caught in the act that they may almost be said to have
only fired their guns and then run away again. But our triple flotilla at
the mouth of the Elbe spent a deliberate three hours in the performance of
its task, and then calmly withdrew with only one of the daring pilots
missing. So far, it was the most thrilling episode of the war, and must
give our enemies "furiously to think," in addition to furnishing them with
much more for the nourishment of their hate. Of this insensate hatred
against us in the hearts of the German people--and all because we have
"queered their pitch," or crossed their long-cherished schemes for the
destruction of our Empire--the most furious exponent is the _Kölnische
Zeitung_, or _Cologne Gazette_, as we generally call it--which may
be described, on the whole, as the most authoritative organ of the
Fatherland--or the _Times_ of Germany, but always with a difference. The
curious anomaly is that the seat of this powerful journal should be so far
away from the capital--at Cologne. There is an old story--known to
tourists who read their guide-books--about the "Three Kings of Cologne,"
but now this story has just received a pendant which gives anything but
satisfaction at Cologne itself or anywhere else in Germany.

[Illustration: MUCH USED AGAINST SOUTH AFRICAN REBELS: A TRUCK OF AN
ARMOURED TRAIN, AT BLOEMFONTEIN.