We were told in graphic language of every space in the
laager being torn and rent by the deadly fire of more than fifty field
guns, of the trenches being enfiladed and the green fumes of Lyddite
rising up from the doomed camp. Cronje emerges with a casualty roll of
170 men, and the only inconvenience from our bombardment experienced by
the ladies was the slight abrasion of a young woman's forefinger!
The fact that so many of our Generals have been struck by bullets during
the campaign would seem to corroborate what I have heard on good
authority, _viz._, that some of the best shots in the Transvaal forces
have been told off for long range shooting, and the picking off of our
leaders. One of these fancy shots--a German--was captured in Natal and
told an officer that he was glad to be a prisoner, as he heartily
disliked the task imposed upon him. Some little distance north of the
Modder bridge is a small white house. Within this was found a Boer lying
on a table stone-dead, with a shrapnel bullet in his skull. His Mauser,
still clutched in his stiffened hands, lay on a tripod rest in front of
him and the muzzle pointed through a vertical slit made in the masonry
of the cottage. Every house in the neighbourhood was more or less
injured by shrapnel, and one of them was the scene of a sanguinary
conflict which was utterly misrepresented by one of the Cape papers.
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