Edited by Vernon Blackburn
William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London
Author of 'With Kitchener to Khartum,' 'In India,' etc., etc.
I. FIRST GLIMPSES OF THE STRUGGLE.
First impressions—Denver with a dash of Delhi—Government House—The
Legislative Assembly—A wrangling debate—A demonstration of the
unemployed—The menace of coming war
II. THE ARMY CORPS—HAS NOT LEFT ENGLAND!
A little patch of white tents—A dream of distance—The desert
of the Karroo—War at last—A campaign without headquarters—Waiting for
the Army Corps
III. A PASTOR'S POINT OF VIEW.
An ideal of Arcady—Rebel Burghersdorp—Its monuments—Dopper theology—An
interview with one of its professors
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
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"
VI. THE BATTLE OF ELANDSLAAGTE.
French's reconnaissance—An artillery duel—Beginning of the attack—Ridge
after ridge—A crowded half-hour
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
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
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
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
XI. THE BOMBARDMENT. Long
Tom—A family of harmless monsters—Our inferiority in guns—The sensations
of a bombardment—A little custom blunts sensibility
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"
XIII. A DIARY OF DULNESS. The
mythopœic 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
XIV. NEARING THE END. Dulness
interminable—Ladysmith in 2099 A.D.—Sieges obsolete hardships—Dead to
the world—The appalling features of a bombardment
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
