At once the heliograph began to flash.

I sent off a brief message, and soon afterwards the signal "Line clear" was sent from Zwartz Kop over the Tugela.

The "officials" began to arrive, and we hoped for news at last.

Three or four messages came through, but who could have guessed the thrilling importance of the first?
It ran:-- "Sir Stafford Northcote, Governor of Bombay, has been made a peer." The other messages were vague and dull enough--something about the Prince of Wales reviewing Yeomanry, and the race for some hunt cup in India.

But that peerage! To a sick and hungry garrison! We were shot at rather briskly all day by the enemy's guns.