Only four tents are left in the white string that hung down the side of Taba Nyama.
Two parties, of forty Boers apiece, passed north along the road behind Telegraph Ridge whilst I was on Observation Hill in the morning.

But there was no special meaning in their movements, and absolutely no news came in.

Only rumours, the rumours of despair--Warren surrounded, Buller's ammunition train attacked and cut to pieces, the whole relieving force in hopeless straits.
In the town and camps things went on as usual, under a continued weight of depression.

The cold and wet of the night brought on a terrible increase of dysentery, and I never saw the men look so wretched and pinched.

When officers in high quarters talk magnificently about the excellent spirits of the troops, I think they do not always realise what those excellent spirits imply.