Every morning when it was sufficiently light to see moving objects in and about Ladysmith, all the Long Toms and howitzers would open up and drive every one into the hole provided for safety. After that, silence would reign until about ten a.m., when an artillery duel of ten or fifteen minutes' duration would be fought, just to vary the monotony. Then all would be quiet again until about four p.m. when some English cavalry would come out to see if there were any gates open in the Free Stater's line. A lively skirmish would ensue, the English would fly back to their holes, and the day's work was done. As the English were kept in their holes all day, of course they had to get out and do their necessary work at night. The Boers thought they would hamper them somewhat in their work, so at sundown, they would load and aim all their cannon and at the hour of midnight would all fire at once. This caused the English so much annoyance that they in turn tried the same game on us, but never did us any harm. I have now given the usual program both for the day and night during the siege of Ladysmith, and while I could write page after page describing incident after incident that occurred during the long siege, yet I do not care to do it, because it would mean more work for me and prove tiresome to the reader. In a nut-shell, the Boers had a delightful time, lived in luxury, had their sports, smoked their pipes, drank their coffee, entertained visiting friends and when there was a fight they were always ready for it. CHAPTER VI. BRITISH TREACHERY AT COLENSO. Now I pass on to Colenso, where, in a short time some lively work was to be done, and, in passing, I must try to put the reader in a position to see the situation as it really was. Do not be frightened, however, for I am not going to give you long descriptions of positions or battles in the future, but will confine myself to relating just what I think will prove most interesting and nothing more. If my life depended upon it, I could not write even an approximately correct history of the war; and I am sure that no one else could do it, because the military operations were spread over such a large extent of country. Of course the London _Times_ has published a correct history of the war, and so has Conan Doyle written and published a correct history of the war; the only time that a great newspaper and a popular novelist ever competed in the art of fiction. Both won.