[Footnote 16: The writer was recently dining with Colonel--now Major-General--Rochfort, when that officer particularly asked him to mention how splendidly the party of Dublin Fusiliers under his command had behaved on this occasion, and his admiration of their soldierly conduct at all times while serving under him.] Next day still brought the sound of General Barton's artillery, and the right half-battalion under Major Bird went out as escort to two waggon-loads of ammunition for him. The General sent half-way to meet him, and our men got back all right about 6 p.m. With the advent of summer the thunderstorms increased in frequency and severity, and it was no joke to have to suddenly jump up and hang on to the pole of one's tent to prevent it being blown away, with the uncomfortable knowledge that lightning has a partiality for running down tent-poles. We had one really bad experience in this way, to be narrated later, but nothing to touch the blizzard that struck the camp of the 5th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers near Mafeking, when sheets of corrugated iron flew about like packs of gigantic cards, and Colonel Gernon and Captain Baker, the Quartermaster, together with many others, sustained very serious injuries. Still, our share was bad enough, and quite spoiled the summer for a good many of us. The mornings would break clear, cloudless, and invigorating; but about 3 p.m. on about three days of the week, a bunch of cotton-wool clouds would appear from the south. As these rose higher and higher, they swelled into enormous piles of grand, rolling cloud-masses, like stupendous snow-clad mountains, whose bases grew black and ever blacker, until they would suddenly be riven by blinding flashes of flickering ribbons of lightning, and the air torn and rent by reverberating booms of awe-inspiring thunder. Second Lieutenant Tredennick joined at this time. Second Lieutenant R. F. B. Knox should have arrived with him, but had to remain behind in Johannesburg, as he was seedy. The train they were in had been attacked by Boers near Heidelberg. Rumour now began to be busy with General Barton's force, and on the 22nd an order came for General Hart to join him. We had just packed up, when an order came countermanding the move. Next day, however, another order came to the same effect, but detailing Colonel Hicks to command the column. Though small in point of numbers,[17] it would have been hard to have picked a better one in point of quality. A finer body of horsemen, or one more adapted to the work in hand, than Strathcona's Horse it would be impossible to conceive. Without making any invidious comparisons, it is only just to say that these Canadian troops appeared to us to have no superiors, while the truly magnificent way in which they literally brushed away the opposition, on the morning we joined hands with General Barton, was a sight to be remembered.