Next morning the low grumble of distant cannon was the sweetest of music to the listening citizens.

But days passed without further news, and it was not for more than a week that they learned of the bloody repulse of Magersfontein, and that help was once more indefinitely postponed.

Heliographic communication had been opened with the relieving army, and it is on record that the first message flashed through from the south was a question about the number of a horse.

With inconceivable stupidity this has been cited as an example of military levity and incapacity.

Of course the object of the question was a test as to whether they were really in communication with the garrison.