It is to be hoped that Cronje also possessed some sense of humour, or else he must have been as sorely puzzled by his eccentric opponent as the Spanish generals were by the vagaries of Lord Peterborough.
Among the many difficulties which had to be met by the defenders of the town the most serious was the fact that the position had a circumference of five or six miles to be held by about one thousand men against a force who at their own time and their own place could at any moment attempt to gain a footing.

An ingenious system of small forts was devised to meet the situation.

Each of these held from ten to forty riflemen, and was furnished with bomb-proofs and covered ways.

The central bomb-proof was connected by telephone with all the outlying ones, so as to save the use of orderlies.

A system of bells was arranged by which each quarter of the town was warned when a shell was coming in time to enable the inhabitants to scuttle off to shelter.