Soldiers off duty scraped the clods off their boots and polished up their bayonets.
Officers shaved and gloried over a leisurely breakfast.

For myself, I washed my shirt and hung it on the line of fire to dry.
In the morning one of the Irish Brigade rode in through the Liverpools' picket.

He was "fed up" with the business, as the soldiers say.

He reported that only about seventy of the Brigade were left.

He also said the Boer commandants were holding a great meeting to-day--whether for psalms or strategy I don't know; probably both.