SOME CURIOSITIES OF THE SIEGE. (By Lady Sarah Wilson iv the Daily Mail.) Aftkr a two months' sojourn in British. Bechuanaland and various adventures which culminated in my being detained for four days iv the Boer laager, to regain this plucky though battered little town— to find oneself once more among friends instead of foes -was indeed like reaching the " haven where one would be, while the changed aspect of the place and its defences, and the new routine of life to which the inhabitants seem to have so readily adapted themselves, were quite a revelation. No doubt books without end will be written about this siege— l have already heard of TEN OR TWELVE WOULD-BE AUTHORS —and of the military and political aspects, 'which probably will prove to be of the Utmost importance. I have no ability or wish to discourse ; but I think it may interest friends at home to hear how a handful of Englishmen and Englishwomen have passed the last three months in the little town on the bare veldt, closely in vested by a force which at first outnum bered the besieged by about ten to one. The towD itself, it must be remembered, was absolutely without fortifications ex cept what could be hurriedly thrown up, with a few ancient cannon and boasting 01 no regular artillery and no regiment of Boldiera, the mere idea of which inspires the civilian mind with such confidence. It is true instead of the latter Mafeking has one of the finest irregular tlghting corps imaginable in Colouel Hore's Pro tectorate Regiment, now so well proved in many a tough eugagement, and which, alas ! from casualties and other reasons, la to-day sadly diminished in numbers But at the beginning of the siege the cool, dogged determination of these men, only enlisted six short weeks, was utterly un known—the plucky endurance of the townspeople, men of commerce taking to KTHjE AUD BANDOLIER as to the manner born, waß hoped for, but coulJ not be counted on, and the loyalty ~ oi the natives was an unknown quality. 