Presently we arranged ourselves in military order, Natal Carabineers and Imperial Light Horse riding two and two abreast so that there might be no question about precedence, and with Gough, the youngest regimental commander in the army, and one of the best, at the head of the column, we forded the Klip River and rode into the town.

That night I dined with Sir George White, who had held the town for four months against all comers, and was placed next to Hamilton, who won the fight at Elandslaagte and beat the Boers off Waggon Hill, and next but one to Hunter, whom everyone said was the finest man in the vorld.  Never before had I sat in such brave company nor stood so close to a great event.  As the war drives slowly to its close more substantial triumphs, larger battles, wherein the enemy suffers heavier loss, the capture of towns, and the surrender of armies may mark its progress.  But whatever victories the future may have in store, the defence and relief of Ladysmith, because they afford, perhaps, the most remarkable examples of national tenacity and perseverance which our later history contains, will not be soon forgotten by the British people, whether at home or in the Colonies.

CHAPTER XXVII

AFTER THE SIEGE

Durban:  March 10, 1900.

Since the road by which Dundonald’s squadrons had entered the town was never again closed by the enemy, the siege of Ladysmith may be said to have ended on the last day of February.  During the night the heavy guns fired at intervals, using up the carefully husbanded ammunition in order to prevent the Boers from removing their artillery.

On March 1 the garrison reverted to a full half-ration of biscuits and horseflesh, and an attempt was made to harass the Boers, who were in full retreat towards the Biggarsberg.  Sir George White had made careful inquiries among the regiments for men who would undertake to walk five miles and fight at the end of the march.  But so reduced were the soldiers through want of food that, though many volunteered, only two thousand men were considered fit out of the whole garrison.  These were, however, formed into a column, under Colonel Knox, consisting of two batteries of artillery, two squadrons of the 19th Hussars and 5th Lancers, ‘all that was left of them,’ with horses, and detachments, each about two hundred and fifty strong, from the Manchester, Liverpool, and Devon Regiments, the 60th Rifles, and the Gordon Highlanders, and this force moved out of Ladysmith at dawn on the 1st to attack the Boers on Pepworth’s Hill, in the hope of interfering with their entrainment at Modderspruit Station.

The Dutch, however, had left a rear guard sufficient to hold in check so small a force, and it was 2 o’clock before Pepworth’s Hill was occupied.  The batteries then shelled Modderspruit Station, and very nearly caught three crowded trains, which just managed to steam out of range in time.  The whole force of men and horses was by this time quite exhausted.  The men could scarcely carry their rifles.  In the squadron of 19th Hussars nine horses out of sixty fell down and died, and Colonel Knox therefore ordered the withdrawal into the town.