General Buller’s plan now seems to have been briefly as follows:  First, to establish a modus vivendi in the Cape Colony, with sufficient troops to stand strictly on the defensive; secondly, to send a strong force to Natal, and either restore the situation there, or, failing that, extricate Sir George White so that his troops would be again available for the defence of the Southern portion of the Colony; thirdly, with what was left of the army corps—­no longer strong enough to invade the Free State—­to relieve Kimberley; fourthly, after settling Natal to return with such troops as could be spared and form with reinforcements from home a fresh army to carry out the original scheme of invading the Free State.

The defect in this plan was that there were not enough troops to carry it out.  As we had underestimated the offensive vigour which the enemy was able to develop before the army could reach South Africa, so now we altogether miscalculated his extraordinary strength on the defensive.  But it is impossible to see what else could have been done, and at any rate no one appreciated the magnitude of the difficulties more correctly than Sir Redvers Buller.  He knew Northern Natal and understood the advantages that the Boers enjoyed among its mountains and kopjes.

On one occasion he even went so far as to describe the operation he had proposed as a ‘forlorn hope,’ so dark and gloomy was the situation in South Africa during the first fortnight in November.  It was stated that the General was ordered by the War Office to go to Natal, and went there against his own will and judgment.  This, however, was not true; and when I asked him he replied:  ’It was the most difficult business of all.  I knew what it meant, and that it was doubtful whether we should get through to Ladysmith.  I had not the nerve to order a subordinate to do it.  I was the big man.  I had to go myself.’

What followed, with the exception of the battle of Colenso, our first experience of the Boer behind entrenchments, has been to some extent described in these letters.  Viewed in the light of after knowledge it does not appear that the holding of Ladysmith was an unfortunate act.

The flower of the Boer army was occupied and exhausted in futile efforts to take the town and stave off the relieving forces.  Four precious months were wasted by the enemy in a vain enterprise.  Fierce and bloody fighting raged for several weeks with heavy loss to both sides, but without shame to either.  In the end the British were completely victorious.  Not only did their garrison endure famine, disease, and bombardment with constancy and composure and repel all assaults, but the soldiers of the relief column sustained undismayed repeated disappointments and reverses, and finally triumphed because through thick and thin they were loyal to their commander and more stubborn even than the stubborn Dutch.