LADYSMITH
It was exciting work as the mounted horse under Lord Dundonald rode
along. As far as could be seen from the various points in our
possession the passage was clear, but experience had taught how the
Boers would lie quiet, even when in large numbers, while scouts were
passing close to them. At Colenso Colonel Long had sent two mounted men
on ahead of his battery. They had been permitted to pass within a
hundred yards of thousands of Boers among the bushes on the river bank,
and had even crossed the bridge and returned without a rifle shot being
fired or a Boer showing his head. And it was on their report that there
were apparently no Boers in the neighbourhood that the batteries were
pushed forward into the fatal trap prepared for them. So Chris and his
companions, at the rear of the colonial cavalry, trotted along ready at
a moment's notice to swing round their rifles for instant action. They
watched every stone and clump of bushes on the slopes of the valley for
any foe that might be lurking there, and who at any moment might pour
out a rain of bullets into the column. Very few words were spoken on
the way, the tension was too great. They knew that Ladysmith had
telegraphed that the Boers appeared to be everywhere falling back. But
a few thousands of their best fighting men might have remained to
strike one terrible blow at the troops who in open fight had shown
themselves their superiors, and had driven them from position after
position that they believed impregnable. However, as one after another
of the spots where an ambuscade would be likely to be laid passed, and
there were still no signs of the enemy, the keenness of the watch began
to abate, and the set expression of the faces to relax. Then as the
hills receded and the valley opened before them a pleasurable
excitement succeeded the grim expectation of battle. The task that had
proved so hard was indeed fulfilled; the Boers were gone, and the siege
of Ladysmith was at an end. As they emerged from the valley into the
plain in which Ladysmith is situated, there was an insensible increase
of speed; men talked joyously together, scarcely waiting for replies;
the horses seemed to catch the infection of their riders' spirits, and
the pennons of the Lancers in front to flutter more gaily. Onward they
swept, cantering now until they approached the town.
Then men could be seen running towards the road; from every house they
poured out, men and women, some waving hats and handkerchiefs, some too
much overpowered by their feelings for outward demonstrations. As the
columns reached this point they broke into a walk, and answered with
ringing cheers the fainter but no less hearty hurrahs of those they
came to rescue; and yet the troopers themselves were scarcely less
affected than the crowd that pressed round to shake them by the hand.
They had known that provisions were nearly exhausted in the city, and
that for some time past all had been on short rations; but they had not
dreamt of anything like this. It seemed to them that they were
surrounded by a population of skeletons, haggard and worn, almost too
weak to drag themselves along, almost too feeble to shout, their
clothes in rags, their eyes unnaturally large, their hands nerveless,
their utterances broken by sobs. They realized for the first time how
terrible had been the privations, how great the sufferings of the
garrison and people of Ladysmith. For the soldiers were there as well
as the civilians. There was little military in their appearance; there
was no uniformity in their dress, save that all were alike ragged,
stained and destitute of colour.
Could their rescuers have seen them, themselves unseen, a few days
earlier, they would have been even more shocked. Then the listlessness
brought about by hope deferred, and of late almost the extinction of
hope, weakness caused by disease and famine, had been supreme; and had
the Boers had any idea of the state to which they were reduced, a
renewal of the attack of the eth of January could hardly have failed of
success. The last few days, however, had revived their hopes. They had
learned by the ever-nearing roar of the cannon that progress was being
made, and for the past four days had from elevated points near the town
been able to make out the movements of our troops on the positions they
had captured. They had seen the Boers breaking up their camps, carrying
off their stores either by waggon across the western passes or by the
trains from Modder Spruit. They had seen the cannon being withdrawn
from their positions on the hills, and felt that their deliverance was
at hand.
Through an ever-increasing crowd the column moved on.
[Illustration: THE RELIEF OF LADYSMITH.]
From barrack and hospital, from dwelling-house and the dug-out
shelter-caves on the railway bank people flocked up. Sir George White
and his staff, the mayor, and the town guards, every officer and
soldier, joined in the greeting. But no stay was made. After a few
minutes' talk with Sir George White, Lord Dundonald gave the order, and
the cavalry moved forward, and as soon as they were free from the crowd
trotted on at a rapid pace in hopes of overtaking the retiring Boers,
and glad that the scene to which they had looked forward with such
pleasant expectations was at an end. There had not been a dry eye among
them. None could have witnessed the sobbing women, the men down whose
cheeks the tears streamed uncontrolledly, and have remained himself
unmoved.
"It is terrible," Chris said to Sankey, who was riding next to him. "I
could not have imagined anything so dreadful as their appearance. I did
not realize what it was like when, two or three months before I left
Johannesburg, I read in Motley's book about the war in the Netherlands
of the state of things in Leyden when the Prince of Orange burst his
way through to their rescue, and of the terrible appearance of the
starved inhabitants, but now I can quite understand how awfully bad it
was. It must have been even worse then. Here there were some rations
distributed--little enough, but some. There the people had nothing but
the weeds they gathered, and boiled down with the scraps they could
pick up. There they died in hundreds of actual starvation; it cannot
have been quite so bad here. But as we see, though there has been just
enough food to keep life together, that has been all, and it has been
from disease brought on by famine, and not by famine itself, that they
have died. Then, too, shells were always falling among them, and at any
moment they might be attacked. I expect that anxiety and fever have had
as much to do with it as hunger."
"Yes, Chris. You know, when we were grumbling sometimes at not being
employed in the fighting, we have wished we had stopped in Ladysmith,
and gone through the siege there; now, one can thank God that one did
not do so. We have pictured to ourselves everyone actively employed,
the vigilance at all the outposts, the skirmishing with the Boers who
crept up too closely, the excitement of repelling their attack, and all
that sort of thing. It is all very good to read about, but now we know
what it really meant one sees that we were a pack of fools to have
wished to be there."
"Yes; I suppose one never knows what is good for one, Sankey. Now as I
look back I think that we have been extraordinarily fortunate. We have
had some fights, just in the way we had expected, and, thanks
principally to our being so well mounted, we have done very well. We
have lived well; I don't say we have not had a certain amount of
discomfort, but of course we expected that. What I am most pleased at
is that not one of us has been killed, and only a few of us wounded,
the only serious one being Willesden, and he is fairly on the way to
recovery. For boys we have done a very good share, and I expect that
now we have driven the Boers back here, and Kimberley has been
relieved, and there is a tremendous force gathering on that side, it
will soon be over."
"Yes, I think with you, Chris. And I fancy that the others are all
beginning to long for the end of it. I should say that those whose
people have gone to England may stop on for a bit, but the rest of us
will go to our friends at Durban or the Cape, at any rate for a time,
till we see how things go. We know that Lord Roberts has got Cronje
surrounded and shut up. I expect that is one of the reasons that the
Boers have been moving from here. The Free Staters will certainly wish
to get back to defend Bloemfontein, and the Transvaal people must feel
that it is no use stopping here when their own country will be shortly
invaded."
"Yes; I expect that is the reason for their shutting up as suddenly as
they have done after fighting so hard for the first five or six days of
our advance."
On arriving at Modder Spruit it was found that the last train had left
an hour before; they pushed on, however, until a smart fire from a hill
in front of them, which was evidently held in force, broke out
suddenly, and two cannon from another eminence joined in. Having thus
discovered that the Boers were not entirely evacuating the country, but
intending to defend the Biggarsberg, at any rate until a strong force
came up, Lord Dundonald returned to Ladysmith. In the afternoon General
Buller rode over attended by only one or two of the staff. He stayed
but a very short time, to learn from General White the state of
affairs, and then returned.
"Do you think that we shall pursue at once, sir?" Chris asked Captain
Brookfield.
"Not at once, Chris. Practically, as you see, there is not a soldier
here fit to carry arms, nor a horse fit for work, and I should say that
it will be a month before General Buller can reckon upon any assistance
from the garrison. As to his own army, I expect he will keep the main
portion round Chieveley. No doubt he will bring the greater part if not
all the garrison of Ladysmith back to Frere and Estcourt, both to get
them out of the pestilential air here and for convenience of feeding
them. The civilian population will leave, of course, as soon as they
possibly can. I should think that Buller will leave in garrison here an
infantry brigade, part of the cavalry, and two or three batteries, and
this with the sick who cannot be moved, will be about as much as our
transport will be able to manage until the railway bridge is repaired
and the line put in running order. Till that is done there is no
possibility of a general advance; and indeed there will have to be a
great accumulation of stores here, as this will then become our base
instead of Chieveley.
"No doubt a great deal will depend on how things are going on the other
side. Now that Roberts has as good as captured Cronje and his force he
will of course advance to Bloemfontein and occupy it. He will then be
no more able to advance farther than Buller can--in fact, less able.
Our line of railway is secured, and we can be fed by it; but at present
we have not crossed the Orange River from the south, and the railway
between that and Bloemfontein is in the hands of the Boers, and we know
that they have blown up the bridges across the river. Until these are
restored, and the line secure in our hands, Roberts's army will have to
live on the stores that they have brought with them. Then the work of
forming a base depot from the coast will begin, and it needs something
enormous in the way of provisions and carriage to supply an army of
sixty or seventy thousand men, all of whom must as they advance be fed
from Bloemfontein.
"As long as he is stationary there it is likely enough that the bulk of
Joubert's army will cling to Natal, knowing well enough that before we
shall be in a condition to move forward they can entrench their
positions on the Biggarsberg and the Drakenberg until they are quite as
formidable as those we have been knocking our heads against. I should
not be at all surprised if it is a couple of months before Roberts is
in a position to advance. Of course at present we have no idea what the
plans are, but likely enough at least half the force here may be sent
down to Durban, and then by water to East London, and from there to
Bloemfontein by rail. It would be ridiculous for us to renew the sort
of fighting we have been doing when the enemy are sure to clear out
when Roberts crosses the Vaal, and Natal be thus freed without any
further loss of life. Possibly the troops may not be sent round by sea,
but will remain here until Roberts gets as far as Kroonstadt. Then, no
doubt, a division will be sent down through Bethlehem to Harrismith,
and so open Van Reenen's Pass, in which case the troops from here can
go up by train to Bethlehem. At any rate, I am afraid that most of us
will remain here for at least two months.
"You see, most of the colonial irregulars were enlisted for only three
months, and that is up already, and no doubt a great many of them will
not extend their time, and I don't suppose the military authorities
will want them to do so. There is no doubt that while mounted men were
invaluable in the fighting in Cape Colony, and will be so in the Orange
Free State, they are of very little use in this mountainous country in
the north of Natal--they are so many more mouths to be fed, man and
beast, without any corresponding advantage. They have done splendidly
where they have had a chance, and the Imperial Light Horse have
suffered heavily, but as a whole I think that we should have been more
useful as infantry than as mounted men. Infinitely more useful if,
instead of being kept at the head-quarters of the army as we have been,
for no possible reason that anyone can see, we had all been scattered
over the country to the east, in which case we should have kept the
marauding Boers from wandering about, should have saved hundreds and
hundreds of loyal farmers from being ruined, and the loss of many
thousands of cattle and horses, which will have to be paid for after
the war is over. I do not think that there is a single colonist who is
not of opinion that the way in which we have been kept inactive from
the beginning of the war, instead of being employed as irregular
cavalry should have been, in protecting the country, preventing the
Boers from drawing supplies, and forcing them to keep in a body as our
own troops have done, has been a stupendous mistake."
Chris repeated this conversation to his comrades. "I think," he said,
"that if there is no chance of doing anything for another two or three
months, we might as well break up. I have no doubt a good many of the
Colonials will re-enlist. Numbers of them are working men, either from
Johannesburg or belonging to Natal; they would find it very difficult
to get work here, and the five shillings a day pay is therefore of the
greatest importance to them. But it is different with us. We don't draw
pay, we simply agreed to band ourselves together to have an opportunity
of paying out the Boers for their treatment of us. At the time we
agreed to that, we had no idea that they would invade Natal. Of course
that was an additional inducement to us to fight. As loyalists, and
capable of bearing arms, it would have been our duty, even if we had no
personal feeling in the matter, to enlist to help to clear the country
of the enemy who invaded it. Now that Ladysmith is rescued and there
are certainly enough troops in South Africa to finish the business up,
I do not see that it is our duty to continue our service. Anyhow, I
have pretty well made up my mind to resign and go round to Cape Town.
There I am almost sure to find my mother, and perhaps my father, for we
know that they have expelled almost all the English remaining about the
mines, and he may have been among them."
"I agree with you heartily," Sankey said. "At any rate, I should vote
for our breaking up for the present. It will be beastly for us to have
to stop here doing nothing for another month or two, and then perhaps,
when Buller moves forward to join Roberts, to be told that the colonial
force will no longer be required."
Twelve of the others expressed similar opinions. The friends of the
eight who did not do so had returned to England. Carmichael was one of
these. "Well," he said after a pause, "I do not say that you are not
quite right, but I have no one to go to here. My people went home as
soon as they reached Durban. If I were to join them I might hear when I
landed that the war was just over, and that they had either started to
come back again, or were on the point of doing so. I was born out here,
and have never seen any of my relations in Scotland. Though I should
like very much to spend a few months in the old country, it would not
be worth while going home for so short a time; for I am sure my father
will hurry back to his work at the mines as soon as Johannesburg is
taken by us. I fancy all those who have not spoken are in about the
same situation that I am."
There was a murmur of assent. "I don't say," he went on, "that I should
care, any more than you do, to stop here for the next two months. The
smell of dead horses and things is enough to make one ill. The water of
the river is poisonous, for we know the Boers used to throw their dead
animals in it on purpose. So I shall go down to Maritzburg and wire to
my people where I am, and ask for orders. There remains, Willesden said
the other day, still about £80 apiece at the bank, and I expect we
shall get as much for the horses as we gave for them, so that we who
have no friends here could live very comfortably for two or three
months, or have enough to pay our passage home in case they send for
us. I shall tell them to telegraph, so in a week after sending off my
wire I shall get an answer."
The others who had no friends in South Africa expressed their intention
of doing the same.
"I don't think we need bother about the horses," Chris said; "being
such good animals, I have no doubt that there are plenty of officers in
the cavalry regiments here who will be glad to buy them as remounts for
the money we gave for them. That would save us all the trouble of
getting them down by train to Maritzburg and selling them there. Well,
then, as there are no dissentients, I will tell Captain Brookfield what
we have settled."
"I quite agree with you," the officer said when Chris had told him of
their intentions. "In the first place, it would be a serious waste of
time for you to remain here. Still, that is of comparatively little
consequence, but I do think that it would be a grievous pity for you to
risk your lives further. You have done wonderfully good service. You
have had an experience that you will look back upon with satisfaction
all your lives. You have done your duty, and more than your duty. You
have before you useful lives, and have amply shown that in whatever
position you may be placed you will be a credit to yourselves and your
friends. Therefore, Chris, I think in every respect your decision is
right. It will be some relief to me, for to tell you frankly, when you
started on that expedition to Komati, and the other day, when you all
rode off to the farm, I felt that it would probably be my duty to write
to some of your parents to tell them of your deaths. Therefore, by all
means give me your resignations. I dare say that a good many of the men
in my own and other corps will be leaving also; and in that case those
who remain will, I should think, be formed into one strong regiment,
which will be of a good deal more use than half a dozen small corps."
It was agreed among the party that as they had decided to go they might
as well go at once.
"I hear," Chris said, "that General Buller is going to make a formal
entry here on Saturday, and that the garrison will line the road. I
don't know whether Dundonald's brigade will have anything to do with
it; but if he does, Brookfield will certainly like to make a good show.
So until that is over I won't do anything about the horses."
On the day appointed the garrison turned out to receive the general and
the troops who had struggled so long and gallantly to effect their
rescue, and the Devons, Gloucesters, Rifles, Leicesters, Manchesters,
Liverpools, sappers, artillerymen, and the Naval Brigade marched out
from their camps and lined the road as far as the railway-station,
where the remnant of the cavalry brigade were drawn up. At eleven
o'clock Sir George White, Sir Archibald Hunter, and Colonel Duff and
his staff rode up and took their place in the front of the shattered
tower of the town-hall. Here, too, Captain Lambton and many other
officers took their place. Not far from these were a score of civilians
who had not shared in the general exodus that had been going on from
the day on which the town was relieved, but had delayed their departure
in order to witness the historical scene. At last the head of the
column was seen approaching. Lord Dundonald's men had ridden down on
the previous day, and the mounted Colonial Volunteers had now the
honour of forming the general's escort. They led the way, and after
them came General Buller with his escort. The Dublin Fusiliers were
placed at the head of the column in acknowledgment of the gallantry
displayed by them in every fight; then came the men of Warren's,
Lyttleton's, and Barton's brigades, with their artillery. Great indeed
was the contrast between the sturdy, bronzed, and well-fed soldiers who
cheered as they marched, many of them carrying their helmets on their
bayonets, and the lines of emaciated men through whom they passed.
These cheered too, but their voices sounded strange and thin, and many,
indeed, were too much overcome by weakness and emotion to be able to
add their voices to the shouts. The enthusiasm of the troops rose to
the highest when they passed a group of women and children, who, with
streaming eyes, greeted them as they passed.
The pipes of the Highlanders and the beating of drums added to the roar
of sound. The contrast between the dress of rescuers and rescued was as
great as their personal appearance. Sir George White's men had of late
had but little work, and had prepared for the occasion to the best of
their power, as if for a review at Aldershot. They had done what they
could. Their khaki suits had been washed and scrubbed until, though
discoloured, they were scrupulously clean. The belts, accoutrements,
and rifles had all been rubbed up and scoured. On the other hand, the
uniforms of regiments that marched in were travel-stained, begrimed
with the dust of battle and the mud of bivouac, until their original
hue had entirely disappeared. They looked as if they had at first been
dragged through thorn bushes and then been given a mud-bath.
Captain Lambton rode forward to meet the sailors of the Terrible with
the guns that had done such service, followed by the howitzers which
had almost equally contributed to the final success of the operations.
He was loudly cheered by the sailors, and the heartiest greetings were
exchanged between him and their officers. Both in attack and defence
the Naval Brigade had performed inestimable services.
Behind the column came a large body of men in civilian dress. Their
appearance was as unkempt as that of the troops, but among these there
was no approach to military order, and yet their heroism had been in no
way inferior to that of the troops. These were the stretcher-bearers,
who had in every fight carried on their work of mercy under the
heaviest fire, and that without the excitement that nerves soldiers to
face danger. Many of them had fallen while so engaged, but this had in
no way unnerved their companions, who had not only carried on the work
during daylight, but had often laboured all night until the last
wounded man had been found and carried down to the hospital. When the
names of the heroes of the force that relieved Ladysmith are recounted
those of the stretcher-bearers are worthy of a place among them.
After the troops had been dismissed and matters had settled down a
little, Chris went over to the camp of the cavalry brigade, and spoke
to the first officer he met. "I have come across, sir," he said, "to
ask if any of you wish to buy remounts. The party to which I belong
have twenty-five horses; they are exceptionally good animals, and cost
us sixty pounds apiece last October. We furnished our own equipment. As
we are all sons of gentlemen at Johannesburg, we did not much mind what
we paid. Anyhow, we are ready to sell them at the price we gave for
them."
"We all want remounts badly enough," the officer said. "Will you come
in with me to the colonel?"
Entering the mess tent, where the colonel and several officers were
standing talking, Chris's guide introduced him to them, and repeated
the offer he had made. "Well, at any rate, Leslie," the colonel said,
"you and Mainwaring may as well go down and look at the horses; it
would certainly be a comfort to get remounts, for more than half of our
chargers are gone, and the rest are skeletons. I can't ask you, Mr.
King, if you would like to take anything to drink. I suppose it will be
another ten days before we are in a position to be able to offer even
the smallest approach to hospitality."
"I quite understand that, sir," Chris said. "In that respect we have
been nearly as badly off at Chieveley. We have had plenty to eat and
drink, but a cup of tea or chocolate has been the only refreshment we
have been in a position to offer to a visitor, for the line has been so
fully occupied with government transport that it has been next to
impossible to get up any private stores. I am afraid that very little
in that way can be brought up here until the bridge is repaired and the
line in working order, for it is as much as the transport will be able
to do to bring food enough from Chieveley for the troops and people
here."
The two officers were more than satisfied with the appearance of the
horses. On their report all their comrades went down, and eleven of the
animals were at once taken; a visit to the camps of two other regiments
resulted in the sale of the remainder. None of the officers was able to
pay in gold, as the paymaster's department had not a coin left, though
small payments were made to the men until nearly the end of the siege.
Chris, however, readily accepted their drafts and cheques, as these
could be paid into the bank at Maritzburg.
"That is all done," he said to his friends. "Now we will get rid of our
remaining stores which the men brought up yesterday. I propose that
instead of selling them we divide them into three and send them down to
the three cavalry messes. I am sorry we have not a few bottles of
spirits left, but the tea, and chocolate, and sugar, and so on, will be
very welcome to them."
The six natives carried the things down, and brought back with them
notes of warm thankfulness from the colonels.
"How about our saddles, Chris?"
"We can take them with us to Maritzburg. We can hand over the kettles
and so on, and the waterproof sheets, to Brookfield's men who remain
here, and the blankets can be given to the natives when we get there."
The next day, after a hearty farewell from Captain Brookfield and their
comrades, who sent them off with a ringing cheer, the party started,
marching by the side of one of the waggons that had brought up stores;
in this they placed their saddles and blankets. When they arrived at
Chieveley they had no difficulty in getting a place in a covered truck.
In this they travelled to Maritzburg. Here they stayed for three or
four days; then, after making a handsome present in addition to what
they had promised to the natives, and further gladdening their hearts
by giving them their blankets, Chris and those who were going down said
good-bye to Carmichael and his party, with hopes that they would all
meet again at Johannesburg before long. Three or four whose friends had
remained at Durban stayed there, the rest took passage together for
Cape Town.
At Maritzburg Chris had found a letter awaiting him from his mother,
saying that his father had a fortnight before joined her there, as the
Boers had commandeered the mines and had ordered him to leave, as he
would not work them for their benefit and so provide funds for the
support of the Boer army. She said that they intended to leave at once
for England, and that he was to follow them when he gave up his work
with the army. He therefore, with Field, Brown, and Capper, continued
the voyage straight on to England, and joined his parents in London,
where he enjoyed a well-earned rest, his pleasure being only marred by
the necessity for telling the story of his adventures again and again
to the relations and friends of his parents.
THE END