God be thanked! God be thanked! one of them, at least, is safe.
Kimberley has been relieved, and the others, assuredly the others will
follow? This leap from a midnight of gloom to a midday of joy has been
almost too great; life, even for the most placid, has become too
breathless, too crowded; let me pause a moment and recapitulate. I came
to London upon Saint Valentine’s day, the 14th; S. S. being on her way
south; circumstances delayed her a day, and in that day all this
happened. We had gone to see a friend; she left me to take a turn in the
Park; in a few minutes she returned breathlessly; she had met a
park-keeper and he had told her the news. Five minutes more we were both
in the park; had caught the same inspired park-keeper, and had fallen
upon him simultaneously.
“Is it true? How do you know? Who told you?”
“Quite true ma’am. Quite true ladies. You’ll find it written up at the
War Office.”
“But how? Where did they get in from? The enemy were right across;
so----”
“Well ladies, as I understand it were like this. General French was sent
north, and he fetched a big circuit as it were so. And----”
With our umbrellas we drew a hasty but effectual scheme of attack upon
the park gravel, then hurried away from our gold-braided informant in
the direction of Pall Mall.
Oddly enough St. James’s Palace did not appear to be in the least
irradiated by the intelligence! its grim old face remained as
unresponsive, and as dirty as usual. Everything else however had caught
the glamour. It shone upon the cabs, or at any rate upon their cabbies;
it lit up the sea of mud; it seemed to float along the pavements scoured
by a recent shower. Men were coming out of the clubs in groups, talking
loudly; everyone talked loudly; not an acquaintance was in sight, yet
they seemed to be all acquaintances; more than acquaintances, friends,
dear friends; we looked benignantly at them, and they looked benignantly
back at us. In London; in St. James’ Street! Tall or short, stiff or
pompous, young or old, it was all one; they were brothers; brothers in a
common joy, brothers in a common relief from an all but maddening dread.
To smile for no reason in some perfectly decorous stranger’s face
seemed to be the most usual, the most natural behaviour. Safe! Safe! It
was a chime, one which needed no joy bells to make it sound louder.
Surely for us at least it was worth the strain, worth the long suspense,
the almost hopeless anxiety for this? And Ladysmith? and Mafeking? The
turn has come; the tide has changed! We shall shortly hear the same news
of them. We shall be rejoicing over both of them to-morrow!