in, "has sent a heliograph message bidding us wait
in patience for another month until siege artillery can reach him."
The bombardment was maintained by the Boers with increased but
monotonous regularity, intensified from time to time as movements
among Buller's troops led them to strengthen their forces upon the
Tugela, with a consequent weakening of those of investment.

The firm resolve manifested by the British Government and people after
the repulse at Colenso, and the enlargement at once given to the scale
of the war and to the contemplated reinforcements, showed that,
unless {p.236} the garrison was speedily reduced, it would probably
be relieved by sheer weight of numbers. In short, the opportunity for
a decisive blow possibly now existed, but, if not quickly improved,
would certainly pass away for ever. The motive for the assault that
soon followed is not positively known; but, if the Boer information of
the damage done by their shells, and of the food and ammunition supply
in the town, was as accurate as it is believed to have been, they knew
that neither bombardment nor hunger could reduce the place before the
dreaded power of the outside enemy received full development.
Ladysmith was to them like a dead weight round the neck of a swimmer
struggling for life under other disadvantages. It is unnecessary to
seek any further reason for the assault of January 6, by whomsoever
first commanded. The words attributed to Joubert's order, "Ladysmith
must be taken before Wednesday"--the faint echo, perhaps, of
Wellington's "Ciudad Rodrigo _must_ be stormed this evening"--needed
only to be supplemented by the words, "or never," to express a
military argument to which no valid reply could {p.237} be made. As
the commander of the New Orleans forts said, "There will be no
to-morrow unless so and so is done _at once_."

Reluctant, therefore, though the Boers as a race have shown themselves
to offensive tactics and to assault, the necessities of the case
compelled them. In their plan, and in its execution, they showed all
the courage, all the tenacity, heretofore displayed in their defensive
operations, as well as the peculiar, stealthy rockcraft of a nation of
hunters, which has equally characterised them. It is not, however, too
much to add that at the supreme moment, when man stands foot to foot
and eye to eye, and when the issue depends upon superior aggressive
momentum of temperament, the national trait, whether origina