anks gripped each other's hands and shouted, everyone was
carried away, and I waved my feathered hat, and cheered and cheered
until I could cheer no longer for joy that I had lived to see the day.

At length all was over. The last dust-brown battalion had passed away
and the roadway was again clear. Yet the ceremony was incomplete. Before
the staff could ride away the Mayor of Ladysmith advanced and requested
Sir George White to receive an address which the townspeople had
prepared and were anxious to present to him. The General dismounted from
his horse, and standing on the steps of the Town Hall, in the midst of
the inhabitants whom he had ruled so rigorously during the hard months
of the siege, listened while their Town Clerk read their earnest
grateful thanks to him for saving their town from the hands of the
enemy. The General replied briefly, complimented them on their behaviour
during the siege, thanked them for the way in which they had borne their
many hardships and submitted to the severe restrictions which the
circumstances of war had brought on them, and rejoiced with them that
they had been enabled by their devotion and by the bravery of the
soldiers to keep the Queen's flag flying over Ladysmith. And then
everybody cheered everybody else, and so, very tired and very happy, we
all went home to our belated luncheons.

Walking through the streets it was difficult to see many signs of the
bombardment. The tower of the Town Hall was smashed and chipped, several
houses showed large holes in their walls, and heaps of broken brickwork
lay here and there. But on the whole the impression produced was one of
surprise that the Boers had done so little damage with the sixteen
thousand shells they had fired during the siege.

On entering the houses, however, the effect was more apparent. In one
the floor was ripped up, in another the daylight gleamed through the
corrugated iron roof, and in some houses the inner walls had been
completely destroyed, and only heaps of rubbish lay on the floor.

The fortifications which the troops had built, though of a very strong
and effective character, were neither imposing nor conspicuous; indeed,
being composed of heaps of stone they were visible only as dark lines on
the rugged kopjes, and if the fame of the town were to depend on relics
of the war it would not long survive the siege.

But memories dwell among the tin houses and on the stony hills that will
keep the name of Lady