hopes of an easy victory, they quitted themselves like men when
they realised their tremendous mistake. The long fierce struggle is
vividly described in the following letter written two days after:--

[Illustration: THE ENVIRONS OF LADYSMITH]

Saturday's stubborn fight was a surprise in more senses than one. Nobody
here had credited the Boers with a determination to attack, unless
chance should give them overwhelming superiority in all respects, and
for that chance they have waited so supinely that it seemed probable the
game of long bowls with heavy artillery, varied by "sniping" from behind
rocks a mile off, would continue to be played day after day in the hope
of starving us into subjection, before Sir Redvers Buller could bring
up his relieving force. Everybody knew that issue to be well-nigh
impossible, because our resources are far from starvation point yet, and
it is inconceivable that eight or ten thousand British soldiers could be
hemmed in by three times their number of Boers, and compelled to yield
without a desperate fight in the last extremity. We were fully aware
that if ever an opening offered for the Boers to creep up within shorter
range, under cover, and without being seen, they would be prompt to take
advantage of it, in expectation of bringing off another Majuba, and that
is a danger to which our extenuated defensive lines necessarily expose
us, but we trusted with justice, as events have proved, to the
steadiness and discipline of well-trained troops, to hold the Boers in
check wherever they might gain any temporary advantage, and drive them
back at the bayonet's point. That they would even push an attack to
storming point few if any among us believed, for the simple reason that
rifles are of no use against cold steel when combatants come to close
quarters. The Boers know that well enough. Their only hope in attack
therefore rests on the chance of being able by stealth to seize an
advantageous position whence they may bring a deadly rifle fire to bear
on the defenders, whom they hope by this means to throw into panic.

That was the plan they tried on Saturday, being urged to it, as we have
since learned, by peremptory orders and fair promises from Joubert, who
is said to have watched the fight from a distance. That, however, seems
improbable, if Sir Redvers Buller was at the same time threatening a
movement against the Tugela Heights, though it is certain that Joubert
attached great