inst
disease--"Chevril"--The damming of the Klip--Horseflesh
unabashed--One touch of pathos--Vague memories of home--Sweet music
from the south--Buller tries again--Disillusionment--The last pipe
of tobacco.

Whatever may have been the precise cost to the Boers of their bold
attempt to rush the British defences on 6th January, it was
certainly heavy enough to prevent its being renewed. From this time
forward they settled themselves resignedly to wait until disease
and starvation in the town should have done for them what their
best and bravest had failed to do, man against man. And, indeed,
disease following upon many long weeks of privation, of nights and
days passed in the trenches under drenching rain, or the fierce
rays of the African sun, began now to make havoc among the troops.
Many a brave fellow, who had fought and won at Dundee or at
Elandslaagte, who with fierce, courage had endured in the foremost
line in the struggle at Bester's Ridge, now fell a victim to
enteric fever or dysentery in the camp at Intombi. The lists of the
sick and the mortality returns grew daily more formidable, rations
soon had to be reduced, and all within the town, patient as had
been their endurance, now began to look eagerly towards the relief
that Sir Redvers Buller had promised in a month. As the time
approached at which his second attempt to force the Tugela might be
expected, hope revived. The relieving column, it was known, had
been reinforced, and it seemed impossible that the enemy could once
again bar its progress.

During the fierce fighting at Ladysmith there were times when Sir
George White had grave fears that he would not be longer able to
hold the defences against the enemy. The fortunes of the day, as
the hours lengthened, were reflected in a series of telegrams which
were flashed through by him to Sir Redvers Buller in his camp south
of the Tugela. One of these brief heliograms reported that the
defenders were "hard pressed," and in the afternoon, somewhat
tardily as it seems, General Buller made a demonstration with all
his available force towards the enemy's trenches. The object was to
hold the Boers to their positions on the river, and to prevent the
commandos attacking Ladysmith from being reinforced. As far as
could be ascertai