Redvers Buller's third attempt to force his way through to
Ladysmith failed on 8th February, when he withdrew his forces from
Vaalkranz to the south side of the Tugela. Their success was
announced by the Boers about Ladysmith in their own way. At
half-past two on the morning of 9th February, night was rent by the
sudden glare of a search-light from Bulwaan, and soon came the
scream of shells hurtling over the town. It was the Boer paean of
victory, and it sent the people hurrying to their underground
refuges, to which the unco' guid had given the name of
"funk-holes," but did no damage. Its purport was half-divined by
the defenders. The news was still said to be good, but there were
head-shakings, and even the stoutest optimism found itself unequal
to the strain when it was announced that rations were to be cut
down. If things were going well, "Why, in the name of success,"
asks Mr. Pearse in his notes for 9th February, "should our
universal provider, Colonel Ward, take this occasion to reduce
rations? We are now down to 1 lb. of meat, including horse, four
ounces of mealie meal, four ounces of bread, with a sausage ration
daily 'as far as possible.' Sausages may be mysteries elsewhere,
but we know them here to be horse-flesh, highly spiced, and nothing
more. Bread is a brown, 'clitty' mixture of mealie meal, starch,
and the unknown. Vegetables we have none, except a so-called wild
spinach that overgrew every neglected garden, and could be had for
the taking until people discovered how precious it was. Tea is
doled out at the rate of one-sixth of an ounce to each adult daily,
or in lieu thereof, coffee mixed with mealie meal."

February 10 was the day which had been looked forward to as the one
on which relief would arrive. It did not come, and though the
messages flashed over the hills from the beleaguered town at the
time were full of an heroic cheerfulness, the disappointment was
hard to bear. For with rations reduced, with disease harvesting for
death where fire and steel had failed, the defenders were now face
to face with the grimmer realities of war. Yet hope was never
absent, and never at any time did the stern determination to bid
the enemy defiance to the last flicker or grow fainter. Mr.
Pearse's diary for this period gives many details o