my cavalry on as
fast as very bad roads will admit to ascertain where they are going. I
believe the enemy to be in full retreat."

It was even so. General Buller and his gallant army, by dint of
heroic qualities, with an unshakable determination which faltered
before nothing; with a patient endurance which bore all things
unmurmuringly; with a sublime courage face to face with the enemy
which has earned them the often unwilling praise of the world, had
overcome at last. On the night of 28th February, when the above
note was written, the head of the relief column, under Lord
Dundonald, arrived in the town.

CHAPTER XIII

RELIEF AT LAST

The beginning of the end--Buller's last advance--Heroic
Inniskillings--The coming of Dundonald--A welcome at Klip River
Drift--A weather-stained horseman--The Natal troopers--Cheers and
tears--A grand old General--Sir George White's address--"Thank God,
we have kept the flag flying!"--"God save the Queen"--Arrival of
Buller--Looking backward--Within four days of
starvation--Horseflesh a mere memory--Eight hundred sick and
wounded--A word in tribute--Conclusion.

The beginning of the end had come on 13th February, when General
Buller's army of relief had opened the attack on Hussar Hill. From
that day fighting had been fierce and practically continuous, the
enemy giving way only after the most stubborn resistance, and
taking advantage of every opportunity to make a stand. During that
fortnight over 2000 officers and men of General Buller's force paid
the price of their dauntless courage; and in all the glorious story
no page is brighter than that which puts on undying record the
devoted gallantry of the Inniskillings, who were, to all practical
intents, wiped out in attacking Pieter's Hill, the last bar across
the road to Ladysmith, on the 23rd. Wounded and dying and dead lay
out together uncomforted, uncared for throughout the long hours of
Saturday until Sunday morning, when a truce was agreed to. Still
the hill was not won, and was to be held by the enemy until the
27th, the nineteenth anniversary of Majuba, a day no longer to be
held in shameful memory. On the following day the Boers were in
full retreat; and Lord Dundonald, with a small body of mounted
troops, made a dash across the hills to Ladysmith.