Buller at bay for three months.

Bulwana Mountain is shaped like a brick and blocks the valley in which
Ladysmith lies. The railroad track slips around one end of the brick,
and the Dundee trail around the other. It was on this mountain that the
Boers had placed their famous gun, Long Tom, with which they began the
bombardment of Ladysmith, and with which up to the day before Ladysmith
was relieved they had thrown three thousand shells into that miserable
town.

If the Boers on retreating from Pieter's Hill had fortified this mountain
with the purpose of holding off Buller for a still longer time, they
would have been under a fire from General White's artillery in the town
behind them and from Buller's naval guns in front. Their position would
not have been unlike that of Humpty Dumpty on the wall, so they wisely
adopted the only alternative and slipped away. This was on Tuesday
night, while the British were hurrying up artillery to hold the hills
they had taken that afternoon.

By ten o'clock the following morning from the top of Pieter's Hill you
could still see the Boers moving off along the Dundee road. It was an
easy matter to follow them, for the dust hung above the trail in a yellow
cloud, like mist over a swamp. There were two opinions as to whether
they were halting at Bulwana or passing it, on their way to Laing's Neck.
If they were going only to Bulwana there was the probability of two
weeks' more fighting before they could be dislodged. If they had avoided
Bulwana, the way to Ladysmith was open.

Lord Dundonald, who is in command of a brigade of irregular cavalry, was
scouting to the left of Bulwana, far in advance of our forces. At sunset
he arrived, without having encountered the Boers, at the base of Bulwana.
He could either return and report the disappearance of the enemy or he
could make a dash for it and enter Ladysmith. His orders were "to go,
look, see," and avoid an action, and the fact that none of his brigade
was in the triumphant procession which took place three days later has
led many to think that in entering the besieged town without orders he
offended the commanding general. In any event, it is a family row and of
no interest to the outsider. The main fact is that he did make a dash
for it, and just at sunset found himself with two hundred men only a mile
from the "Doomed City." His force was composed of Natal Carbiniers and
Imperial Light Horse. He halted them, and in order