that honors might be
even, formed them in sections with the half sections made up from each of
the two organizations. All the officers were placed in front, and with a
cheer they started to race across the plain.

The wig-waggers on Convent Hill had already seen them, and the
townspeople and the garrison were rushing through the streets to meet
them, cheering and shouting, and some of them weeping. Others, so
officers tell me, who were in the different camps, looked down upon the
figures galloping across the plain in the twilight, and continued making
tea.

Just as they had reached the centre of the town, General Sir George White
and his staff rode down from head-quarters and met the men whose coming
meant for him life and peace and success. They were advancing at a walk,
with the cheering people hanging to their stirrups, clutching at their
hands and hanging to the bridles of their horses.

General White's first greeting was characteristically unselfish and
loyal, and typical of the British officer. He gave no sign of his own in
calculable relief, nor did he give to Caesar the things which were
Caesar's. He did not cheer Dundonald, nor Buller, nor the column which
had rescued him and his garrison from present starvation and probable
imprisonment at Pretoria. He raised his helmet and cried, "We will give
three cheers for the Queen!" And then the general and the healthy,
ragged, and sunburned troopers from the outside world, the starved,
fever-ridden garrison, and the starved, fever-ridden civilians stood with
hats off and sang their national anthem.

The column outside had been fighting steadily for six weeks to get
Dundonald or any one of its force into Ladysmith; for fourteen days it
had been living in the open, fighting by night as well as by day, without
halt or respite; the garrison inside had been for four months holding the
enemy at bay with the point of the bayonet; it was famished for food, it
was rotten with fever, and yet when the relief came and all turned out
well, the first thought of every one was for the Queen!

It may be credulous in them or old-fashioned; but it is certainly very
unselfish, and when you take their point of view it is certainly very
fine.

After the Queen every one else had his share of the cheering, and General
White could not complain of the heartiness with which they greeted him,
he tried to make a speech in reply, but it was a brief one. He spoke of
how much they owe