d to General Buller and his column, and he congratulated
his own soldiers on the defence they had made.

"I am very sorry, men," he said, "that I had to cut down your rations.
I--I promise you I won't do it again."

Then he stopped very suddenly and whirled his horse's head around and
rode away. Judging from the number of times they told me of this, the
fact that they had all but seen an English general give way to his
feelings seemed to have impressed the civilian mind of Ladysmith more
than the entrance of the relief force. The men having come in and
demonstrated that the way was open, rode forth again, and the relief of
Ladysmith had taken place. But it is not the people cheering in the dark
streets, nor General White breaking down in his speech of welcome, which
gives the note to the way the men of Ladysmith received their freedom.
It is rather the fact that as the two hundred battle-stained and
earth-stained troopers galloped forward, racing to be the first, and
rising in their stirrups to cheer, the men in the hospital camps said,
"Well, they're come at last, have they?" and continued fussing over their
fourth of a ration of tea. That gives the real picture of how Ladysmith
came into her inheritance, and of how she received her rescuers.

On the morning after Dundonald had ridden in and out of Ladysmith, two
other correspondents and myself started to relieve it on our own account.
We did not know the way to Ladysmith, and we did not then know whether or
not the Boers still occupied Bulwana Mountain. But we argued that the
chances of the Boers having raised the siege were so good that it was
worth risking their not having done so, and being taken prisoner.

We carried all the tobacco we could pack in our saddle-bags, and enough
food for one day. My chief regret was that my government, with true
republican simplicity, had given me a passport, type-written on a modest
sheet of notepaper and wofully lacking in impressive seals and coats of
arms. I fancied it would look to Boer eyes like one I might have forged
for myself in the writing-room of the hotel at Cape Town.

We had ridden up Pieter's Hill and scrambled down on its other side
before we learned that the night before Dundonald had raised the siege.
We learned this from long trains of artillery and regiments of infantry
which already were moving forward over the great plain which lies between
Pieter's and Bulwana. We learned it also from the silence o