r still round
the stricken town.

A record of the siege onwards until the break of the New Year centres
upon the sordid details of the sick returns and of the price of food.
Fifty on one day, seventy on the next, passed under the hands of the
overworked and devoted doctors. Fifteen hundred, and later two thousand,
of the garrison were down. The air was poisoned by foul sewage and dark
with obscene flies. They speckled the scanty food. Eggs were already a
shilling each, cigarettes sixpence, whisky five pounds a bottle: a city
more free from gluttony and drunkenness has never been seen.

Shell-fire has shown itself in this war to be an excellent ordeal for
those who desire martial excitement with a minimum of danger. But
now and again some black chance guides a bomb--one in five thousand
perhaps--to a most tragic issue. Such a deadly missile falling among
Boers near Kimberley is said to have slain nine and wounded seventeen.
In Ladysmith too there are days to be marked in red when the gunner shot
better than he knew. One shell on December 17th killed six men (Natal
Carabineers), wounded three, and destroyed fourteen horses. The grisly
fact has been recorded that five separate human legs lay upon the
ground. On December 22nd another tragic shot killed five and wounded
twelve of the Devons. On the same day four officers of the 5th Lancers
(including the Colonel) and one sergeant were wounded--a most disastrous
day. A little later it was again the turn of the Devons, who lost one
officer killed and ten wounded. Christmas set in amid misery, hunger,
and disease, the more piteous for the grim attempts to amuse the
children and live up to the joyous season, when the present of Santa
Claus was too often a 96-pound shell. On the top of all other troubles
it was now known that the heavy ammunition was running short and must
be husbanded for emergencies. There was no surcease, however, in the
constant hail which fell upon the town. Two or three hundred shells were
a not unusual daily allowance. The monotonous bombardment with which
the New Year had commenced was soon to be varied by a most gallant and
spirit-stirring clash of arms. On January 6th the Boers delivered their
great assault upon Ladysmith--an onfall so gallantly made and gallantly
met that it deserves to rank among the classic fights of British
military history. It is a tale which neither side need be ashamed to
tell. Honour to the sturdy infantry who held their grip s