adily grown from inconvenience to misfortune
and from misfortune to misery. Away in the south they heard the thunder
of Buller's guns, and from the hills round the town they watched with
pale faces and bated breath the tragedy of Spion Kop, preserving a firm
conviction that a very little more would have transformed it into their
salvation. Their hearts sank with the sinking of the cannonade, and rose
again with the roar of Vaalkranz. But Vaalkranz also failed them, and
they waited on in the majesty of their hunger and their weakness for the
help which was to come.

It has been already narrated how General Buller had made his three
attempts for the relief of the city. The General who was inclined to
despair was now stimulated by despatches from Lord Roberts, while his
army, who were by no means inclined to despair, were immensely cheered
by the good news from the Kimberley side. Both General and army prepared
for a last supreme effort. This time, at least, the soldiers hoped that
they would be permitted to burst their way to the help of their starving
comrades or leave their bones among the hills which had faced them so
long. All they asked was a fight to a finish, and now they were about to
have one. General Buller had tried the Boers' centre, he had tried their
extreme right, and now he was about to try their extreme left. There
were some obvious advantages on this side which make it surprising that
it was not the first to be attempted. In the first place, the enemy's
main position upon that flank was at Hlangwane mountain, which is to
the south of the Tugela, so that in case of defeat the river ran behind
them. In the second, Hlangwane mountain was the one point from which the
Boer position at Colenso could be certainly enfiladed, and therefore
the fruits of victory would be greater on that flank than on the other.
Finally, the operations could be conducted at no great distance from the
railhead, and the force would be exposed to little danger of having its
flank attacked or its communications cut, as was the case in the Spion
Kop advance. Against these potent considerations there is only to be put
the single fact that the turning of the Boer right would threaten the
Freestaters' line of retreat. On the whole, the balance of advantage lay
entirely with the new attempt, and the whole army advanced to it with a
premonition of success. Of all the examples which the war has given of
the enduring qualities of the British tr