; and who shall blame him if he shortened by just a handful or
so the allowance for horses that are rationed on a special scale rather
than turn a half-starved outcast empty away? But sentiment is a mistake
when kindness can do no more than prolong misery. There is no horse
sickness yet in the epidemic form. They simply pine for want of
nourishment until, too weak even to nibble the grass about them, they
drop and die. Some day we may have a use for them before things come to
that extremity, but at present the difficulty is to dispose of their
carcases. Sanitary considerations forbid that they shall be buried in
town or near camp. The enemy shells working parties, who begin to dig
pits on the open plain, and so an incinerating furnace has been built
for the cremation of horses.

[Illustration: SIEGE OF LADYSMITH, AFTER TWO MONTHS OF BOMBARDMENT]

In the early days of the year the Boer batteries became much more
active. We shall see that they were preparing for a climax, which,
however, by the splendid bravery and determination of the garrison,
was to be turned into one of disaster for the enemy rather than for
the defenders. We are now within three days of the hottest ordeal
Sir George White and his gallant army had to pass through.
Happenings in the short interval are thus described in Mr. Pearse's
notes:--

_January 3._--For two days the Boer fire from Bulwaan has been directed
mainly at the Town Hall or buildings near it, with occasional diversions
towards the Intelligence Offices on one side, or the Indian Ordnance
Laager on the other. Within these limits of deviation are the busiest
parts of Ladysmith, bakeries for the supply of all who are invested,
depots at which civilians assemble to draw their daily rations beside
the Market Square, where lank-sided dogs snarl over refuse, and such
stores as have still something to sell that has not been requisitioned
for military uses. The Royal Hotel seems to be a mark once more. Several
shells have come near hitting it to-day, and not twenty yards from the
room in which I am making these notes a shrapnel has just burst through
the wall of a stable. One horse standing there seems to be badly
wounded, but curiously enough hardly shows any signs of terror, though
the explosion close to him must have sounded terrific, and he was half
blinded by dust mingled with fumes of melinite. The fact that Boers use
high explosives for bursting cha