Their coming was
hailed by the long-isolated town with the wildest outbursts of
delight. Its effect is graphically suggested by Mr. Pearse in a
number of jottings in his diary on the same night:--

As night closes in there are cheers rolling towards us from the plain
beyond Klip River, where our volunteers are on patrol. Ladysmith, so
quiet and undemonstrative in its patient endurance of a long siege, goes
wild at the sound. Everybody divines its meaning. Our friends from the
victorious army of the south are coming! All the town rushes out to meet
them, where they must cross a drift. The voices of strong men break into
childish treble as they try to cheer, women laugh and cry by turns, and
all crowd about the troopers of Lord Dundonald's escort, giving them
such a welcome as few victors from the battlefield have ever known. The
hour of our deliverance has come. After a hundred and twenty-two days of
bombardment--a hundred and nineteen of close investment--the Siege of
Ladysmith is at an end. What a hero our gallant old General is to all of
us, when he rides forward to greet Lord Dundonald, and how voices
tremble with deep thankfulness while we sing "God Save the Queen"!

In a letter written on the following day, Mr. Pearse describes in
greater detail the arrival of relief, and summarises his
impressions at the time:--

LADYSMITH, _March 1._--The relieving force joined hands with us last
night, and Ladysmith gave itself away to an outburst of wild enthusiasm
at the sight of troops so long expected and so often heard fighting in
the distance, that some despondent people had almost begun to think they
would never come. After the roar of battle ceased on Tuesday, we knew by
signs that could not be mistaken that Sir Redvers Buller had gained a
great victory even before the heliograph flashed to us the glad tidings
in his own words. I had come to the conclusion, watching from
Observation Hill, soon after daybreak on Wednesday morning, and seeing
the enemy's convoys in three columns, miles long, trekking northwards,
that they were in full retreat. Their guns were hurrying to the rear
also, and horsemen in scattered groups, to the number of thousands, were
galloping past positions on which some stand might still have been made,
a sure sign that they were beaten and did not mean to rally. But the
best indication of all was the attempt to remove the big gun from
Bulwaan that has shelled us persis