," Sir George White had said,
"we have kept the flag flying." Thank God also that the brave
defenders had been spared the worst horrors of a siege, and that
help had not longer been withheld in their extremity. Only a
concluding word remains to be said. On 6th February, when relief
seemed imminent, Mr. Pearse wrote the following in his diary:--

In this moment I want to place it on record how cordially we all
recognise the fact that Sir George White has done everything that an
able commander could do, not only for the defence of a town whose
inhabitants are entrusted to his charge, but also for the larger issues
of a campaign that might have been seriously jeopardised by any false
move on his part. In many respects, when his critics, including myself,
thought he lacked the enterprise of a great leader, events have proved
that his more cautious course was right. If mistakes were made at the
outset they have been nobly atoned for.

All who have so far followed Mr. Pearse through his brilliant pages
will acclaim his words. Such a commander was worthy of such troops,
and they no less worthy. During the whole dreary four months of the
siege they had proved themselves men in whom any General in the
world and any people might feel an exultant pride. In long days of
wearisome monotony, broken only by the scream and thud and burst of
shells, at noon beneath the fierce glow of the African sun, at
night in the sodden trenches, in season and out, they had been
patient, vigilant, ready, bearing all things, braving all things,
hoping all things and always. In the midnight attack through dark
defiles and over rugged heights, where the broken boulders made
every step a toil and a danger, they trod with a grim tenacity of
purpose, and struck with a daring that wrested a tribute from the
unaccustomed lips of their enemy. On the rocky ridges of Waggon
Hill and Caesar's Camp, when the burghers in one supreme effort
dashed against them the pick and pride of the commandos, they
fought through the hours of night till dawn gave place to day, and
the daylight waxed and waned, with a dogged, half-despairing
courage that laughed to scorn even the regardless valour of a
worthy foeman. Who shall do justice to soldiers like these?
Wherever, and as long as, the fame of the British arms is
cherished, so long, and as