It Is Very Certain That Had
Ladysmith Fallen, And Twelve Thousand British Soldiers With A
Million Pounds' Worth Of Stores Fallen Into The Hands Of The
Invaders, We Should Have Been Faced With The Alternative Of
Abandoning The Struggle, Or Of Reconquering South Africa From Cape
Town Northwards.
South Africa is the keystone of the Empire, and
for the instant Ladysmith was the keystone of South Africa.
But the
courage of the troops who held the shell-torn townlet, and the
confidence of the public who watched them, never faltered for an
instant.
December 8th was marked by a gallant exploit on the part of the
beleaguered garrison. Not a whisper had transpired of the coming
sortie, and a quarter of an hour before the start officers engaged
had no idea of it. O si sic omnia! At ten o'clock a band of men
slipped out of the town. There were six hundred of them, all
irregulars, drawn from the Imperial Light Horse, the Natal
Carabineers, and the Border Mounted Rifles, under the command of
Hunter, youngest and most dashing of British Generals. Edwardes and
Boyston were the subcommanders. The men had no knowledge of where
they were going or what they had to do, but they crept silently
along under a drifting sky, with peeps of a quarter moon, over a
mimosa-shadowed plain. At last in front of them there loomed a dark
mass - it was Gun Hill, from which one of the great Creusots had
plagued them. A strong support (four hundred men) was left at the
base of the hill, and the others, one hundred Imperials, one
hundred Borders and Carabineers, ten Sappers, crept upwards with
Major Henderson as guide. A Dutch outpost challenged, but was
satisfied by a Dutch-speaking Carabineer. Higher and higher the men
crept, the silence broken only by the occasional slip of a stone or
the rustle of their own breathing. Most of them had left their
boots below. Even in the darkness they kept some formation, and the
right wing curved forward to outflank the defence. Suddenly a
Mauser crack and a spurt of flame - then another and another! 'Come
on, boys! Fix bayonets!' yelled Karri Davies. There were no
bayonets, but that was a detail. At the word the gunners were off,
and there in the darkness in front of the storming party loomed the
enormous gun, gigantic in that uncertain light. Out with the huge
breech-block! Wrap the long lean muzzle round with a collar of
gun-cotton! Keep the guard upon the run until the work is done!
Hunter stood by with a night light in his hand until the charge was
in position, and then, with a crash which brought both armies from
their tents, the huge tube reared up on its mountings and toppled
backwards into the pit. A howitzer lurked beside it, and this also
was blown into ruin. The attendant Maxim was dragged back by the
exultant captors, who reached the town amid shoutings and laughter
with the first break of day.
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