As The Date Was That Of The Prince Of Wales's Birthday, A
Salute Of Twenty-One Shotted Naval Guns Wound Up A Successful Day.
The failure of the attempt upon Ladysmith seems to have convinced
the enemy that a waiting game, in which hunger, shell-fire, and
disease were their allies, would be surer and less expensive than
an open assault.
From their distant hilltops they continued to
plague the town, while garrison and citizens sat grimly patient,
and learned to endure if not to enjoy the crash of the 96-pound
shells, and the patter of shrapnel upon their corrugated-iron
roofs. The supplies were adequate, and the besieged were fortunate
in the presence of a first-class organiser, Colonel Ward of
Islington fame, who with the assistance of Colonel Stoneman
systematised the collection and issue of all the food, civil and
military, so as to stretch it to its utmost. With rain overhead and
mud underfoot, chafing at their own idleness and humiliated by
their own position, the soldiers waited through the weary weeks for
the relief which never came. On some days there was more
shell-fire, on some less; on some there was sniping, on some none;
on some they sent a little feeler of cavalry and guns out of the
town, on most they lay still - such were the ups and downs of life
in Ladysmith. The inevitable siege paper, 'The Ladysmith Lyre,'
appeared, and did something to relieve the monotony by the
exasperation of its jokes.
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