Vaalkranz Was Abandoned, And
Hildyard's Brigade, Seething With Indignation, Was Ordered Back
Once More To Its Camp.
CHAPTER 17.
BULLER'S FINAL ADVANCE.
The heroic moment of the siege of Ladysmith was that which
witnessed the repulse of the great attack. The epic should have
ended at that dramatic instant. But instead of doing so the story
falls back to an anticlimax of crowded hospitals, slaughtered
horses, and sporadic shell fire. For another six weeks of
inactivity the brave garrison endured all the sordid evils which
had steadily grown from inconvenience to misfortune and from
misfortune to misery. Away in the south they heard the thunder of
Buller's guns, and from the hills round the town they watched with
pale faces and bated breath the tragedy of Spion Kop, preserving a
firm conviction that a very little more would have transformed it
into their salvation. Their hearts sank with the sinking of the
cannonade, and rose again with the roar of Vaalkranz. But Vaalkranz
also failed them, and they waited on in the majesty of their hunger
and their weakness for the help which was to come.
It has been already narrated how General Buller had made his three
attempts for the relief of the city. The General who was inclined
to despair was now stimulated by despatches from Lord Roberts,
while his army, who were by no means inclined to despair, were
immensely cheered by the good news from the Kimberley side. Both
General and army prepared for a last supreme effort.
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