[Footnote: Accurate Figures Will Probably
Never Be Obtained, But A Well-Known Boer In Pretoria Informed Me
That Pieters Was The Most Expensive Fight To Them Of The Whole War.
] It Seemed To The British General And His Men That One More Action
Would Bring Them Safely Into Ladysmith.
But here they miscalculated, and so often have we miscalculated on
the optimistic side in this campaign that it is pleasing to find
for once that our hopes were less than the reality.
The Boers had
been beaten - fairly beaten and disheartened. It will always be a
subject for conjecture whether they were so entirely on the
strength of the Natal campaign, or whether the news of the Cronje
disaster from the western side had warned them that they must draw
in upon the east. For my own part I believe that the honour lies
with the gallant men of Natal, and that, moving on these lines,
they would, Cronje or no Cronje, have forced their way in triumph
to Ladysmith.
And now the long-drawn story draws to a swift close. Cautiously
feeling their way with a fringe of horse, the British pushed over
the great plain, delayed here and there by the crackle of musketry,
but finding always that the obstacle gave way and vanished as they
approached it. At last it seemed clear to Dundonald that there
really was no barrier between his horsemen and the beleaguered
city. With a squadron of Imperial Light Horse and a squadron of
Natal Carabineers he rode on until, in the gathering twilight, the
Ladysmith picket challenged the approaching cavalry, and the
gallant town was saved.
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