In
any event, it is a family row and of no interest to the outsider.
The main fact is that he did make a dash for it, and just at sunset
found himself with two hundred men only a mile from the "Doomed
City." His force was composed of Natal Carbiniers and Imperial Light
Horse. He halted them, and in order that honors might be even,
formed them in sections with the half sections made up from each of
the two organizations. All the officers were placed in front, and
with a cheer they started to race across the plain.
The wig-waggers on Convent Hill had already seen them, and the
townspeople and the garrison were rushing through the streets to meet
them, cheering and shouting, and some of them weeping. Others, so
officers tell me, who were in the different camps, looked down upon
the figures galloping across the plain in the twilight, and continued
making tea.
Just as they had reached the centre of the town, General Sir George
White and his staff rode down from head-quarters and met the men
whose coming meant for him life and peace and success. They were
advancing at a walk, with the cheering people hanging to their
stirrups, clutching at their hands and hanging to the bridles of
their horses.
General White's first greeting was characteristically unselfish and
loyal, and typical of the British officer. He gave no sign of his
own in calculable relief, nor did he give to Caesar the things which
were Caesar's. He did not cheer Dundonald, nor Buller, nor the
column which had rescued him and his garrison from present starvation
and probable imprisonment at Pretoria. He raised his helmet and
cried, "We will give three cheers for the Queen!" And then the
general and the healthy, ragged, and sunburned troopers from the
outside world, the starved, fever-ridden garrison, and the starved,
fever-ridden civilians stood with hats off and sang their national
anthem.
The column outside had been fighting steadily for six weeks to get
Dundonald or any one of its force into Ladysmith; for fourteen days
it had been living in the open, fighting by night as well as by day,
without halt or respite; the garrison inside had been for four months
holding the enemy at bay with the point of the bayonet; it was
famished for food, it was rotten with fever, and yet when the relief
came and all turned out well, the first thought of every one was for
the Queen!
It may be credulous in them or old-fashioned; but it is certainly
very unselfish, and when you take their point of view it is certainly
very fine.
