I wish that the general would issue an order
dismounting us all and filling up the gaps in the line regiments with
us. Then at least we should have a chance of fighting, which does not
seem likely ever to come to us here. You are not going to leave those
big boxes behind you, are you?"
"Yes, we are going to leave them in the care of the captain, with a note
saying that if we do not turn up again before Ladysmith is relieved,
they are to be handed over to the poor beggars there."
"There is one thing I cannot say, and that is that we have been short of
food, for the Army Service Corps has done splendidly, and no one has
ever been hungry for an hour, except when on a long march or engaged in
a battle. If everything had been worked as well, we should certainly
have no reason whatever to complain. If I were my own master, and could
afford it, I would go down to Durban and take a passage for myself and
my horse for Port Elizabeth, and then go up and enlist in one of the
yeomanry corps with Roberts. When he once starts there will be plenty of
movement on that side; while here, even if we get to Ladysmith, we may
be fixed there for no one can say how long. You see what it is here, and
if the Boers don't lose heart, and defend the Biggarsberg and the
Drakensberg, we shall find at least as much difficulty there as we shall
here.
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