It seemed to them that they were surrounded by a
population of skeletons, haggard and worn, almost too weak to drag
themselves along, almost too feeble to shout, their clothes in rags,
their eyes unnaturally large, their hands nerveless, their utterances
broken by sobs. They realized for the first time how terrible had been
the privations, how great the sufferings of the garrison and people of
Ladysmith. For the soldiers were there as well as the civilians. There
was little military in their appearance; there was no uniformity in
their dress, save that all were alike ragged, stained and destitute of
colour.
Could their rescuers have seen them, themselves unseen, a few days
earlier, they would have been even more shocked. Then the listlessness
brought about by hope deferred, and of late almost the extinction of
hope, weakness caused by disease and famine, had been supreme; and had
the Boers had any idea of the state to which they were reduced, a
renewal of the attack of the eth of January could hardly have failed of
success. The last few days, however, had revived their hopes. They had
learned by the ever-nearing roar of the cannon that progress was being
made, and for the past four days had from elevated points near the town
been able to make out the movements of our troops on the positions they
had captured.
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