They had seen the Boers breaking up their camps, carrying
off their stores either by waggon across the western passes or by the
trains from Modder Spruit. They had seen the cannon being withdrawn from
their positions on the hills, and felt that their deliverance was at
hand.
Through an ever-increasing crowd the column moved on.
[Illustration: THE RELIEF OF LADYSMITH.]
From barrack and hospital, from dwelling-house and the dug-out shelter-
caves on the railway bank people flocked up. Sir George White and his
staff, the mayor, and the town guards, every officer and soldier, joined
in the greeting. But no stay was made. After a few minutes' talk with
Sir George White, Lord Dundonald gave the order, and the cavalry moved
forward, and as soon as they were free from the crowd trotted on at a
rapid pace in hopes of overtaking the retiring Boers, and glad that the
scene to which they had looked forward with such pleasant expectations
was at an end. There had not been a dry eye among them. None could have
witnessed the sobbing women, the men down whose cheeks the tears
streamed uncontrolledly, and have remained himself unmoved.
"It is terrible," Chris said to Sankey, who was riding next to him. "I
could not have imagined anything so dreadful as their appearance.
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