Amid all this strain, intent upon vital issues, one hardly takes note of trivialities.  Even the daily bombardment seems of little importance, and nobody cares how many shots “Puffing Billy” fired yesterday.  For me the strain is tightened by news heliographed this morning that another son has come round from Bulawayo and joined the relieving force as a lieutenant of Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry.  I don’t know whether pride or anxiety is paramount when I think of these two boys fighting their way towards me.  Both are with Lord Dundonald’s Irregular Horse, of which we have heard much from Kaffirs, who tell us that Thorneycroft’s Rifles and the “Sakkabulu boys,” who are now identified as the South African Light Horse, have been in the front of every fight.  It may seem egotistical to let this personal note stand, but I take the incident to be an illustration of the spirit that animates English youth at this moment.

On Saturday (February 17) the artillery fire sounded far off on the other side of the Tugela.  Next morning we could see shells bursting along the nearer crest of Monte Cristo, and up to eleven o’clock the fierce cannonade was ceaseless.  How the action had ended we could only judge by Boer movements.  From Observation Hill I saw their ambulance waggons trekking heavy across the plain behind Rifleman’s Ridge, then a bigger waggon, uncovered, drawn by a large span of oxen.  There may have been a long gun in that waggon, its movements were so slow and cumbersome.  Two ambulance waggons passed in the opposite direction, light and moving at a gallop.

Yesterday came news of General Buller’s success in the capture of Cingolo Hill, but before it was signalled we had seen from Caesar’s Camp British infantry crowning the nearer ridge of Monte Cristo.  They came up in column, and deployed with a steadiness that showed them to be masters of the position.  In the evening I met Sir George White, who told me that he believed Sir Redvers had gained another success.  To-day, again, shells from the southern guns have been bursting about ridges south of Caesar’s Camp, where the Boers are still in force.  This afternoon, and well on to evening, we could hear the busy hum of field guns in action firing very rapidly, as if a fresh attack were about to develop.  Sir Redvers is evidently resolved not to give the enemy any rest or time for fortifying other positions.

The above was written on 20th February.  General Buller had captured Hlangwane Hill, the real key of the enemy’s position, and on the following day the whole of Warren’s Division crossed the Tugela by a pontoon bridge thrown across by the Royal Engineers.  The significance of the fact was at once recognised at Ladysmith, and that day saw the last of the hated horse-flesh ration.  Events were now moving fast.  The Boers were preparing for flight, hope began to beat high in the town, and already the memory of past sufferings and the irk of those still