Part 39 (2/2)
Here he found that all was bustle. Loyal to the heart, the inhabitants of this old town had for many long weeks been energetically aiding the Government authorities. Relief committees had been inst.i.tuted to manage the funds sent out from the English public, and had already done enormous good in lessening the sufferings of the poor people who had fled at the commencement of the war from Johannesburg and other parts of the two republics, bringing with them only what wealth they could carry.
Hospitals had been arranged in various public buildings, and in these, ladies--high-born, rich, and poor--worked with a will. At the front their services were not wanted, for the war was a stern and sanguinary one in which only men could take a part; but here, out of sound of the cannon's roar, they were doing a n.o.ble work, and while they ministered to the poor suffering soldiers, at the same time they eased their own aching hearts, and distracted in some measure their own troubled thoughts, for scarcely one of them but had some dear one, husband or brother, cooped up in the beleaguered camp of Ladysmith and exposed to the fire of the Boer guns.
Amongst them Jack found Mrs Hunter, and one can imagine with what joy and tears she greeted him, and how eagerly she listened to the messages sent her by her husband. In a twinkling the news that someone had arrived who had recently escaped from Ladysmith spread through the town, and nurses flocked from every hospital to interview him.
Poor Jack! Naturally a bashful lad, especially where ladies were concerned, it proved a most trying ordeal for him, and far more so than his interview with the correspondent. But at last he satisfied them all, having in the large majority of cases only good news to give. Then he said good-bye to Mrs Hunter, promised to convey all her messages to Wilfred, and once more boarding the train, set out for Durban.
Here he was fortunate enough to find a transport sailing for Cape Town, and that night was again at sea.
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
JACK FINDS A SWEETHEART.
When Jack came on deck upon the following morning, after leaving the port of Durban, it was to discover that the transport on which he had obtained a pa.s.sage was conveying a most important personage--one of the chief officers on the staff of the commander-in-chief in Africa. Like Jack, this staff-officer had recently journeyed from General Sir Redvers Buller's camp, and though he was a stranger to our hero, yet, to Jack's surprise, no sooner did he catch sight of him than he stepped briskly towards him, and with outstretched hand addressed him in the most affable tones.
”Ah, Mr Somerton,” he commenced, giving Jack's hand a hearty shake, and smiling at his evident astonishment, ”this is a pleasure! I knew, of course, that you were leaving Chieveley for Lord Roberts's force, but did not imagine that we should make the sea-trip together. As it is, it will save me the trouble of finding you at the other end. You must know, my young friend, that you have made quite a reputation for yourself as a colonial despatch-carrier and scout, and I have been instructed to make use of your services if you feel so disposed. Are you ready to do something more for us? Of course, we have all heard how you and young Poynter got through from Ladysmith, and I may tell you that it is a service of a similar nature for which we want you now.”
”Certainly, sir,” Jack answered with a flush. ”I am prepared to undertake anything in the nature of despatch-carrying or scouting that may be given me, and if Kimberley is the destination for the messages so much the better, for I have friends in there whom I am anxious to meet again.”
”Then, my lad, this is the very job to suit you!” the staff-officer exclaimed. ”Shortly put, the service which you are asked to undertake is this--ride to Kimberley and carry a letter and verbal instructions to its commanding officer, and afterwards return to us. There is a big and most important movement afoot. But I will tell you about it later, when we arrive at the Modder River. It is a great satisfaction to hear that we may rely upon you.”
”It's just the thing I should like,” Jack remarked eagerly. Then, seeing that his new acquaintance did not care, for some reason, to discuss the matter further at that moment, he changed the conversation.
Soon they descended to the saloon for breakfast, and from that day until they reached the Modder River below Kimberley they were constantly together.
While they are being swiftly conveyed along the South African coast we will leave them laughing and chatting, and return for a few moments to Old England to view matters there.
At first the news of the reverses at Magersfontein, Stormberg, and Colenso found her like one in a dream. ”Was it true,” she asked herself, ”that her brave and hitherto invincible troops had been thus hardly dealt with by a horde of men who were little more than uncivilised peasants? Could it be a fact that the Boer forces were far more numerous than had been imagined, and that in guns and ammunition they were so abundantly supplied that our cannon and the sh.e.l.ls we fired were swamped and sometimes altogether outranged? Could these facts be true?” It was almost impossible to believe them. But for all that, unpalatable though the truth was, the reality of it all quickly dawned upon the country. The beginning of the war had found our millions resolved as one man to carry it through to a successful issue, and now, instead of weeping over past failures and the ill-luck which had attended their troops, they maintained a dignified silence and watched patiently to see what the Government would do.
The latter instantly ordered out more troops and a supply of more powerful guns, and, in addition, they called upon the ready volunteers and the yeomanry for their aid. And with what result? There was a rush to obey the call to arms. Beneath the calm surface of a business life there lurked in the hearts of our young manhood a pa.s.sionate desire for active fighting, to throw off the trammels of an office desk and take rifle in place of pen. Men flocked from every part of the country, and those whose age or infirmities prevented their joining in the movement cut asunder their purse strings and poured out their gold.
The city of London, ever foremost in patriotic work, organised and equipped a force of 1400 men and sent them to the front by means of private subscription alone; and all over the country funds were provided to furnish st.u.r.dy yeomen for the war.
Then, too, our colonies, not to be outdone, sent other contingents of men, and England, recognising the vastness of the task before her, despatched Lord Roberts of Kandahar--the famous and ever-popular ”Bobs”--and Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, two of her finest generals, to the Cape to a.s.sume chief command and lighten the labours of General Buller, already sufficiently engaged in the struggle to relieve the invested town of Ladysmith.
While the Imperial Volunteers and the Yeomanry are being equipped and hurried on board transports for Africa, accompanied by an ever-increasing number of big guns, let us once more return to the neighbourhood of the River Tugela and join the gallant and determined men under, the command of General Sir Redvers Buller.
Foiled in their frontal attack, they were far from leaving the invested town of Ladysmith to its fate, and after long and carefully-thought-out preparations, the army once more advanced on the impregnable Boer positions. These stretched some ten miles along more or less continuous ridges on the northern side of the Tugela, and to turn the enemy out of their trenches a vast flanking movement was attempted. Preceded by a brigade of cavalry under Lord Dundonald, two-thirds of our force advanced against the Boer right flank, and captured and covered with their guns Potgieter's Drift. A pontoon bridge was rapidly thrown across, and over this the advance was steadily made, the troops pus.h.i.+ng forward stubbornly behind a cloud of cavalry, and having to fight almost every foot of the way.
On January 20th the division under Sir Charles Warren, a general of great African experience, had reached and occupied the southern crests of a high table-land stretching to the western hills of Ladysmith, and on the 23rd this gallant force charged and took at the point of the bayonet a huge hill known as Spion Kop, the key of the Boer position.
It was a daring feat, and was performed under cover of darkness with a dash and daring equal to that shown by our lads at the heights of Alma, when the Russian hordes were scattered and chased away as a disordered rabble.
But ill-luck again attended our efforts. On our side the slope of Spion Kop was so steep that it was scarcely possible to scale it, while to hoist guns of large calibre to the top was an impossibility. On the summit our troops manned the Boer trenches, and for a whole day kept back the enemy, who again and again attacked it in great force. And all the time every gun that could bear from their other positions poured in a continuous hail of exploding sh.e.l.l, converting Spion Kop into a veritable inferno, in which no man could live for long. Without many batteries of powerful cannon the position was untenable, and after a heroic and stubborn resistance our brave soldiers withdrew slowly and in perfect order.
Then the whole force retired on the Tugela, and while the majority returned to their camp at Chieveley, a division clung to the northern bank of the river at Potgieter's Drift, and entrenched themselves, more than doubly determined to break through the Boer position and relieve their comrades in Ladysmith on a future occasion.
On our aide, during more than a week of stubborn fighting, the losses in killed, wounded, and missing amounted to 1600, officers again forming a large proportion of the casualties, an ill.u.s.tration, if a sad one, of the glorious dash and courage shown in leading their men.
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