However, it is idle to discuss what might have been done to mitigate their trials.

The open ground had to be passed, and then they came to--not the enemy, but a broad and deep river, with a single bridge, probably undermined, and a single ford, which was found not to exist in practice.

Beyond the river was tier after tier of hills, crowned with stone walls and seamed with trenches, defended by thousands of the best marksmen in the world, supported by an admirable artillery.

If, in spite of the advance over the open and in spite of the passage of the river, a ridge could still be carried, it was only to be commanded by the next; and so, one behind the other, like the billows of the ocean, a series of hills and hollows rolled northwards to Ladysmith.

All attacks must be in the open.