Buller was only twelve miles away--they could hear his guns--and when his advance came in earnest their sufferings would be at an end.

But now in an instant this single light was shut off and the true nature of their situation was revealed to them.

Buller had indeed moved...but backwards.

He had been defeated at Colenso, and the siege was not ending but beginning.
With heavier hearts but undiminished resolution the army and the townsfolk settled down to the long, dour struggle.

The exultant enemy replaced their shattered guns and drew their lines closer still round the stricken town.
A record of the siege onwards until the break of the New Year centres upon the sordid details of the sick returns and of the price of food.
Fifty on one day, seventy on the next, passed under the hands of the overworked and devoted doctors.