We are allowed to know nothing for certain, but the conviction grows that we are to be left to our fate for another three weeks at least, while the men slowly rot.

A Natal paper has come in with an account of Buller's defeat at Taba Nyama on the 25th.

We read with astonishment the loud praises of a masterly retreat over the Tugela without the loss of a single man.

When shall we hear of a masterly advance to our aid?
Do we lose no men?
To-day the morning was cold and cloudy, as it has been since Monday, but the sun broke out for an hour or two, in the afternoon, and official messages could be sent through by heliograph.

For information and relief we received the following words, and those only:-- "German specialist landed Delagoa Bay pledges himself to dam up Klip River and flood Ladysmith out." That was all they deigned to tell us.
_February 2, 1900._ After a misty dawn, soaked with minute rain, the sky slowly cleared at last, letting the merry sunshine through.