The Colonel, it is true, pathetically anxious to justify everything to his mind and conscience, and trying to hate the enemy he was fighting, stuck to his patriotic protests; but he was alone, and the conversation was significant of a very general change.
Not that this prevents any one from longing for Buller's victory and our relief, though the field were covered with the dead defenders of their freedom.
_February 7, 1900._ We have now but one thought--is it possible for Buller to force his way across that line of hills overlooking the Tugela?
The nearest summits are not more than ten miles away.

We could ride out there in little more than an hour and join hands with our countrymen and the big world outside.

Yet the barrier remains unbroken.

Firing continued nearly all day, except in the extreme heat of afternoon.

We could watch the columns of smoke thrown up by the Boers' great gun, still fixed above that niche upon the horizon.