Boers filled the gaps in the investing line without difficulty, and on
November 2 the Siege of Ladysmith began. The last man to leave the town
was French, who went forth to win honour on distant fields.

Notes:

[Footnote 16: In 1902 the Vryheid and Utrecht districts of the Transvaal
were annexed to Natal and the wedge disappeared.]

[Footnote 17: They were indeed authorized as early as October 18 to
throw it aside but by that time they were committed to its use.]

[Footnote 18: "Long Tom," which was afterwards sent to Ladysmith and
subsequently to bombard Rhodes in Kimberley.]

[Illustration: Sketch map of Northern Natal.]




CHAPTER III

Deus Ex Machina No. I


The arrival of Sir Redvers Buller at Cape Town on October 31, 1899, the
morrow of the battle of Lombard's Kop, encouraged the despondent at home
and in Cape Colony.[19] Twenty years previously he had distinguished
himself in the command of a Boer contingent which served with the
British Army during the Zulu campaign; and it was doubtless from the