Free Blunted Lance by Max Hennessy

reputations,’ he said.
    They drove in an open landau through the hysterical crowds, to see Milner at Government House. Buller shook hands gravely with all the officials lined up to meet him, faintly irritable at the fuss and impatient to get on with the job. Milner, his face pale, handed him the coded telegrams from Natal giving further details of the disasters. He seemed to be terrified of a rising among the Afrikaners of the Cape. He had always believed that the Boers could be frightened into accepting everything he asked of them and now that they hadn’t he seemed afraid of losing the war. General Goff didn’t feel much sympathy for him. It was Milner’s war and he ought to be able to bear the consequences.
    ‘It would be disastrous if the diamond mines were lost,’ Milner said. ‘Rhodes, too, because he’s in Kimberley. We’ve just had another message from him. He says the place is on the verge of surrendering.’
    ‘Rhodes may be a brilliant financier,’ General Goff said, ‘but as a soldier he’s about as useful as a hysterical nanny.’
    ‘We can’t let the diamond fields go.’
    ‘Are you suggesting then that we should let Ladysmith go?’
    Milner hummed and hahed. ‘We’re in a tight spot,’ he said bitterly. ‘I think we’ll have to break up the army corps.’
    Buller listened quietly, his heavy face expressionless, but when Milner moved to other matters and turned to his advisers, he drew General Goff aside. ‘Now, Coll,’ he said. ‘Let’s hear some sense. What’s happened?’
    Standing with Ellesmere and the members of Buller’s staff, holding a glass of Cape wine and a biscuit spread with pâté, Dabney tried to catch their words.
    ‘White was flanked,’ his father said.
    Buller frowned. ‘Ladysmith’s no place to be invested in,’ he said. ‘It’s in a saucer of land and the Boers can get their guns on to the hills. It’s also damned hot and dusty.’
    ‘It’s none too healthy either. Even less so now, I imagine, with four thousand Boers and eighteen guns within striking distance. They came through every available pass. White told Symons to entrench but it seems he believed he could destroy them as they arrived. He was brought down at Talana Hill.’ General Goff frowned. ‘Everybody’s saying we won the battle, of course, but the Boers did what they usually do and withdrew as soon as their casualties began to mount. I don’t suppose they considered themselves defeated. Ian Hamilton did well and so did John French. The Lancers caught the Boers at Elandslaagte and knocked them about a bit, but Yule, who took over from Symons, had to retreat to Ladysmith. Then White lost the Irish and the Gloucesters at Nicholson’s Nek.’
    ‘Didn’t they fight?’
    Dabney saw his father’s hand move in a gesture of disgust. ‘Usual trouble, it seems,’ he said. ‘The man in command of the brigade just wasn’t up to it.’
    ‘What’s the transport situation?’
    As his father beckoned, Dabney moved nearer with Ellesmere and the others.
    ‘A Director of Railways has been appointed,’ General Goff pointed out. ‘He’s already laid the foundation of a railway administration for the movement of men, horses, mules and supplies. Our objective must be Pretoria.’
    Buller frowned. ‘The idea was to have a converging drive from Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth. We’ve got forty-nine thousand men when the army corps arrives. Including eight cavalry regiments – among them yours – eight mounted infantry companies and thirty-two infantry battalions. In London they feel we should use the lot together. It looks different from here. We can’t let these sieges at Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith succeed.’ Buller gestured. ‘I’d expected White to hold Natal for two or three months, but now it seems the whole colony will be overrun if we don’t do something about it. I’m afraid I’m going to have to divide the troops. One half to defend Natal, the other to be pushed