Night, morning, and noon the shells rained upon the town until the most timid learned fatalism if not bravery.

The crash of the percussion, and the strange musical tang of the shrapnel sounded ever in their ears.

With their glasses the garrison could see the gay frocks and parasols of the Boer ladies who had come down by train to see the torture of the doomed town.
The Boers were sufficiently numerous, aided by their strong positions and excellent artillery, to mask the Ladysmith force and to sweep on at once to the conquest of Natal.

Had they done so it is hard to see what could have prevented them from riding their horses down to salt water.
A few odds and ends, half battalions and local volunteers, stood between them and Durban.

But here, as on the Orange River, a singular paralysis seems to have struck them.