Since Christmas the prices had gone up. Eggs by the middle of January were worth 19s. a dozen, and jam cost 6s. 6d. a tin. Condensed milk was sold for 10s. a tin, other things, particularly medicines, were becoming priceless. An appalling apathy almost approaching despair had settled on the community. It was going on for three months since they had been shut off from the outside world, during which their losses had exceeded 1500 in slain, wounded, and missing, yet they were no nearer release. Indeed, each began to wonder whether death or Sir Redvers Buller's force would reach them first. One month after another passed, and with them, precious lives, yet little fuss was made, for death was a common visitor. Much regret was felt at the loss on the 15th of the brilliant author and correspondent of the _Daily Mail_, Mr. G. W. Steevens. His was a young career, rich in promise. But death is a connoisseur--he chooses the best. Only a few days before, Mr. Mitchell, sub-editor of the _Johannesburg Star_, and Lieutenant Stabb (Naval Reserve) of the _Times of India_, had been carried off by enteric fever; while young Ferrand, sometime a correspondent of the _Morning Post_ and a trooper of the Light Horse, fell in action on the 6th. [Illustration: THE SIEGE OF LADYSMITH, JAN. 1900. VIEW FROM BULWANA HILL. From a sketch by George Lynch, War Correspondent. The hospital train is here shown on its way to Intombi Camp with its daily load of sick and wounded.] But soon a change came. Sounds of unusual guns reached their ears--ears now well attuned to all the surrounding noises. Though news by heliogram came slowly and at long intervals, all were conscious that something was afloat. They were soon wild with excitement and anticipation. Not only could Sir George White's garrison hear the distant thunder of the guns of the relieving column, a sound which made heavenly music to their ears, but from the lookout posts on the heights held by them they could occasionally see the bursting of the shells fired by the Naval guns from the region of Potgieter's Drift. The attention of the investing force was now distracted; the Dutchmen were concentrating their energies to repel the movement of the British troops on the Upper Tugela, and continued to send reinforcements westward to meet the demand on their resources there. But they strengthened their works on the north of the town, added some more howitzers and fired a few shells by way of introduction. [Illustration: LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR CHARLES WARREN, G.C.M.G. Photo by Elliott & Fry, London.]