On January 21 Sir Charles Warren renewed the engagement on the left. The day again opened with an artillery bombardment conducted by the six field batteries. But though the guns fired thousands of shells they produced little effect. Being so far below the level of the Boer trenches, they could not direct their fire to advantage, and they failed to silence the enemy's works or to overpower the Boer artillery. This latter could use its range to advantage, while good positions for the British guns could not be found. Three Tree Hill--the trees on which had already vanished--was too far off for the capacity of our 15-pounders; on the steep slopes where the infantry were fighting it was impossible from the nature of things to handle artillery. Howitzers alone could do the work, and there were but six howitzers in General Buller's whole army, and all these at Potgieter's Drift with General Lyttelton. For them Sir Charles Warren telegraphed, but to move them from One Tree Hill to Three Tree Hill over mountains and along bad roads was necessarily the work of some time. Four were sent and arrived early in the morning of the 22nd. [Sidenote: Rumoured relief of Ladysmith.] All the morning of the 21st the advance continued in the centre and on the extreme left, where Generals Hildyard and Hart were engaged. The Boers were massing in this quarter, and two batteries had to be moved from the British right to the left to give additional support to the troops. As on the previous day, General Hart's Irishmen were again foremost in battle--"perched on the edge of an almost precipitous hill"--and suffered heavily. The men were gladdened and roused to the most desperate efforts by a rumour which ran along the line, to the accompaniment of cheering, that Ladysmith had been relieved by Lord Dundonald's cavalry while the enemy's attention was occupied by the infantry attack. Like other rumours this story was absurd; it needed little reflection to show that if the mounted men had not been able to remain at Acton Homes without fear of being surrounded, they could not have pushed through the very heart of the Boer position with waggons and stores. Their arrival in Ladysmith without supplies would have been only a serious embarrassment for the garrison; to move with a heavy train of transport under the Boer trenches was almost impossible. [Illustration: ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS AND THEIR MAXIM, FORMING PART OF HART'S IRISH BRIGADE.] A curious fact, which illustrates the difference between British and Colonial methods of fighting, was observed on this day. A squadron of South African Light Horse held a kopje all day under heavy fire, but, by carefully taking cover, without losing a man. Near at hand two companies of British regulars held a hill under much the same fire, and, untrained in the art of concealing themselves, lost no less than twenty men. [Illustration: _Frank Dadd, R.I., and S. T. Dadd._] [_After a sketch made on the spot._