ng and spare
rails to mend the line, followed. The country between Estcourt and
Colenso is open, undulating, and grassy. The stations, which occur every
four or five miles, are hamlets consisting of half-a-dozen corrugated
iron houses, and perhaps a score of blue gum trees. These little specks
of habitation are almost the only marked feature of the landscape, which
on all sides spreads in pleasant but monotonous slopes of green. The
train maintained a good speed; and, though it stopped repeatedly to
question Kaffirs or country folk, and to communicate with the cyclists
and other patrols who were scouring the country on the flanks, reached
Chieveley, five miles from Colenso, by about three o'clock; and from
here the Ladysmith balloon, a brown speck floating above and beyond the
distant hills, was plainly visible.

"Beyond Chieveley it was necessary to observe more caution. The speed
was reduced--the engine walked warily. The railway officials scanned the
track, and often before a culvert or bridge was traversed we disembarked
and examined it from the ground. At other times long halts were made
while the officers swept the horizon and the distant hills with
field-glasses and telescopes. But the country was clear and the line
undamaged, and we continued our slow advance."

Little did he know when these thoughts passed though his busy brain that
in a few days he would find himself in the State School of Pretoria, a
prisoner, far from kith and kin, and uncertain whether or not he, like
others, might be tried by Judge Gregorowski, who would take a grim
pleasure, as he did in the case of the Uitlanders, in sentencing him to
death. On this score great anxiety was felt, and it is no exaggeration
to say that his countrymen, whether friends or strangers, were all
equally regretful at his loss, and deeply anxious as to the fate that
might befall so gallant a descendant of a great line.

ESTCOURT

Things were now going from bad to worse. The Ermelo commando, some 2000
strong, with six 7-pounders and two French guns, took up a threatening
position near Ennersdale, with a view to attacking Estcourt at an early
date, and there was every chance that the place would be surrounded.

Meanwhile the inhabitants of Ladysmith reported themselves in good
health, some of them having taken refuge during the daytime in the
caves by the river-bank, returning to their homes only to sleep. The
war-balloon contin