iment, the Derbyshires,
so that with the 1st Royal Scots and the wing of the Berkshires he
was strong enough to hold his own until the time for a general advance
should come. So in the Stormberg district, as at the Modder River, the
same humiliating and absurd position of stalemate was established.

CHAPTER 11. BATTLE OF COLENSO.

Two serious defeats had within the week been inflicted upon the British
forces in South Africa. Cronje, lurking behind his trenches and his
barbed wire entanglements barred Methuen's road to Kimberley, while
in the northern part of Cape Colony Gatacre's wearied troops had been
defeated and driven by a force which consisted largely of British
subjects. But the public at home steeled their hearts and fixed their
eyes steadily upon Natal. There was their senior General and there the
main body of their troops. As brigade after brigade and battery after
battery touched at Cape Town, and were sent on instantly to Durban, it
was evident that it was in this quarter that the supreme effort was
to be made, and that there the light might at last break. In club, and
dining room, and railway car--wherever men met and talked--the same
words might be heard: 'Wait until Buller moves.' The hopes of a great
empire lay in the phrase.

It was upon October 30th that Sir George White had been thrust back into
Ladysmith. On November 2nd telegraphic communication with the town was
interrupted. On November 3rd the railway line was cut. On November 10th
the Boers held Colenso and the line of the Tugela. On the 14th was the
affair of the armoured train. On the 18th the enemy were near Estcourt.
On the 21st they had reached the Mooi River. On the 23rd Hildyard
attacked them at Willow Grange. All these actions will be treated
elsewhere. This last one marks the turn of the tide. From then onwards
Sir Redvers Buller was massing his troops at Chieveley in preparation
for a great effort to cross the river and to relieve Ladysmith, the guns
of which, calling from behind the line of northern hills, told their
constant tale of restless attack and stubborn defence.

But the task was as severe a one as the most fighting General could ask
for. On the southern side the banks formed a long slope which could be
shaved as with a razor by the rifle fire of the enemy. How to advance
across that broad open zone was indeed a problem. It was one of many
occasions in this war in which one wondered why, if a bullet-proof
shield capabl