e end
of two days without having seen the enemy. Save for one or two similar
cavalry reconnaissances, an occasional interchange of long-range shells,
a little sniping, and one or two false alarms at night, which broke the
whole front of Magersfontein into yellow lines of angry light, nothing
happened to Methuen's force which is worthy of record up to the time of
that movement of General Hector Macdonald to Koodoosberg which may be
considered in connection with Lord Roberts's decisive operations, of
which it was really a part.

The doings of General Gatacre's force during the long interval which
passed between his disaster at Stormberg and the final general advance
may be rapidly chronicled. Although nominally in command of a division,
Gatacre's troops were continually drafted off to east and to west, so
that it was seldom that he had more than a brigade under his orders.
During the weeks of waiting, his force consisted of three field
batteries, the 74th, 77th, and 79th, some mounted police and irregular
horse, the remains of the Royal Irish Rifles and the 2nd Northumberland
Fusiliers, the 1st Royal Scots, the Derbyshire regiment, and the
Berkshires, the whole amounting to about 5500 men, who had to hold the
whole district from Sterkstroom to East London on the coast, with a
victorious enemy in front and a disaffected population around. Under
these circumstances he could not attempt to do more than to hold his
ground at Sterkstroom, and this he did unflinchingly until the line of
the Boer defence broke down. Scouting and raiding expeditions, chiefly
organised by Captain De Montmorency--whose early death cut short the
career of one who possessed every quality of a partisan leader--broke
the monotony of inaction. During the week which ended the year a
succession of small skirmishes, of which the town of Dordrecht was the
centre, exercised the troops in irregular warfare.

On January 3rd the Boer forces advanced and attacked the camp of the
Cape Mounted Police, which was some eight miles in advance of Gatacre's
main position. The movement, however, was a half-hearted one, and was
beaten off with small loss upon their part and less upon ours. From then
onwards no movement of importance took place in Gatacre's column until
the general advance along the whole line had cleared his difficulties
from in front of him.

In the meantime General Buller had also been playing a waiting game,
and, secure in the knowledge that Ladysmi