th could still hold out, he
had been building up his strength for a second attempt to relieve the
hard-pressed and much-enduring garrison. After the repulse at Colenso,
Hildyard's and Barton's brigades had remained at Chieveley with the
mounted infantry, the naval guns, and two field batteries. The rest of
the force retired to Frere, some miles in the rear. Emboldened by their
success, the Boers sent raiding parties over the Tugela on either flank,
which were only checked by our patrols being extended from Springfield
on the west to Weenen on the east. A few plundered farmhouses and a
small list of killed and wounded horsemen on either side were the sole
result of these spasmodic and half-hearted operations.

Time here as elsewhere was working for the British, for reinforcements
were steadily coming to Buller's army. By the new year Sir Charles
Warren's division (the 5th) was nearly complete at Estcourt, whence it
could reach the front at any moment. This division included the 10th
brigade, consisting of the Imperial Light Infantry, 2nd Somersets, the
2nd Dorsets, and the 2nd Middlesex; also the 11th, called the Lancashire
Brigade, formed by the 2nd Royal Lancaster, the 2nd Lancashire
Fusiliers, the 1st South Lancashire, and the York and Lancaster. The
division also included the 14th Hussars and the 19th, 20th, and 28th
batteries of Field Artillery. Other batteries of artillery, including
one howitzer battery, came to strengthen Buller's force, which amounted
now to more than 30,000 men. Immense transport preparations had to be
made, however, before the force could have the mobility necessary for a
flank march, and it was not until January 11th that General Buller's new
plans for advance could be set into action. Before describing what these
plans were and the disappointing fate which awaited them, we will
return to the story of the siege of Ladysmith, and show how narrowly the
relieving force escaped the humiliation--some would say the disgrace--of
seeing the town which looked to them for help fall beneath their very
eyes. That this did not occur is entirely due to the fierce tenacity and
savage endurance of the disease-ridden and half-starved men who held on
to the frail lines which covered it.

CHAPTER 13. THE SIEGE OF LADYSMITH.

Monday, October 30th, 1899, is not a date which can be looked back to
with satisfaction by any Briton. In a scrambling and ill-managed action
we had lost our detached left wing almost