d to have a gun upon a hill within striking
distance of Estcourt, this force set out on November 22nd to make a
night attack and to endeavour to capture it. The hill was taken without
difficulty, but it was found that the gun had been removed. A severe
counter-attack was made at daylight by the Boers, and the troops were
compelled with no great loss and less glory to return to the town.
The Surreys and the Yorkshires behaved very well, but were placed in a
difficult position and were badly supported by the artillery. Martyn's
Mounted Infantry covered the retirement with great gallantry, but the
skirmish ended in a British loss of fourteen killed and fifty wounded
or missing, which was certainly more than that of the Boers. From this
indecisive action of Willow Grange the Boer invasion receded until
General Buller, coming to the front on November 27th, found that the
enemy was once more occupying the line of the Tugela. He himself moved
up to Frere, where he devoted his time and energies to the collection of
that force with which he was destined, after three failures, to make his
way into Ladysmith.

One unexpected and little known result of the Boer expedition into
Southern Natal was that their leader, the chivalrous Joubert, injured
himself through his horse stumbling, and was physically incapacitated
for the remainder of the campaign. He returned almost immediately to
Pretoria, leaving the command of the Tugela in the hands of Louis Botha.

Leaving Buller to organise his army at Frere, and the Boer commanders
to draw their screen of formidable defences along the Tugela, we will
return once more to the fortunes of the unhappy town round which the
interest of the world, and possibly the destiny of the Empire, were
centering. It is very certain that had Ladysmith fallen, and twelve
thousand British soldiers with a million pounds' worth of stores fallen
into the hands of the invaders, we should have been faced with the
alternative of abandoning the struggle, or of reconquering South Africa
from Cape Town northwards. South Africa is the keystone of the Empire,
and for the instant Ladysmith was the keystone of South Africa. But
the courage of the troops who held the shell-torn townlet, and the
confidence of the public who watched them, never faltered for an
instant.

December 8th was marked by a gallant exploit on the part of the
beleaguered garrison. Not a whisper had transpired of the coming sortie,
and a quarter of an