s the heliograph of Ladysmith,
explaining her troubles and calling for help, and from the heights of
Mount Alice an answering star of hope glimmered and shone, soothing,
encouraging, explaining, while the stern men of the veld dug furiously
at their trenches in between. 'We are coming! We are coming!' cried
Mount Alice. 'Over our bodies,' said the men with the spades and
mattocks.

On Thursday, January 12th, Dundonald seized the heights, on the 13th the
ferry was taken and Lyttelton's Brigade came up to secure that which the
cavalry had gained. On the 14th the heavy naval guns were brought up
to cover the crossing. On the 15th Coke's Brigade and other infantry
concentrated at the drift. On the 16th the four regiments of Lyttelton's
Brigade went across, and then, and only then, it began to be apparent
that Buller's plan was a more deeply laid one than had been thought, and
that all this business of Potgieter's Drift was really a demonstration
in order to cover the actual crossing which was to be effected at a
ford named Trichard's Drift, five miles to the westward. Thus,
while Lyttelton's and Coke's Brigades were ostentatiously attacking
Potgieter's from in front, three other brigades (Hart's, Woodgate's, and
Hildyard's) were marched rapidly on the night of the 16th to the real
place of crossing, to which Dundonald's cavalry had already ridden.
There, on the 17th, a pontoon bridge had been erected, and a strong
force was thrown over in such a way as to turn the right of the trenches
in front of Potgieter's. It was admirably planned and excellently
carried out, certainly the most strategic movement, if there could be
said to have been any strategic movement upon the British side, in the
campaign up to that date. On the 18th the infantry, the cavalry, and
most of the guns were safely across without loss of life. The Boers,
however, still retained their formidable internal lines, and the only
result of a change of position seemed to be to put them to the trouble
of building a new series of those terrible entrenchments at which they
had become such experts. After all the combinations the British were,
it is true, upon the right side of the river, but they were considerably
further from Ladysmith than when they started. There are times, however,
when twenty miles are less than fourteen, and it was hoped that this
might prove to be among them. But the first step was the most serious
one, for right across their front lay the Bo