legraphic communication
also ceased. On Friday Colenso was itself attacked. A heavy gun came
into action from the hills which dominate the town, and the slender
garrison of infantry volunteers and naval brigade evacuated in a hurry,
and, covered to some extent by the armoured train, fell back on
Estcourt.

Estcourt is a South African town--that is to say, it is a collection of
about three hundred detached stone or corrugated iron houses, nearly all
one-storied, arranged along two broad streets--for space is
plentiful--or straggling away towards the country. The little place lies
in a cup of the hills, which rise in green undulations on all sides. For
this reason it will be a very difficult place to defend if the invaders
should come upon it. It is, besides, of mean and insignificant aspect;
but, like all these towns in Natal, it is the centre of a large
agricultural district, at once the market and the storehouse of dozens
of prosperous farms scattered about the country, and consequently it
possesses more importance than the passing stranger would imagine.
Indeed, it was a surprise to find on entering the shops how great a
variety and quantity of goods these unpretentious shanties contained.

Estcourt now calls itself 'The Front.' There is another front forty
miles away, but that is ringed about by the enemy, and since we live in
expectation of attack, with no one but the Boers beyond the outpost
line, Estcourt considers that its claim is just, Colonel Wolfe Murray,
the officer who commands the lines of communication of the Natal Field
Force, hastened up as soon as the news of the attack on Colenso was
received to make preparation to check the enemy's advance.

The force at his disposal is not, however, large--two British
battalions--the Dublin Fusiliers, who fought at Glencoe, and were
hurried out of Ladysmith to strengthen the communications when it became
evident that a blockade impended, and the Border Regiment from Malta, a
squadron of the Imperial Light Horse, 300 Natal volunteers with 25
cyclists, and a volunteer battery of nine-pounder guns--perhaps 2,000
men in all. With so few it would be quite impossible to hold the long
line of hills necessary for the protection of the town, but a position
has been selected and fortified, where the troops can maintain
themselves--at any rate for several days. But the confidence of the
military authorities in the strength of Estcourt may be gauged by the
frantic efforts th