‘We had the Imperial Horse with us,’ he said.  ’They’re the best I’ve ever seen.’

The casualty lists tell the same tale.  To storm the hill the regiment dismounted less than two hundred men.  They reached the top unchecked, their Colonel, their Adjutant, Lieutenant Barnes, seven other officers, and upwards of sixty men killed or wounded—­nearly 30 per cent.  Many of this corps came from Johannesburg.  After this who will dare call Outlanders cowards?  Not that it will ever matter again.

Viewed in quieter days, the patient, trustful attitude of this colony of Natal will impress the historian.  The devotion of its people to their Sovereign and to their motherland should endear them to all good Englishmen, and win them general respect and sympathy; and full indemnity to all individual colonists who have suffered loss must stand as an Imperial debt of honour.

CHAPTER V

A CRUISE IN THE ARMOURED TRAIN

Estcourt:  November 9, 1899.

How many more letters shall I write you from an unsatisfactory address?  Sir George White’s Headquarters are scarcely forty miles away, but between them and Estcourt stretches the hostile army.  Whether it may be possible or wise to try to pass the lines of investment is a question which I cannot yet decide; and meanwhile I wait here at the nearest post collecting such information as dribbles through native channels, and hoping that early events may clear the road.  To wait is often weary work—­but even at this exciting time I come to a standstill at length with a distinct feeling of relief.  The last month has been passed in continual travel.  The fading, confused faces at Waterloo as the train swept along the platform; the cheering crowds at Southampton; the rolling decks of the ‘Dunottar Castle;’ the suspense, the excitement of first news; a brief day’s scurry at Cape Town; the journey to East London by the last train to pass along the frontier; the tumultuous voyage in the ‘Umzimvubu’ amid so great a gale that but for the Royal Mail the skipper would have put back to port; on without a check to Pietermaritzburg, and thence, since the need seemed urgent and the traffic slow, by special train here—­all moving, restless pictures—­and here at last—­a pause.

Let us review the situation.  On Wednesday last, on November 1, the Boer lines of investment drew round Ladysmith.  On Thursday the last train passed down the railway under the fire of artillery.  That night the line was cut about four miles north of Colenso.  Telegraphic 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.