The British position was now serious.  Nothing could prevent Sir George White and his forces from being cooped in either Colenso or Ladysmith.  But it is typical of French that he found a last opportunity of out-manoeuvring the Boers before leaving Ladysmith.  In the battle of Lombard’s Cop his cavalry had taken but a small part.  Had some of them, however, been sent with Carlton’s column to keep it in touch with the base, the issue of its enterprise might possibly have been different.

A couple of days afterwards, on November 2, French found an opportunity to score.  The Boers had moved round our lines and posted their guns in a very advantageous position.  White therefore ordered a bombardment by the naval guns to which the Boers replied.  Whilst they were so engaged French crept round behind Bester’s Hill, where the Boer commander had a large camp.  Before Joubert realised what the movement meant French was upon him.  Field artillery, along with the naval guns, supported his advance.  While this double fire was distracting the Boers, French stormed their laager.  The enemy fled, leaving their camp and all its equipments to French.  This brilliant little success was practically a cavalry exploit, and it was typical of much that was to follow.

It now became obvious that Ladysmith was becoming completely invested.  The Boer lines which had been three miles from the town were creeping nearer.  Assuredly the belligerent town was no place for a cavalry officer.

[Page Heading:  THE ESCAPE]

French determined to leave Ladysmith.  It would not be easy to break through the lines of the net that was closing round the city.  Whether or no the railway was still open was uncertain.  When French’s aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Milbanke, now Sir John Milbanke, V.C., asked the station-master whether a special train could get through to Pietermaritzburg, that worthy indignantly scorned the idea.  With the Boers at Colenso it would certainly be madness—­a fool’s errand.  Milbanke, however, used persuasions which resulted in an effort being made to run the gauntlet.  That evening an engine and a few carriages duly drew up at the station.  Very soon French’s staff was aboard.  As the train was about to start a short and agile elderly officer might have been seen to dash across the platform into the last carriage, where he ensconced himself beneath a seat lest the train be stopped and searched.  Very soon bullets were rattling through the carriage windows, and it was an excessively uncomfortable journey that the British General and his staff endured.  But they were at last free to carry out fresh services for their country.  Five months were to pass before another train crossed these metals.

CHAPTER VI

THE CAMPAIGN ROUND COLESBERG

    The Fog of War—­A Perilous Situation—­Damming “The Flowing
    Tide”—­Shows His Genius as a Commander—­A Campaign in
    Miniature—­Hoisting Guns on Hilltops—­The Fifty-mile
    Front—­Saving the Situation.