How far the Boers suffered at Stormberg is unknown to us, but there seems in this instance no reason to doubt their own statement that their losses were very slight.  At no time was any body of them exposed to our fire, while we, as usual, fought in the open.  Their numbers were probably less than ours, and the quality of their shooting and want of energy in pursuit make the defeat the more galling.  On the other hand, their guns were served with skill and audacity.  They consisted of commandos from Bethulie, Rouxville, and Smithfield, under the orders of Olivier, with those colonials whom they had seduced from their allegiance.

This defeat of General Gatacre’s, occurring, as it did, in a disaffected district and one of great strategic importance, might have produced the worst consequences.

Fortunately no very evil result followed.  No doubt the recruiting of rebels was helped, but there was no forward movement and Molteno remained in our hands.  In the meanwhile Gatacre’s force was reinforced by a fresh battery, the 79th, and by a strong regiment, the Derbyshires, so that with the 1st Royal Scots and the wing of the Berkshires he was strong enough to hold his own until the time for a general advance should come.  So in the Stormberg district, as at the Modder River, the same humiliating and absurd position of stalemate was established.

CHAPTER 11.

Battle of Colenso.

Two serious defeats had within the week been inflicted upon the British forces in South Africa.  Cronje, lurking behind his trenches and his barbed wire entanglements barred Methuen’s road to Kimberley, while in the northern part of Cape Colony Gatacre’s wearied troops had been defeated and driven by a force which consisted largely of British subjects.  But the public at home steeled their hearts and fixed their eyes steadily upon Natal.  There was their senior General and there the main body of their troops.  As brigade after brigade and battery after battery touched at Cape Town, and were sent on instantly to Durban, it was evident that it was in this quarter that the supreme effort was to be made, and that there the light might at last break.  In club, and dining room, and railway car—­wherever men met and talked—­the same words might be heard:  ‘Wait until Buller moves.’  The hopes of a great empire lay in the phrase.

It was upon October 30th that Sir George White had been thrust back into Ladysmith.  On November 2nd telegraphic communication with the town was interrupted.  On November 3rd the railway line was cut.  On November 10th the Boers held Colenso and the line of the Tugela.  On the 14th was the affair of the armoured train.  On the 18th the enemy were near Estcourt.  On the 21st they had reached the Mooi River.  On the 23rd Hildyard attacked them at Willow Grange.  All these actions will be treated elsewhere.  This last one marks the turn of the tide.  From then onwards Sir Redvers Buller was massing his troops at Chieveley in preparation for a great effort to cross the river and to relieve Ladysmith, the guns of which, calling from behind the line of northern hills, told their constant tale of restless attack and stubborn defence.