and the Berkshires, the whole amounting to about 5500 men, who had to hold the whole district from Sterkstroom to East London on the coast, with a victorious enemy in front and a disaffected population around.  Under these circumstances he could not attempt to do more than to hold his ground at Sterkstroom, and this he did unflinchingly until the line of the Boer defence broke down.  Scouting and raiding expeditions, chiefly organised by Captain De Montmorency—­whose early death cut short the career of one who possessed every quality of a partisan leader—­broke the monotony of inaction.  During the week which ended the year a succession of small skirmishes, of which the town of Dordrecht was the centre, exercised the troops in irregular warfare.

On January 3rd the Boer forces advanced and attacked the camp of the Cape Mounted Police, which was some eight miles in advance of Gatacre’s main position.  The movement, however, was a half-hearted one, and was beaten off with small loss upon their part and less upon ours.  From then onwards no movement of importance took place in Gatacre’s column until the general advance along the whole line had cleared his difficulties from in front of him.

In the meantime General Buller had also been playing a waiting game, and, secure in the knowledge that Ladysmith could still hold out, he had been building up his strength for a second attempt to relieve the hard-pressed and much-enduring garrison.  After the repulse at Colenso, Hildyard’s and Barton’s brigades had remained at Chieveley with the mounted infantry, the naval guns, and two field batteries.  The rest of the force retired to Frere, some miles in the rear.  Emboldened by their success, the Boers sent raiding parties over the Tugela on either flank, which were only checked by our patrols being extended from Springfield on the west to Weenen on the east.  A few plundered farmhouses and a small list of killed and wounded horsemen on either side were the sole result of these spasmodic and half-hearted operations.

Time here as elsewhere was working for the British, for reinforcements were steadily coming to Buller’s army.  By the new year Sir Charles Warren’s division (the 5th) was nearly complete at Estcourt, whence it could reach the front at any moment.  This division included the 10th brigade, consisting of the Imperial Light Infantry, 2nd Somersets, the 2nd Dorsets, and the 2nd Middlesex; also the 11th, called the Lancashire Brigade, formed by the 2nd Royal Lancaster, the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, the 1st South Lancashire, and the York and Lancaster.  The division also included the 14th Hussars and the 19th, 20th, and 28th batteries of Field Artillery.  Other batteries of artillery, including one howitzer battery, came to strengthen Buller’s force, which amounted now to more than 30,000 men.  Immense transport preparations had to be made, however, before the force could have the mobility necessary for a flank march, and it was not until January 11th that General Buller’s