On November 5th the Boers had remained so inert that the British returned in small force to Colenso and removed some stores—­which seems to suggest that the original retirement was premature.  Four days passed in inactivity—­four precious days for us—­and on the evening of the fourth, November 9th, the watchers on the signal station at Table Mountain saw the smoke of a great steamer coming past Robben Island.  It was the ‘Roslin Castle’ with the first of the reinforcements.  Within the week the ‘Moor,’ ‘Yorkshire,’ ‘Aurania,’ ‘Hawarden Castle,’ ‘Gascon,’ ‘Armenian,’ ‘Oriental,’ and a fleet of others had passed for Durban with 15,000 men.  Once again the command of the sea had saved the Empire.

But, now that it was too late, the Boers suddenly took the initiative, and in dramatic fashion.  North of Estcourt, where General Hildyard was being daily reinforced from the sea, there are two small townlets, or at least geographical (and railway) points.  Frere is about ten miles north of Estcourt, and Chieveley is five miles north of that and about as far to the south of Colenso.  On November 15th an armoured train was despatched from Estcourt to see what was going on up the line.  Already one disaster had befallen us in this campaign on account of these clumsy contrivances, and a heavier one was now to confirm the opinion that, acting alone, they are totally inadmissible.  As a means of carrying artillery for a force operating upon either flank of them, with an assured retreat behind, there may be a place for them in modern war, but as a method of scouting they appear to be the most inefficient and also the most expensive that has ever been invented.  An intelligent horseman would gather more information, be less visible, and retain some freedom as to route.  After our experience the armoured train may steam out of military history.

The train contained ninety Dublin Fusiliers, eighty Durban Volunteers, and ten sailors, with a naval 7-pounder gun.  Captain Haldane of the Gordons, Lieutenant Frankland (Dublin Fusiliers), and Winston Churchill, the well-known correspondent, accompanied the expedition.  What might have been foreseen occurred.  The train steamed into the advancing Boer army, was fired upon, tried to escape, found the rails blocked behind it, and upset.  Dublins and Durbans were shot helplessly out of their trucks, under a heavy fire.  A railway accident is a nervous thing, and so is an ambuscade, but the combination of the two must be appalling.  Yet there were brave hearts which rose to the occasion.  Haldane and Frankland rallied the troops, and Churchill the engine-driver.  The engine was disentangled and sent on with its cab full of wounded.  Churchill, who had escaped upon it, came gallantly back to share the fate of his comrades.  The dazed shaken soldiers continued a futile resistance for some time, but there was neither help nor escape and nothing for them but surrender.  The most Spartan military critic cannot blame them.  A few slipped away besides those who escaped upon the engine.  Our losses were two killed, twenty wounded, and about eighty taken.  It is remarkable that of the three leaders both Haldane and Churchill succeeded in escaping from Pretoria.