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The Young Colonists: A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars

by G. A. Henty · English · Gutenberg #32934 · 443,422 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Young Colonists: A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars

Author: G. A. Henty

Illustrator: Simon Harmon Vedder


        
Release date: June 20, 2010 [eBook #32934]
                Most recently updated: September 22, 2013

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32934

Credits: Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG COLONISTS: A STORY OF THE ZULU AND BOER WARS ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




The Young Colonists
A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars
By G.A. Henty
Illustrations by Simon H. Vedder
Published by Blackie and Son Ltd, 50 Old Bailey, London EC.

The Young Colonists, by G.A. Henty.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
THE YOUNG COLONISTS, BY G.A. HENTY.

PREFACE.

As a rule the minor wars in which this country has been from time to
time engaged, have been remarkable both for the admirable way in which
they were conducted and for the success that attended them.  The two
campaigns in South Africa, however, that followed each other with but a
brief interval, were notable exceptions.  In the Zulu War the blunder,
made by the General in command, of dividing his army and marching away
with the greater portion without troubling himself to keep up
communication with the force left behind, brought about a serious
disaster at Isandula.  In the Boer War we also suffered two defeats,--
one at Laing's Neck, the other at Majuba Hill,--and when at last a
British force was assembled capable of retrieving these misfortunes, the
English government decided not to fight, but to leave the Boers in
possession of the Transvaal.  This unfortunate surrender has, assuredly,
brought about the troubled state of things now existing in South Africa.

After having written upwards of fifty records of almost unbroken success
to the British arms in almost all parts of the world, I have found it
painful to describe these two campaigns in which we suffered defeat.  I
trust, however, that this story will prove of great interest to the
reader because of the characteristic English pluck and daring of its
hero.

G.A.  Henty.

CHAPTER ONE.

A SNOW-DRIFT.

The country round Castleton, in Derbyshire, is greatly admired by summer
tourists, for it lies in the wildest part of that county; but in winter
the wind whistles sharply over the bleak hills--where there are no trees
to break its violence,--the sheep huddle under the shelter of the
roughly-built stone walls, and even lovers of the picturesque would at
that season prefer a more level and wooded country.  The farm of Mr
Humphreys was situated about a mile from Castleton.  It consisted of 100
acres or so of good land in the bottom, and of five or six times as much
upland grazing on the hills.  Mr Humphreys owned as well as farmed his
land, and so might have claimed, had he chosen, the title of
gentleman-farmer; but he himself would have scoffed at such an idea.  He
was a hard-working, practical farmer, about over his ground from morning
to night, save when the hounds met within easy distance in winter; then
he would mount "Robin," who served alike as hunter, or hack, or to drive
in the neat dog-cart to Buxton market; and, although there were many
handsomer horses in the field, Mr Humphreys was seldom far off when the
fox was killed.

His family consisted of his wife and two sons, the eldest, Richard, was
about fourteen years old.  His brother, John, was three years younger.
Both went to school at Castleton.  The younger boy was fond of his
books; he had always been weak and delicate, and, being unable to spend
his time in active exercise out of doors, he was generally to be found
reading by the fire in winter, or lying on the ground in summer under a
tree in the orchard, with his chin on his hand, and the book before him.
Richard had no literary taste; he managed to scrape through his work
and keep a moderate place in his class, somewhere about half-way down;
but he threw his whole heart into outdoor exercise, and was one of the
best bats in the school, although there were many there older by years.
He knew every foot of the hills, could tell every bird by its note, and
knew all about their nests and eggs.  Except in school, or perhaps
during the long winter evenings, it was rare indeed to find Dick with a
book in his hand.

"You will never set the Thames on fire, Dick," his father would say to
him.

"I shall never want to, father," he would reply.  "I do not see that
learning will ever be much good to me."

"That is a foolish idea, Dick.  A great deal of the learning that boys
get at school is of no actual value in pounds, shillings, and pence.  It
is not the fact of knowing Latin, and Greek, and mathematics which
benefits a man; but it is the learning of them.  It is the discipline to
the mind, which is of benefit.  The mind is like the body.  There is no
use in cricket, or in boating, or in hunting, but these things
strengthen the body and make it active and healthy, and able to do
better everything which it undertakes, and it is exactly the same thing
with the mind; besides, the days are coming when farmers must farm their
land with science and intelligence, or they will be left behind in the
race.  We are being rivalled by the farmers of America.  Not only do we
have to pay rent, but by the tithes and rates and taxes they put upon us
government makes the English farmer pay a heavy tax upon every bushel of
corn he produces, while they allow the American corn to come into the
market tax-free.  This may be all right, but it does not appear fair to
me.  However, there it is, and we have got to meet it, and if we are to
keep our heads above water, it can only be by farming up to the very
best lights of the day."

"Well, father," Dick said, "then it seems to me that when we grow up,
John and I must farm together.  He shall be the scientific partner; I
will do the work."

"That is all right enough, Dick, but you must have some science too,
else you and he will never get on.  You would want to go on in the
old-fashioned groove, and would call his ideas newfangled.  No, I intend
you, when you get old enough, to go to Cirencester College, where you
will learn the theory and science of farming thoroughly.  You will get
the practical part at home.  As to John, he is a child yet, and, I
trust, will grow up strong and active; but if his tastes remain as they
now are, I do not think it likely he will take to farming, and we must
find some other career for him."

One afternoon in the beginning of December two of Dick's school-fellows
said to him--

"We are going over the hills to our uncle's farm, Dick.  Will you go
with us?"

When there was nothing better to do, Dick was always ready for a walk,
and he at once agreed to accompany the Jacksons.  The elder boy was
about his own age, the younger two years his junior.

The Jacksons called for him directly he had finished his dinner, and
they started away together for a farm which was about four miles
distant.  They struck right across the hills, as it would have been two
miles longer by the nearest road.

"I should not be surprised," Dick said, "if it were to snow to-night; it
is bitterly cold, and the clouds look very heavy."

"I hope it won't snow until we get back," James, the younger of the
brothers, remarked.

"I don't know," Dick answered, looking at the clouds.  "I should not be
surprised if it began at any moment."

The wind was blowing strongly.  The hills were high and steep, and,
although the boys made their best speed, it was considerably over an
hour before they reached the farm.  They had started at two, and it was
now a quarter past three.  Mr Jackson was out.  The boys delivered the
message with which they had been charged to their aunt.

"Now," she said, "I will cut you each a hunch of cake, and when you have
eaten that and had a glass of fresh milk you had best start at once.  It
is bitterly cold, and we are going to have snow: The sooner you are
home, the better."

The boys now ate their cake.  Mrs Jackson came to the door with them.
Then she said, as the first flake of snow fell--

"I am not sure, boys, that you had not better stay here all night."

The boys laughed.

"Why, what would they say at home?  They would just be in a way about
us."

"Well, at any rate, you had better go by the road."

"Oh, that is two miles farther at least.  We should not get home until
long after dark.  We shan't be an hour by the hills.  We know every foot
of the way."

"Well, good-bye, then.  Make as much haste as you can."

For half a mile their way led along the road, then they scrambled over a
wall and began to ascend the barren hill-side.  The snow was falling
fast now.  Thicker and thicker it came down, and when, hot and panting,
they reached the top of the hill, the wind blew the flakes so fiercely
into their faces that they were half-blinded, and were obliged to turn
their backs to the gale while they got breath.  For half an hour they
struggled on.  They could scarcely see ten paces before them through the
driving snow, and in every sheltered spot white patches rapidly began to
form.

"How different things look in a snow-storm!"  Dick said, as they stopped
for breath and shelter under the lee of a wall.  "I don't know, Tom, but
I am not quite sure that we are going straight; I do not know what wall
this is."

"No more do I," Tom Jackson replied.  "I felt quite sure that we were
going right at first, but somehow I don't think so now."

"I wish the snow would stop for a minute," Dick said, "just to let us
have a look round.  If I could see a hundred yards I am sure I should
know where we are.  What is the matter with you, James; what are you
blubbering about?"

"My feet are so cold; they hurt dreadfully."

"Oh, never mind," Dick said.  "Come, boys, push along, and we shall soon
be home."

Again they started with heads bent to face the storm.

"It is getting dark awfully fast," Tom Jackson said.

"It is, and no mistake.  Come, let us have a trot.  Come on, young one."

But, although Dick spoke hopefully, he was not as confident as he
appeared.  He was sure now that they had lost the way.  They might not,
he hoped, be far off the track; but he knew that they were not following
the precise line by which they came.

It was now nearly dark.  The snow was falling thicker than ever, and the
ground, except upon the uplands exposed to the full force of the wind,
was covered with a white mantle.

On arriving at the bottom of a steep hill, they stopped again.

"Do you know where we are, Tom?"

"Not in the least," Tom answered.

"This ought to be the last valley," Dick said, "and after one more climb
we ought to go straight down into Castleton.  Don't you remember in that
valley there were a lot of sheep in a fold, with a wall round it?  If we
can find that, we shall know that we are right.  It is near the bottom,
so we shall not miss it.  Which way shall we turn, left or right?"

"Let us try the left first," Tom said.

They walked for half a mile, gradually ascending.

"It is not this way," Tom said at last.  "We are getting to the head of
the valley.  What are you doing, James?" as the young boy, who had been
sobbing for some time, threw himself on the snow.

"I cannot go any farther," he murmured.  "I am so cold, and so tired,
and so sleepy."

"Oh, nonsense!"  Dick said.  "Here, take hold of his arm, Tom, and lift
him up; give him a good shake; he must go on; he would die if he stopped
here."

The two lads raised the younger boy, and half-supporting half-dragging
him turned and retraced their footsteps.

It was pitch dark now, and they could not see a yard before them.  For
some time they continued their way.

"There is no shepherd's hut.  Certainly, this is not the valley.  What
on earth are we to do?"

"I don't know," Tom said, beginning to cry.

"Shut up, Tom Jackson.  What are you thinking about?  This is no time
for howling like a baby; you have got to think of what is best to do.
It is no use climbing the next hill, for we might be going away from
home, instead of getting nearer.  Besides, we should have to haul Jimmy
up, for he can scarcely stand now; and, although it is bitterly cold
here, it would be worse on the top of the hill.  No, we have got to step
here all night, that is clear."

"We shall be dead before morning!"  Tom roared.

"I will hit you in the eye, Tom Jackson, if you don't shut up; you are
as bad as a girl; I am ashamed of you.  Now, what we have got to do, is
to find some sort of shelter, either a wall or bush, and we must keep on
until we come to something.  Keep awake, Jimmy; we shan't have much
farther to go, and then you can lie down quietly."

They went on for a bit.

"It is no use," Dick said.  "They don't put walls across bottoms; more
likely to find one either to the right or left.  Now, Tom, you stop here
for a minute or two, and I will look about; you keep shouting every
minute, so that I can find my way back to you."

Turning off, he began to ascend the next hill, and in two or three
minutes shouted the glad news to Tom that he had found the wall; then he
returned.

Jimmy, cheered at the prospect of lying down, made an effort, and they
soon reached the wall.

Like most of the walls in Derbyshire, it was formed of flat stones laid
without mortar, some four feet high.

"Now, Tom, set to work; get some stones off the wall on both sides, and
build up two other walls against this; three feet wide inside will do,
and just long enough to lie in.  Here, Jimmy, you help; it will keep you
awake, and, you see, the higher we make the walls the snugger it will
be; we will have quite a nice house."

The boys all set to work, and in half an hour three walls were built.
At the point where the two side walls touched the other, they were three
feet high, and sloped down to two at the lower end.

"Now, Jimmy, you chuck the snow out.  Tom and I will go, one each way,
along the wall; likely enough we may come upon some bushes--they often
grow in shelter of the walls: if we can find a few sticks we will cover
the house over.  Lots of these stones are a couple of feet long, and we
will manage a sort of roof.  The snow will soon cover it, and we shall
be as warm as possible."

A quarter of an hour later the two boys returned; both had been
successful and brought a bundle of sticks; these were laid across the
top, interspersed with smaller twigs, the ends being kept down with
stones to prevent their being blown away.  The last were placed in
position after the boys had crept inside.  They did not attempt to roof
it with stones, for the supply of sticks and brushwood was large enough
to catch the snow-flakes as they fell, and these would soon form a
covering, while it would have been difficult to balance the stones.

Jimmy was by this time in a state almost of lethargy; but the others
were fairly warm from their exertions.  They now lay down close beside
the younger boy, one on each side.  At first they felt the cold
extremely.

"Let us keep awake as long as we can," Dick said.

"I don't feel inclined to sleep at all," Tom answered; "my hands and
feet feel frozen, but I am warm enough everywhere else, and the ground
is precious hard and bumpy."

"I am only afraid about Jimmy," Dick said; "he is sound asleep, and he
was so awfully cold; lie as close as you can to him, Tom, and put your
arm over him and keep your legs huddled up against his."

"It feels warmer than it did," he went on, after a pause of half an
hour; "don't you think so, Tom?"

"A lot warmer," Tom said.  "I expect the snow has made a good thick
roof."

"Yes, and the wind does not blow through the stones as it did.  I expect
the snow is drifting up all round; it was getting very deep against the
wall when we got in, and if it goes on all night, Tom, I should not
wonder if we are covered deep before morning.  The wind always sweeps it
off the hills, and makes deep drifts in the bottoms."

"What shall we do, then?"

"I don't know," Dick answered; "but there will be plenty of time to
think of that in the morning.  I think Jimmy is all right, Tom; I have
just put my hand inside his waistcoat and he feels quite warm now.  Say
your prayers, and then let us try to get off to sleep."

This they were not very long in doing, for the air in the little hut was
soon heated by the action of their bodies.  Outside the storm was still
raging, and the wind, laden with swirling snow from the uplands, was
piling it high in the valleys.  Already the hut was covered and the wall
behind it.

All night and all next day the snow continued to fall; the next day, and
the next, it kept on.  Old folks down in Castleton said they never
remembered such a storm.  It lay three feet deep in the fields, and
there was no saying how deep the drifts might be in the hollows.  For
the first two days the wind had tried its best to keep the hills clear,
but it had tired of the work, and for the last two had ceased to blow,
and the great feathered flakes formed steadily and silently.

Tom was the first to wake.

"Holloa!" he exclaimed, "where are we?  Oh!  I remember.  Dick, are you
awake?"

"Yes, I am awake now," Dick said.  "What is it?  It is not morning yet.
I seem to have been asleep a long time, and don't my bones just ache?
Jimmy, old boy, are you all right?"

"Yes," Jimmy grunted.

"It is quite warm," Dick said.  "It feels very close, and how still it
is!  The wind has quite gone down.  Do you know, Tom, I think it must be
morning.  There seems a faint sort of light.  I can see the stones in
the wall behind you."

"So it must," Tom assented.  "Oh! how stifling it is!" and he raised
himself into a sitting position.

"I am afraid we are buried deep in the snow-drift.  Put your hand up,
Tom; don't you feel some of these sticks are bent in the middle?"

"Ever so much; there must be a great weight on them.  What are we to do,
Dick; shall we try and dig a way out?"

"That will be no good," Dick answered; "not if it is deep; and if it has
been snowing all night, there is no saying how deep it may be this
morning down in this bottom.  This drift-snow is like dust.  I remember
last winter that Bill Jones and Harry Austin and I tried to make a
tunnel in a deep drift, but the snow fell in as fast as we scraped it
away.  It was just like dry sand."

"We are all right for warmth," Tom said; "but it feels quite stifling."

"Yes, we must try and get some air," Dick said.  "The roof-sticks are
close together down at our feet.  There were three or four left over
when we had finished, so we can take them away without weakening the
roof.  We might shove one of them up through the snow."

The sticks were removed carefully, but a quantity of fine snow fell in
on their feet.  One was then shoved up through the top, but the only
effect, when it was removed, was that it was followed by some snow
powdering down on their faces.

"Let us tie four of them together," Dick said.  "I have plenty of string
in my pocket."

This was done, fresh sticks being tied to the bottom as the first were
shoved up through the snow.

"Now, Tom, help me to work it about a bit, so as to press the snow all
round, and make a sort of tube."

For some time a shower of little particles fell as they worked, but
gradually these ceased.  Then the stick was cautiously lowered, being
untied joint by joint, and looking up the boys gave a shout of pleasure.
At the top of the hole, which was some six inches wide at the bottom,
was a tiny patch of light.

"We have only just reached the top," Dick said; "the snow must be near
fifteen feet deep."

Small though the aperture was, it effected a sensible relief.  The
feeling of oppression ceased; half an hour later the hole was closed up,
and they knew that the snow was still falling.

Another length of stick was added, and the daylight again appeared.

The boys slept a good deal; they had no sensation of cold whatever, the
heat of their bodies keeping the air at a comfortable temperature.  They
did not feel so hungry as they expected, but they were very thirsty.

"I shall eat some snow," Tom said.

"I have heard that that makes you more thirsty," Dick remarked; "hold
some in your hands till it melts, and then sip the water."

Four days passed; then they found that the snow no longer continued to
cover up the hole, and knew that the snow-storm had ceased.  The number
of sticks required to reach the top was six, and as each of these was
about four feet long they knew that, making allowance for the joints,
the snow was over twenty feet deep.

Very often the boys talked of home, and wondered what their friends were
doing.  The first night, when they did not return, it would be hoped
that they had stayed at the farm; but somebody would be sure to go over
in the morning to see, and when the news arrived that they were missing,
there would be a general turn out to find them.

"They must have given up all hope by this time," Dick said, on the fifth
morning, "and must be pretty sure that we are buried in the drift
somewhere; but, as all the bottoms will be like this, they will have
given up all hopes of finding our bodies till the thaw comes."

"That may be weeks," Tom said; "we might as well have died at once."

"We can live a long time here," Dick replied confidently.  "I remember
reading once of a woman who had been buried in the snow being got out
alive a tremendous time afterwards.  I think it was five weeks, but it
might have been more.  Hurrah!  I have got an idea, Tom."

"What is that?"  Tom asked.

"Look here; we will tie three more sticks--"

"We can't spare any more sticks," Tom said; "the snow is up to our knees
already."

"Ah! but thin sticks will do for this," Dick said; "we can get some thin
sticks out here.  We will tie them over the others, and on the top of
all we will fasten my red pocket-handkerchief, like a flag; if any one
comes down into this bottom they are sure to see it."

CHAPTER TWO.

THE RED FLAG.

Dick's plan was soon carried into effect, and the little red flag flew
as an appeal for help ten feet above the snow in the lonely valley.

Down in Castleton events had turned out just as the boys had
anticipated.  The night of the snow-storm there was no sleep for their
parents, and at daybreak, next morning, Mr Humphreys and Mr Jackson
set out on foot through the storm for the distant farm.  They kept to
the road, but it took them four hours to reach the farm, for the drifts
were many feet deep in the hollows, and they had the greatest difficulty
in making their way through.

When, upon their arrival, they found the boys had left before the gale
began, their consternation and grief were extreme, and they started at
once on their return to Castleton.

Search-parties were immediately organised, and these, in spite of the
fury of the storm, searched the hills in all directions.

After the first day, when it was found that they were not at any of the
shepherds' huts scattered among the hills, all hopes of finding them
alive ceased.  So hopeless was it considered, that few parties went out
on the three following days; but on the fifth, when the snow-storm
ceased and the sun shone out, numbers of men again tramped the hills in
the vague hope of finding some sign of the missing boys; they returned
disheartened.  The snow was two feet deep everywhere, twenty in many of
the hollows.

The next day but few went out, for the general feeling was, that the
bodies could not be discovered until the thaw came, and at present it
was freezing sharply.

Among those who still kept up the search were several of the boys'
school-fellows.  They had not been permitted to join while the
snow-storm continued, and were therefore fresh at the work.  A party of
four kept together, struggling through the deep snow-drifts, climbing up
the hills, and enjoying the fun, in spite of the saddening nature of
their errand.

On arriving at the brow of a deep valley five miles from home, they
agreed that they would go no farther, as it was not likely that the
missing boys could have wandered so far from their track.  That they had
in fact done so was due to a sudden change in the direction of the wind;
it had been driving in their faces when they started, and with bent down
heads they had struggled against it, unconscious that it was sharply
changing its direction.

"Just let us have a look down into the bottom," one of the boys said;
"there may be a shepherd's hut here."

Nothing, however, was seen, save a smooth, white surface of snow.

"What is that?" one exclaimed suddenly.  "Look, there is a little red
flag flying down there--come along."

The boys rushed down the hill at full speed.

"Don't all go near the flag," one said; "you may be treading on their
bodies."

They arrived within ten yards of the flag, in which they soon recognised
a red pocket-handkerchief.  They were silent now, awestruck at the
thought that their companions were lying dead beneath.

"Perhaps it is not theirs," the eldest of the party said presently.
"Anyhow I had better take it off and carry it home."

Treading cautiously and with a white face, for he feared to feel beneath
his feet one of the bodies of his friends, he stepped, knee-deep in the
snow-drift, to the flag.  He took the little stick in his hand to pluck
it up; he raised it a foot, and then gave a cry of astonishment and
started back.

"What is the matter?" the others asked.

"It was pulled down again," he said in awestruck tones.  "I will swear
it was pulled down again."

"Oh, nonsense!" one of the others said; "you are dreaming."

"I am not," the first replied positively; "it was regularly jerked in my
hand."

"Can they be alive down there?" one suggested.

"Alive!  How can they be alive after five days, twenty feet deep in the
snow?  Look at the flag!"

There was no mistake this time; the flag was raised and lowered five or
six times.  The boys took to their heels and ran and gathered in a
cluster fifty yards away on the hill-side.

"What can it be?" they asked, looking in each others' pale faces.

The behaviour of the flag seemed to them something supernatural.

"We had better go back and tell them at home," one of them said.

"We can't do that; no one would believe us.  Look here, you fellows,"
and he glanced round at the bright sky, "this is nonsense; the flag
could not wave of itself; there must be somebody alive below; perhaps
there is a shepherd's hut quite covered with the drift, and they have
pushed the flag up through the chimney."

The supposition seemed a reasonable one, and a little ashamed of their
panic the group returned towards the flag.  The eldest boy again
approached it.

"Go carefully, Tomkins, or you may fall right down a chimney."

The flag was still continuing its up and down movement; the boy
approached and lay down on the snow close to it; then he took hold of
the stick; he felt a pull, but held fast; then he put his mouth close to
the hole, two or three inches in diameter, through which it passed.

"Halloa!" he shouted; "is any one below?"

A cry of "Yes, yes," came back in reply.  "The two Jacksons and
Humphreys."

"Hurrah!" he shouted at the top of his voice, and his companions,
although they had not heard the answer, joined in the cheer.

"Are you all right?" he shouted down again.

"Yes, but please get help and dig us out."

"All right; I will run all the way back; they will have men here in no
time; good-bye; keep up your spirits."

"They are all there below!" he shouted to his friends.  "Come on, you
fellows, there is not a moment to lose."

Wild with excitement the boys made their way home; they rushed down the
hill-sides, scrambled through the drifts in the bottoms, in which they
sometimes disappeared altogether, and had to haul each other out,
struggled up the hills, and, panting and breathless, rushed in a body
into Mr Humphreys' farmhouse, that standing nearest to them, on their
way to Castleton.

"We have found them; we have found them," they panted out.  "They are
all alive."

Mrs Humphreys had risen from her seat in a chair by the fire as the
boys entered, and uttering a faint cry fell back insensible.

At this moment the farmer, who had but five minutes before returned,
having been out since daybreak on the hills, hurried into the room; he
was taking off his heavy boots when he heard the rush of feet into the
house.  "We have found them, sir; they are all alive!"

"Thank God! thank God!" the farmer exclaimed reverently, and then seeing
his wife insensible hurried towards her, uttering a shout for the
servants.  Two women ran in.  "Look to your mistress," he said; "she has
fainted; the good news has been too much for her--the boys are found
alive."

With mingled exclamations of gladness and dismay the servants raised
their mistress.

"Now, boys, where are they?"  Mr Humphreys asked.

The lads gave a rapid narrative of what had happened.

"Under the snow all this time!" the farmer exclaimed; "they must be, as
you say, in a hut.  Now, will one of you stay and show me the way back,
and the others go on to Mr Jackson's and other places, and bring a
strong party of men with shovels on after us?"

The lad who had spoken with the prisoners remained to act as guide, the
others hurried off.

"Come with me, my boy, into the larder.  There, help yourself; you must
be hungry and tired, and you have got to do it over again."

Mr Humphreys then ran into the yard, and bade the four labourers
provide themselves with shovels and prepare to accompany him at once.

He then went back into the parlour.  His wife was just opening her eyes;
for a time she looked confused and bewildered, then suddenly she sat up
and gazed beseechingly at her husband--memory had come back to her.

"Yes, wife, thanks be to God, it is true--the boys are alive; I am just
going with these men to dig them out.  They are snowed up in a hut.
Now, Jane, get a large basket, and put in it lots of bread, and bacon--
the men who are working will want something; fill the largest stone jar
with beer; put in a bottle of brandy and a bottle of milk, and set to
and get some soup ready; bring three small mattresses downstairs and a
lot of blankets."

Five minutes later the search-party started, Mr Humphreys and the guide
leading the way; the men followed, one carrying five shovels; another,
the basket and jar; the other two, three hurdles on which were placed
the mattresses and blankets.

It was no easy matter so laden making their way over the hills and
through the deep drifts.  Mr Humphreys took his share of the labour;
but it was two hours from the time when they started before they arrived
at the spot where the flag was waving, and the night was already closing
in.

Mr Humphreys hurried forward to the flag; he knelt down beside it.

"Are you still alive, Dick?--it is I, your father!"

"Yes, father, we are all alive, and we shall be all right now you have
come.  Don't get too near the stick; we are afraid of the hole closing
up, and smothering us."

"Which side is the door," Mr Humphreys asked, "so that we can dig that
way?"

"There is no door, father; but you had better dig from below, because of
the wall."

"There must be a door," Mr Humphreys said to himself, as he rejoined
the men.  "There can't be a hut without a door; Dick must be a little
lightheaded, and no wonder.  Now, lads, let us set to work from below."

The five men were soon at work, throwing aside the snow.  In a short
time the other parties arrived.

Mr Humphreys had brought with him a stock of candles.  These were lit
and stuck in the snow, where, as there was no wind, they burnt steadily,
affording sufficient light for the search.  The work was all the more
difficult from the lightness of the snow, as the sides fell in like sand
as they worked upon it, and they were obliged to make a very broad
cutting.

At last there was a cheer, as they struck the ground.

"Now, working up hill we must be at the hut in a few feet."

Twenty willing hands laboured away incessantly, but to their surprise no
hut was met with; they worked and worked, throwing the snow behind them,
until Mr Jackson struck his shovel upon something hard.

"Here is a wall or something," he said.

Another minute uncovered a low wall of two feet in height, and directly
afterwards a leg was popped up through the snow.  A loud cheer broke
from the men.

But again the snow-drift fell in from the sides, and it was another
quarter of an hour before the lads were lifted from the narrow shelter
where they had for five days lain.

The Jacksons were too weak to stand, but Dick was just able to keep on
his feet.  A cup of milk mixed with some brandy was given to each.  Then
Dick in a few words told the story, and the surprise of all, as they
examined the little hut and heard the details of the almost miraculous
preservation of the boys, was almost unbounded.

They were now wrapped in blankets and laid on mattresses placed on the
hurdles; the contents of the baskets--for others besides Mr Humphreys
had brought a stock of provisions, not knowing how long the search-party
might be engaged--were distributed among the workers, and then four men
lifted each hurdle and the party started for home, a messenger having
been sent back at full speed directly the boys were got out, to bear the
glad news to Castleton.

It was just midnight when the main body returned.  A second cup of
brandy and milk had done much to revive the two elder boys, and Dick had
been able to eat a piece of bread.  James, however, had fallen asleep
directly he was wrapped in the blankets, and did not awake until he was
set down at his father's door.

At both houses doctors were in waiting for their arrival.  Dick was at
once pronounced to be none the worse for his adventure, except that his
feet were frost-bitten from long contact with the snow; indeed had it
not been from this cause he could, on the following day, have been up
and about.  As it was, in a fortnight, he was perfectly himself again.

Tom Jackson was confined to the house for many weeks; he lost several of
his toes, but eventually became strong and hearty again.  James,
however, never recovered--the shock to his system had been too great; he
lingered on for some months, and then sank quietly and painlessly.

The events of the snow-storm left a far deeper trace upon Mrs Humphreys
than upon her son.  The terrible anxiety of those five days had told
greatly upon her, and after they were over she seemed to lose strength
rapidly.  She had never been very strong, and a hacking cough now
constantly shook her.  The doctor who attended her looked serious, and
one day said to Mr Humphreys--

"I don't like the state of your wife; she has always been weak in her
lungs, and I fear that the anxiety she went through has somehow
accentuated her former tendency to consumption.  The air of this place--
you see she was born in the south--is too keen for her.  If I were you I
would take her up to London and consult some first-rate man in lung
diseases, and get his opinion."

The next day Mr Humphreys started for London.  The celebrated physician
examined his wife, and afterwards took him aside.

"I cannot conceal from you," he said, "that your wife's lungs are very
seriously affected, although consumption has not yet thoroughly set in.
If she remains in this country she may not live many months; your only
hope is to take her abroad--could you do that?"

"Yes, sir," Mr Humphreys said.  "I can take her anywhere.  Where would
you advise?"

"She would benefit from a residence either in Egypt or Madeira," the
doctor said; "but for a permanency I should say the Cape.  I have known
many complete cures made there.  You tell me that you are engaged in
agricultural pursuits; if it is possible for you to settle there, I can
give you every hope of saving her life, as the disease is not yet
developed.  If you go, don't stay in the lowlands, but get up into the
high plateaus, either behind the Cape itself, or behind Natal.  The
climate there is delicious, and land cheap."

Mr Humphreys thanked him and left, returning the next day to Castleton.
The astonishment of the boys, and indeed of Mrs Humphreys, was
unbounded, when the farmer announced in the evening at supper that he
intended to sell his land and emigrate at once to the Cape.

The boys were full of excitement at the new and strange idea, and asked
numerous questions, none of which the farmer could answer; but he
brought out a pile of books, which he had purchased in town, concerning
the colonies and their resources, and for once Dick's aversion to books
vanished, and he was soon as much absorbed as his brother in the perusal
of the accounts of the new land to which they were to go.

On the following Saturday, to the surprise of all Castleton, an
advertisement appeared in the Derbyshire paper announcing the sale by
auction at an early date of Mr Humphreys' farm.

Dick and John were quite heroes among their companions, who looked with
envy at boys who were going to live in a land where lions and elephants
and all sorts of wild beasts abounded, to say nothing of warlike
natives.

"There always seem to be Kaffir wars going on," one boy said, "out at
the Cape; you will have all sorts of excitement, Dick."

"I don't think that sort of excitement will be nice," Dick replied; "it
must be horribly anxious work to think every time you go out to work
that the place may be attacked and every one killed before you get back.
But that is all nonsense, you know; I have been reading about some of
the Kaffir wars; they are in the bush-country, down by the sea.  We are
going up on to the high lands at the back of Natal.  Father says very
likely we may buy a farm in the Transvaal, but mother does not seem to
like the accounts of the Dutchmen or Boers, as they are called, who live
there, and says she would rather have English neighbours; so I expect if
we can get a farm somewhere in the Natal colony, we shall do so."

"You seem to know all about the place," the boy said, surprised.

"Well, we have had seven or eight books to read about it, and I seem now
to know more about South Africa than about any other country in the
world.  There are the diamond-fields, too, out there, and I hope, before
I settle down regularly to a farm, that father will let me go for a few
months and try my luck there.  Would it not just be jolly to find a
diamond as big as a pigeon's egg and worth about twenty thousand
pounds?"

"And do they do that?" the boy asked.

"Well, they don't often find them as big as that; still, one might be
the lucky one."

The news that Mr Humphreys and his family were about to sell off and
emigrate naturally caused a great deal of talk in and around Castleton,
and put the idea into the minds of many who had never before seriously
thought of it.  If Mr Humphreys, who had one of the best farms in the
neighbourhood, thought that it would pay him to sell his land and go
out, it would surely be a good thing for others to do the same.  He was
considered to be a good farmer and a long-headed man; one who would not
take such a step without carefully looking into the matter--for Mr
Humphreys, in order to avoid questioning and the constant inquiries
about his wife's health, which would be made, did he announce that he
was leaving for that reason, did not think it necessary to inform people
that it was in the hopes of staving off the danger which threatened her
that he was making a move.

A great many of the neighbouring labourers would gladly have gone with
him; but he found by his reading that Kaffir labour was to be obtained
out there very cheaply.  He determined, however, to take with him two of
his own hands; the one a strong active young fellow named Bill Harrison,
the other a middle-aged man named Johnson, who had been with him from a
boy.  He was a married man with two girls, aged fifteen and sixteen, the
eldest of whom was already employed by Mrs Humphreys in the house.
Johnson's wife was a superior woman of her class, and Mr Humphreys
thought that it would be pleasant for his wife, having a woman at hand,
whom she could speak to.  The girls were to act as servants--indeed Mr
Humphreys thought it probable that the whole party would live under one
roof.

Among those whom Mr Humphreys' decision to emigrate had much moved was
Mr Jackson.  He was not in so good a position, as he did not farm his
own land; but he had sufficient capital to start him well in the colony,
where a farm can be bought outright at a few shillings an acre.  He
talked the matter over with his friend on several occasions, and at last
said--

"Well, I think I have pretty well made up my mind; the doctor is telling
me that my poor little chap is not likely to live long; his mother is
wrapped up in him, and will never like the place again;--so I think on
all grounds a change will be good.  I can't come out with you, because I
have got a lease of the farm; but I fancy that it is worth more than it
was when I took it, and if I can get a good tenant to take it off my
hands I don't suppose the landlord will make any objections.  I shall
look about at once, and, when my poor little chap is gone, I shan't be
long before I come after you.  You will let me know how you find the
place, and whether these book-accounts are true?--I have heard that many
of these chaps who write books are awful liars.  I should like to get a
farm as near you as may be."

It was early in the spring when Mr Humphreys and his party embarked at
Plymouth in the _Dunster Castle_.  The farm had sold well, and Mr
Humphreys possessed a capital of several thousand pounds--a sum which
would make him a rich man in the colony.  None of the party had ever
seen the sea before, and the delight of the two boys and the wonderment
of the labourers at all they saw was very great.  Mr Humphreys had
taken first-class passages for himself and family, while the others of
course were steerage passengers.

CHAPTER THREE.

THE FARM.

The voyage to the Cape passed without any incident whatever.  The
weather was fine the whole distance.  Without even a single storm to
break the monotony they touched at Capetown and Port Elizabeth, and at
last arrived at Durban.  The journey had not been too long for the boys;
everything was so perfectly new to them that they were never tired of
watching the sea and looking for porpoises and the shoals of fish, over
which hovered thousands of birds.

Once or twice they saw a whale spout, while flying-fish were matters of
hourly occurrence.  They had prodigious appetites, and greatly enjoyed
the food, which was altogether different to that to which they had been
accustomed.  They had stopped at Madeira and St Vincent, where great
stocks of delicious fruit had been taken on board.  Altogether they were
quite sorry when they arrived at the end of the voyage.

The landing was effected in large boats, as the _Dunster Castle_ drew
too much water to cross the bar at the mouth of the harbour.

They stopped only one day at Durban, where Mr Humphreys hired a waggon
to take the party to Pieter-Maritzburg, the capital.  He was not
encumbered with baggage, as he had decided to buy everything he wanted
in the colony.

"You may pay dearer," he said, "no doubt; but then you get just what you
want.  If I were to take out implements, they might not be suited to the
requirements of the country.  As for clothes, they would of course be
pretty much the same everywhere; still, it is better to take out only a
year's requirements and to buy as we want, instead of lumbering over the
country with a quantity of heavy baggage."

The party were greatly amused at their first experience of a Cape
waggon; it was of very large size, massively built, and covered with a
great tilt; and it was drawn by sixteen oxen, spanned two by two.  This
was an altogether unnecessary number for the weight which had to be
carried, but the waggon had come down loaded from the interior, and Mr
Humphreys therefore paid no more than he would have done for a waggon
with a small number of oxen.  They took two days to accomplish the
journey, the women sleeping at night in the waggon, and Mr Humphreys
and his sons in blankets on the ground.

The driver, who was an Englishman, had been many years in the colony,
and from him, upon the road, Mr Humphreys gained much valuable
information about the country.  The driver was assisted by two Kaffirs,
one of whom walked ahead of the leading cattle, the other alongside,
shouting and prodding them.

The boys were astonished at the power and accuracy with which the driver
whirled his whip; this had a short handle and a lash of twenty yards
long, and with it he was able to hit any animal of the team with
absolute certainty, and indeed to make the thong alight on any part of
their bodies at which he aimed.

On their arrival at Pieter-Maritzburg Mr Humphreys hired a house, and
here he placed his party while he set to work to make inquiries after a
suitable location.  He soon heard of several places which seemed
suitable, and having bought a horse started for Newcastle, a small town
situated close to the frontier-line between the Transvaal and Natal.

He was away for three weeks, and on his return informed his wife that he
had purchased a farm of 2000 acres, with a substantial farmhouse, at a
distance of ten miles from Newcastle, for the sum of 1500 pounds.

The farmhouse was already roughly furnished, but Mr Humphreys purchased
a number of other articles, which would make it comfortable and
home-like.  He laid in a great stock of groceries, and then hiring a
waggon, similar to that in which they had before travelled, started with
his party for the farm, having also hired four Kaffirs to assist there.
Travelling by easy stages, it took them twelve days to get to Newcastle.
The country was undulating and the road rose steadily the whole
distance.

Near Pieter-Maritzburg the population was comparatively thick.  The
fields were well cultivated and the vegetation thick and luxuriant, but
as they ascended the character of the country changed.  Vast stretches
of rolling grass everywhere met the eye.  This was now beautifully
green, for it was winter.  In the summer and autumn the grass becomes
dry and burnt up; fire is then applied to it, and the whole country
assumes a black mantle.  But the first shower of rain brings up the
young grass and in a very short time the country is covered with fresh
verdure.

Mr Humphreys told his wife that, before fixing on the farm, he had
ridden into the Transvaal, and found that land could be purchased there
even more cheaply than in Natal; but that he had much conversation with
English settlers on the frontier, and these had for the most part
strongly advised him to settle inside the Natal frontier.

"It may be that all will be right," one had told him, "but the Boers
have not yet recovered from their scare from Secoceni."

"Who is Secoceni, father?"  Dick asked.  "The books we have say nothing
about him."

"No," Mr Humphreys said; "they were all published a few years since,
and none of them treat much of the affairs of the Transvaal, which, as
an independent state, had comparatively little interest to English
settlers.  There are in the Transvaal, which is of immense extent, a
very large number of natives, enormously outnumbering the Boers.  In the
southern districts, where the Boers are strongest, they cruelly
ill-treat the natives, making slaves of them, and thinking no more of
shooting one of them down than they would of shooting a dog.  In the
outlying provinces they live almost on sufferance of the natives, and,
were these to unite their forces and rise, they could annihilate the
Dutch.  Secoceni is a powerful chief, who lives with his tribe in a
natural stronghold; he has always held himself as independent of the
Dutch.  As his men used to make raids upon the Boers' cattle, the latter
attacked him, and in alliance with Swazis, another powerful tribe,
endeavoured to carry his fortress; they were, however, badly beaten; it
being only by the gallantry of their native allies that the Boer
contingent was saved from destruction.  Secoceni then took the
offensive.  A perfect panic seized the Boers; they refused to obey the
orders of their government, and to turn out to resist the invaders.  The
treasury was empty, for their government had never been enabled to
persuade them to pay taxes.  They applied for aid to Natal, but finally
their plight was so bad that they were glad to accept the offer which
Mr Shepstone made them, of annexation to England, by which they secured
our protection and were safe from annihilation.  Secoceni was not the
only enemy who threatened them.  They had a still more formidable foe in
the Zulus on the eastern frontier.  These are a very warlike people, and
it was known that their king meditated the conquest of the Transvaal.
But, glad enough as the Boers were at the moment to accept the
protection of England, now that the danger is over a great many of them
would like to kick down the bridge which has helped them over the
stream.  They make no secret of their dislike to Englishmen, and
although they are glad enough to sell their land at prices immensely in
advance of the former value, for indeed land was previously almost
unsaleable in the Transvaal, they are on bad terms with them.  One of my
informants describes them as a sullen, sulky people, and predicts that
sooner or later we shall have trouble with them; so I thought it better
altogether to pay a little higher for my land, and to be within the
boundaries of this colony."

On arriving at the farm Mrs Humphreys was glad to find that the house,
though rough, was substantial.  It was built of stone.  The walls were
of great thickness, as the stones were laid without mortar, with which,
however, it was faced inside and out.  One large room occupied the
greater portion of the ground floor; beside this was a small
sitting-room.  Upstairs were four bedrooms.  For the time the small room
downstairs was turned into a bedroom, which Mr and Mrs Humphreys
occupied.  The four bedrooms upstairs just held the rest of the party.
The out-houses consisted only of a large barn and a rough stable.

Mr Humphreys at once rode over to Newcastle, and obtained the services
of a mason and six Kaffirs, and proceeded to add a wing to the
farmhouse.  This was for the use of Johnson and his wife, and Harrison.
The whole party were, however, to take their meals together in the great
kitchen.  A hut was also built for the Kaffirs, and another large stable
was erected.

A few days after his arrival Mr Humphreys went across the border into
the Transvaal, taking Harrison and two of the Kaffirs with him, and
returned a fortnight later with a herd of 400 cattle, which he had
purchased.  He also bought three yoke of oxen, broken to the plough.
Hitherto the farm had been purely a pastoral one, but Mr Humphreys at
once began to break up some land for wheat and Indian corn.  The Kaffirs
were set to work to fence and dig up a plot round the house for
vegetables, and to dig holes near it, over a space of some acres, for
the reception of 3000 young fruit-trees--apples, pears, peaches, and
plums,--which he had bought at Pieter-Maritzburg, and which were to come
up in two months' time.  He also bought six riding-horses.

In a few weeks the farm assumed quite a different appearance.  A gang of
Kaffirs, ten strong, had been hired to hurry on the work of preparing
the orchard and erecting a fence round it.  Wood was, Mr Humphreys
found, extremely scarce and dear, the country being absolutely bare of
trees, and wood for fuel was only obtained in kloofs or deep hollows,
and had to be fetched long distances.

"I suppose," Mrs Humphreys said to her husband one evening, "you mean
to make cattle-raising your principal point?"

"No," he said; "every one raises cattle, and the Dutch can do it cheaper
than we can; they have immense tracts of land, and their Kaffir labour
costs them next to nothing.  I do not say that we could not live and to
a certain extent thrive on cattle, but I think that there is something
much better to be done.  Wood is an awful price here, and all that is
used has to be brought up from the coast.  I think therefore of planting
trees.  The climate is magnificent, and their growth will be rapid.
They will of course require fencing to keep out the cattle, but I shall
do that, as I am doing the orchard, with wire fencing and light
iron-uprights.  Labour is plentiful, and there are large nurseries near
Pieter-Maritzburg, where I can procure any number of young trees; so I
mean to plant 200 acres a year--in ten years the whole farm will be
planted, and the loppings for poles and firewood will in a very short
time after planting begin to pay well.  In fifteen years the first 200
acres will be fit to fell, and the property will be worth a very large
sum of money.  Of course we can sell out before that if we like.  But at
the present price of wood up here, or even should it fall to a quarter
of its present price, the value of the 2000 acres of wood will in twenty
years be extremely large."

The boys were delighted with their new life.  Mr Humphreys had, before
leaving England, bought for Dick a Winchester repeating-rifle.  These
arms are very light, and Dick was able to carry his without difficulty;
and very shortly after their arrival his father had a mark erected at a
distance from the house, at which he could practise with safety.  Game
was abundant all over the country.  Herds of deer and antelope of
various kinds often swept past in sight of the farmhouse, and winged
game also abounded.

Mr Humphreys had at home been considered a first-rate shot at
partridges, and had for four or five years belonged to the Castleton
volunteers, and had carried off many prizes for rifle-shooting.  He was
now able, by going out for a few hours once or twice a week, to keep the
larder well supplied, and the little flock of fifty sheep, which he had
bought for home-consumption, was but seldom drawn upon.  The Kaffirs
were fed upon mealies, as they call Indian corn, of which Mr Humphreys
had no difficulty in purchasing sufficient for his wants from the
neighbouring farmers.

His next neighbours were two brothers, Scotchmen, named Fraser, who
lived at a distance of four miles.  They rode over the day after the
travellers' arrival, and offered their services in any way.  Mr
Humphreys, however, was well supplied with stores of all kinds, and his
two white labourers, being both handy men, were able to do all that was
required about the house.

The Frasers proved pleasant neighbours, and often rode over and spent
Sunday with the Humphreys, and the boys sometimes went over and spent
the day with them.

A Kaffir lad, son of one of the men engaged upon the farm, was hired by
Mr Humphreys as a special attendant for Dick.  On these vast undulating
plains, where there are no trees to serve as a landmark, it is
exceedingly difficult for a stranger to find his way.  Dick was told by
his father that, whether riding or walking, he was always to take the
Kaffir boy with him; and except when he was indulging in a gallop the
lad was easily able to keep up with him.  He had been born a hunter, and
soon taught Dick how to stalk the timid deer, and, as the lad improved
in his shooting, he was ere long enabled to keep the larder supplied--a
duty which Mr Humphreys gladly handed over to him, as every minute of
his own time was occupied by his work on the farm.

Of an evening after supper, which was partaken of at the conclusion of
work, the men retired to their own wing and Mrs Humphreys and the two
girls sat down to their sewing by the fire; for upon the uplands the
evenings are quite cold enough to find a fire a comfort in winter.  Then
the boys would take out their lesson-books and work steadily for three
hours.  Under the changed conditions of their life, Mr Humphreys felt
that Dick might, if he chose, well discontinue his study of the
classics, and his work therefore consisted in the reading of history,
travels, and books of scientific knowledge.

"Next to being a learned man," his father said to him, "the best and
most useful thing is to be a thoroughly well-informed man on all general
subjects."

John, however, continued his studies as before; his life of outdoor
exercise strengthened and improved him, and he no longer wished to be
always sitting with a book in his hand--still, he had a natural love of
study, which his father encouraged, deeming it possible that as he grew
up he might be unwilling to embrace the life of a colonist, in which
case he determined to send him home to finish his education in England,
and afterwards to start him in any profession he might select.

Finding that the cost of carriage up the country was very high, and as
he would yearly require many waggon-loads of young trees and fencing Mr
Humphreys determined to do his own teaming; he therefore bought two of
the large country-waggons and set a Kaffir to work to break in some
young steers to the yoke.

Six months after their arrival in the colony they had for the first time
visitors to stay at the farm--Mr Jackson, his wife, his son Tom, and
two daughters coming out to settle near them.  This was a great delight
to the boys, and fortunately Mr Jackson was able to buy a farm of 500
acres adjoining that of his friend; the house, however, was but a cabin,
and while a fresh one was being erected the family remained guests of
the Humphreys.  Mr Jackson had, at his friend's advice, brought with
him from England a labourer with his wife and family, who at once took
up their residence in the hut on the farm.

To Dick the coming of the Jacksons was a source of special pleasure.
Tom was just his own age, and the two boys had become inseparable
friends at home after their adventure in the snow, upon which occasion
Tom, as he freely owned, had owed his life to Dick's energy and
promptness of suggestion.  Dick was fond of his brother, but three years
make a great difference at this period of life, and, as their tastes
were wholly dissimilar, John had never been a companion for him.  Since
their arrival in South Africa they had got on very well together; still,
they had not the same ideas or subjects of thought, and it was an
immense delight to Dick to have his old friend and companion with him.

It must not be supposed that Dick's time was occupied solely in
amusement; from early morning until dinner-time he worked steadily.
Sometimes he assisted to erect the hurdles and strain the wires of the
fencing; at others he aided in the planting of the fruit-trees; then he
would be with the Kaffirs who were breaking in the oxen for the waggons.
At all times he took off his coat and worked with the rest, for, as his
father said--

"If a farmer is to be able properly to look after men at work, he must
be able to do the work himself."

While Dick was at work with the men, John, who was too young to be of
any use, remained indoors at his books, and, although of an afternoon he
would stroll out, he seldom went far from the house.  The other boys
generally went for long rides when work was done.  One day they sighted
a herd of steinbock.  Leaving their horses with the Kaffir lad in a
hollow, they crept round so as to get the deer between them and the
wind, and managed to reach unobserved a brow within a hundred yards of
the herd.  Dick had by this time become a good shot, and the buck at
which he aimed fell dead in its tracks.  Tom was not much of a shot, but
he had fired into the thick of the deer and gave a shout of delight at
seeing one of them fall.  The rest of the herd dashed off at full speed.
Tom ran, shouting, forward, but to his mortification the stag that he
had hit rose again to its feet and went off at a trot in the direction
taken by the others; a minute later the Kaffir boy was seen running
towards them at his full speed, leading the horses.

The two boys on his arrival leapt into their saddles and started in
pursuit of the wounded stag, which was still in sight, thinking at first
they could easily ride it down.  But the animal seemed rather to gain
than to lose strength, and, although they had considerably lessened the
start he had obtained of them, he still kept steadily on.  Active and
wiry as their horses were, they could not overtake it, and the boys had
at last the mortification of seeing that the stag was now gaining upon
them, and they presently drew rein, and their panting horses came to a
standstill.

"What a horrid sell!"  Tom Jackson exclaimed angrily.  "I can't
understand his going like that after I fairly brought him down."

"I expect," Dick said, "that your bullet can only have grazed his skull;
it stunned him for the moment, but after he had once come to himself he
went on as briskly as usual.  If he had been hard hit we should
certainly have ridden him down."

"Well, I suppose," Tom said more good-humouredly, "there is nothing for
it but to ride back."

"But which is our road?"  Dick said in some dismay.  "I am sure I have
no idea, and now that the sun is gone in there is nothing to steer by."

While they had been riding, the day had changed; the sky, which had for
weeks been bright and fine, was now overcast with heavy clouds.

"We are in for a storm, I think," Dick went on, "and it is coming on
fast.  I have not an idea which way to go, and I think our best plan
will be to halt.  Joel will track us, and the farther we go the longer
he will be in overtaking us.  There is the first drop!  The best thing
to do, Tom, will be to take off our saddles and tether our horses, and
then to wait.  This storm is a nuisance; in the first place we shall be
drenched, in the second it will wash out our tracks, and the darkness
will come so quickly that I am afraid Joel will not be able to trace us.
You see we do not know whether we have been riding straight or not; the
stag may have been running in a circle for anything we know, and as we
have been riding for something like two hours, we may be within five
miles of home or we may be five and twenty."

Scarcely had the boys got the saddles off and tethered their horses when
the rain came down in a sheet, accompanied by the most tremendous
thunder and the most vivid lightning Tom had ever seen.

"This is awful, Dick," he said.

"Yes," Dick agreed; "thunderstorms here are frightful.  Houses are often
struck; but, lying down here in the open, there is not much fear."

For hours the storm continued unabated; the rain came down in a perfect
deluge.  The boys had put their saddles together and had covered these
with the horse-cloths so as to form a sort of tent, but they were
nevertheless soaked to the skin, and, to add to their discomfiture, the
horses had been so frightened by the blinding glare of the lightning
that they tugged at the ropes until, as the wet penetrated the ground,
the pegs became loosened, and they scoured away into the darkness.

After continuing for five hours the rain suddenly ceased.

"What are we to do in the morning, Dick?"

"If it is fine it will be easy enough; we shall put our saddles on our
heads and walk eastward.  I have got a little pocket-compass which
father gave me in case I should at any time get lost, so we shall have
no difficulty in keeping our way, and sooner or later we must strike the
road running north to Newcastle."

They did not, however, wait till morning; so wet and chilled were they,
that they agreed they would rather walk than lie still.  Accordingly
they put the saddles on their heads as soon as the rain ceased and the
stars shone out, struck a light and looked at their compass, fixed on a
star to steer by, and then set out on their journey.

Fortunately, after two hours' walking, they struck the road at a point
some ten miles from the farm, and were home soon after daybreak, just as
their fathers were about to set out with a body of Kaffirs in search of
them.  Joel had returned late at night, having turned his face homeward
when it became too dark to follow the track; the horses had both come in
during the night.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR.

As soon as the Jacksons' house was finished, they went into residence
there; but two or three times a week Dick and Tom managed to meet, one
or other being sure to find some excuse for riding over.

The Humphreys had arrived in Natal at the end of April, 1877, and by
November in the following year their farm presented a very different
appearance to that which it had worn on their arrival--sixteen months of
energetic labour, carried on by a considerable number of hands, will
effect wonders.  Possessing ample capital Mr Humphreys was able to keep
a strong gang of Kaffirs at work, and for some time had thirty men upon
the farm.  Thus the house which, when he took it, stood solitary and
lone in a bare plain, was now surrounded by 200 acres of young trees.
Of these, twenty acres were fruit-trees; the remainder, trees grown for
their wood.  These were planted thickly, as they would every year be
thinned out, and the young poles would fetch a good sum for fencing.
Although they had only been planted a few months, they were already
green and bright; they were protected from the cattle by a wire fence
encircling the whole.

The cattle had thriven and were doing well, and a large field of Indian
corn had been harvested for the use of the Kaffirs.  The cattle had
nearly doubled in numbers, as Mr Humphreys did not care about selling
at present.  The expenses of living were slight.  Meat, fowls, and eggs
were raised upon the farm, and the guns of Mr Humphreys and Dick
provided them with a plentiful supply of game.  Four milch cows were
kept in a paddock near the house, and supplied it with milk, butter, and
cheese.  Groceries and flour had alone to be purchased, and, as Mr
Humphreys said, he did not care if he did not sell a head of cattle for
the next ten years; but he would be obliged to do so before long, as the
farm would carry but a small number more than he already possessed, and
its available extent for that purpose would diminish every year, as the
planting went on.

Mr Humphreys was fortunate in having a small stream run through his
farm.  He erected a dam across a hollow, so that in winter a pond of two
or three acres in extent, and fifteen or sixteen feet deep, was formed,
affording an ample supply for the summer; this was of great utility to
him, as he was thereby enabled to continue his planting operations,
filling up each hole with water when the trees were put in, and then, as
this subsided, filling in the earth; by this means the young trees got a
good start, and seldom required watering afterwards.  He had a large
water-cart built for him; this was drawn by four oxen, and brought the
water to the point where the Kaffirs were engaged in planting.

Steers sufficient for two waggons had been broken in, and when these
were not employed in bringing up young trees and fencing from Newcastle
they worked upon the road between Newcastle and Pieter-Maritzburg, there
being a great demand for conveyance, as numbers of traders were going up
into the Transvaal and opening stores there.  Mr Jackson had also two
waggons engaged in the same work.  When trees and goods were wanted for
the farm, Dick went down with the waggons to see that these were
properly loaded, and that the young trees, which were often in leaf,
were taken out every night and set with the roots in water until the
morning.

One evening, early in October, Mr Jackson rode over with Tom.

"I have heard," the former said to Mr Humphreys, "that the government
have determined on moving the troops down to the Zulu frontier; the
attitude of Cetewayo is very threatening."

"He is a troublesome neighbour," Mr Humphreys said.  "They say that he
has 30,000 fighting-men, and in that case he ought to be able to overrun
both Natal and the Transvaal, for there is no doubt that Zulus fight
with great bravery.  As for the Dutch, I really can't blame the Zulus.
The Boers are always encroaching on their territory, and any
remonstrance is answered by a rifle-shot.  Had it not been for our
annexation of the Transvaal, Cetewayo would have overrun it and
exterminated the Dutch before now.  We have a strong force in the colony
just at present, and I think Sir Bartle Frere means to bring matters to
a crisis.  The existence of such an army of warlike savages on the
frontier is a standing threat to the very existence of the colony, and
the constitution of the army renders it almost a necessity that it
should fight.  All the men are soldiers, and as none are allowed to
marry until the regiment to which they belong has distinguished itself
in battle they are naturally always burning for war.  The
Pieter-Maritzburg paper says that it understands that Sir Bartle Frere
is about to send in an ultimatum, demanding--in addition to various
small matters, such as the punishing of raiders across the frontier--the
entire abandonment of the present system of the Zulu army, and cessation
of the bloody massacres which constantly take place in that country.  If
a man offends the king, not only is he put to death, but the whole of
the people of his village are often massacred.  Altogether an abominable
state of things prevails; there seems to be but one opinion throughout
the colony, that it is absolutely necessary for our safety that the Zulu
organisation shall be broken up."

"I see," Mr Jackson said, "that there is an advertisement in the papers
for waggons for the transport of stores, and the price offered is
excellent.  A large number are required; I was thinking of sending down
my two teams--what do you think?"

"I have been turning it over in my mind," Mr Humphreys replied, "and I
am inclined also to offer my waggons.  The rate of pay is, as you say,
high, and they certainly will have a difficulty in obtaining the number
they require.  I shall not have need for mine for home purposes for a
considerable time now.  The hot weather will soon be setting in, and
planting is over for the season.  I shall of course go on digging holes
for my next batch, but I shall not want them up until after the end of
the hot season.  So I think, as I can spare them, I shall hire them to
government.  I think we ought all to do what we can to aid it at
present, for every one agrees as to the necessity of the steps it is now
taking."

"And do you think that there will be any fighting, father?"  Dick asked
eagerly.

"That no one can say, my boy.  The Zulus are a proud as well as a brave
people, and believe that they are invincible.  I hardly think that they
will consent to break up their army and abandon their customs at our
dictation; I should not be surprised if it comes to fighting."

"Oh, father, if you hire the waggons to government, may I go with them?
I can see that the Kaffirs look after the oxen, you know, and that
everything goes straight.  I have picked up a little Kaffir from Joel,
and can manage to make them understand."

"Well, Dick," Mr Humphreys said, after a little thought, "I don't know
that I have any objection to it; it will be a change for you, and of
course there will be no chance of the waggons being near if any fighting
goes on.  What do you think, Jackson?  I suppose your boy will want to
go if mine does?"

"Well, I don't mind," Mr Jackson answered.  "I suppose it will not be
for long, for the boy is useful on the farm now.  However, as you say,
it will be a change, and boys like a little excitement.  Well, I suppose
I must say yes; they are fifteen now, and old enough to keep out of
mischief."

The boys were delighted at the prospect of the expedition, and at once
went out to talk matters over together.  They cordially agreed in the
hope that the Zulus would fight, and promised themselves that if
possible they would see something of it.  Their fathers would, they
thought, allow them to take their horses, and it would be easy, if the
waggons were left behind, to ride forward with the troops, and see what
went on.

Two days later the four teams started together for Pieter-Maritzburg.
Contrary to their expectations the boys were not allowed to take their
horses.

"No, no, Dick," Mr Humphreys had said, when his son asked him, "no
horses, if you please; I know what you will be up to.  Galloping about
to see what is going on, and getting into all sorts of mischief and
scrapes.  No, if you go, you go with the waggons, to see that everything
goes straight, to translate orders to the Kaffirs, and to learn
something of waggon-driving across a rough country.  For between this
place and Pieter-Maritzburg it is such a fair road that you really learn
nothing in that way; once get into a cross country, and you will see how
they get waggons down steep kloofs, across streams, and over rough
places.  No, you and Tom will stick to the waggons.  I have been fixing
a number of rings to-day underneath one of them, and your mother and the
women have been at work, making a sort of curtain to hook on all round;
so at night you will have a comfortable place to sleep in, for the
waggons will likely enough be so filled with cases and stores that there
will be no sleeping in them.  You can take the double-barrel as well as
your Winchester, as of an evening you may be able to get a shot
sometimes at game, which will vary your rations a bit.  You must take
with you a stock of tinned meats from Pieter-Maritzburg, for I do not
suppose they will issue regular rations to you.  So long as you are this
side of the Tugela, you will be able to buy food; but if the troops
cross into Zululand, you may have to depend on what you carry."

Tom with his two waggons arrived at daybreak, and the four teams set off
together, Mrs Humphreys--who had now completely lost her cough and was
quite strong and well--laying many injunctions upon Dick against
exposing himself to any danger, and Dick promising to be as careful as
possible.

Upon their arrival at Pieter-Maritzburg the boys went at once to the
government transport-yard, and on stating their errand were shown into
the office of the officer in charge.

"We have brought down four teams of sixteen oxen each," Dick said, "from
near Newcastle, to be hired to the government."

"That is right, my lads," the officer said, "we have room for plenty
more.  This is the form of contract.  You engage to serve the government
by the month; you bear any damages which may take place from wear and
tear of the roads, breakdowns, and the other ordinary accidents of
travel; the government engages to make good any loss or damage which may
occur from the action of the enemy.  This is not," he said, smiling,
"likely to take place, but still those are the terms.  Have you any
authority from your fathers, to whom, I suppose, the teams belong, to
sign the contracts for them?"

"Yes, sir," Dick said.  "Here is a paper from my father, and one from
Tom Jackson's father, saying that they agree to be bound by the terms of
the contract, and that they authorise us to sign in their names.  We are
going with the waggons, sir, to look after the Kaffirs."

"Well," the officer said, "you can do as you like about that; but if you
speak Kaffir it will be useful--only, mind, you will have to provision
yourselves.  From the day the teams are taken up, rations of mealies
will be served to the Kaffirs at the various halting-places, but there
is no provision for rations of white men.  The cattle, too, will be fed,
but you will have to see to yourselves."

"Yes, sir; we expected to do so."

"Well, you had better fetch the teams up to the yard.  I must inspect
and pass them before they are taken up.  Bring them round at once; then
they will be loaded to-night, and start at daybreak to-morrow."

The teams were brought round to the yard, and immediately passed by the
officer, who indeed remarked upon the excellence of the animals.  The
Kaffirs were directed to outspan or unyoke the oxen, for whom rations of
hay and grain were at once issued.

The boys returned to the town and made their purchases, which were
carried down by two Kaffirs and stored in the waggons, which were
already in process of being loaded--two with boxes of ammunition, the
others with miscellaneous stores for the troops.  They slept at an
hotel, and next morning at daybreak presented themselves at the yard.
The Kaffirs were already harnessing up the oxen, and in a quarter of an
hour the four waggons, with sixteen others, started for the Tugela.

It was now the middle of December.  Early in the month commissioners had
been sent to Cetewayo with the terms decided upon by Sir Bartle Frere.
The first clauses of the document contained the settlement of the
disputed frontier, and fines were fixed to be paid by the chiefs whose
men had committed forays across the borders; it then went on to demand
that the whole of Cetewayo's army should at once be disbanded; freedom
of marriage was to be allowed, when the parties thereto were of age;
justice was to be impartially administered; missionaries to be allowed
to reside in the Zulu country; British residents to be appointed; all
disputes between Zulus and Europeans to be referred to the king and
resident; and no expulsion from Zulu territory was to be carried into
effect without the distinct approval of the resident.

It was intimated to the king that unless these terms were accepted by
the 11th of January the army would at once invade the country.  Few men
expected that the Zulu king would tamely submit to conditions which
would deprive him of all the military power in which he delighted, and
would reduce him to a state of something like dependency upon the
British.

During the month of December General Thesiger, who commanded the British
forces in South Africa, made every effort to prepare for hostilities.
The regiments which were at the Cape were brought round by sea; a
brigade of seamen and marines was landed from the ships of war; several
corps of irregular horse were raised among the colonists; and regiments
of natives were enrolled.  Before the date by which the king was to send
in his answer the troops were assembled along the frontier in the
following disposition:--

  Number 1 Column.
  (_Headquarters, Thring's Post, Lower Tugela_.)
  Commandant.--Colonel C.K.  Pearson, the Buffs.

  Naval Brigade.--170 bluejackets and marines of
  H.M.S.  _Active_ (with one Gatling and two 7-pounder guns), under
  Captain Campbell, R.N.

  Royal Artillery.--Two 7-pounder guns and rocket-battery, under
  Lieutenant W.N.  Lloyd, R.A.

  Infantry.--2nd battalion, 3rd Buffs, under Lieutenant-Colonel H.
  Parnell.

  Mounted Infantry.--100 men under Captain Barrow, 19th Hussars.

  Volunteers.--Durban Rifles, Natal Hussars, Stanger Rifles, Victoria
  Rifles, Alexandra Rifles.  Average, forty men per corps--all mounted.

  Native Contingent.--1000 men under Major Graves, the Buffs.

  Number Two Column.
  (_Headquarters, Helpmakaar, near Rorke's Drift.)
  _Commandant.--Colonel Glyn, 1st battalion, 24th Regiment.

  Royal Artillery.--N. battery, 5th brigade, Royal Artillery
  (with 7-pounder guns), under Major A.  Harness, R.A.

  Infantry.--Seven companies 1st battalion, 24th Regiment, and 2nd
  battalion, 24th Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Degacher.

  Natal Mounted Police.--Commanded by Major Dartnell.

  Volunteers.--Natal Carabineers, Buffalo Border Guard, Newcastle
  Mounted
  Rifles--all mounted; average, forty men.

  Native Contingent--1000 men, under Commandant Lonsdale, late 74th
  Highlanders.

  Number 3 Column.
  (_Headquarters, Utrecht.)
  _Commandant.--Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C.  C.B., 40th Regiment.

  Royal Artillery.--11th battery, 7th brigade, R.A.  (with four
  7-pounder
  guns), under Major E.  Tremlett, R.A.

  Infantry.--1st battalion 13th Regiment, and 90th Regiment.

  Mounted Infantry.--100 men, under Major J.C.  Russell, 12th Lancers.

  Frontier Light Horse.--200 strong, under Major Redvers Buller, C.B.,
  60th Rifles.

  Volunteers.--The Kaffrarian Vanguard, Commandant Schermbrucker, 100
  strong.

  Native Contingent.--The Swazis, our native allies, some 5000 strong.

In the first fortnight of their engagement the waggons travelled
backward and forward between Pieter-Maritzburg and Grey Town, which for
the time formed the base for the column of Colonel Glyn.  The distance
of the town from the capital was forty-five miles, and as the waggons
travelled at the rate of fifteen miles a day, they were twelve days in
accomplishing two double journeys.  When they were loaded up the third
time, they received orders to go straight through to the headquarters of
the column at Helpmakaar.  The boys were pleased at the change, for the
road as far as Grey Town was a good one.

They reached Grey Town for the third time on the 2nd of January.  Here
they found the place in a state of great excitement, a mounted messenger
having arrived that morning with the news that Cetewayo had refused all
demands and that large bodies of the Zulus were marching towards the
frontier to oppose the various columns collecting there.

On arriving at the government-yard the lads received orders at once to
unload the waggons and to take on the stores of the 2nd battalion of the
24th, which was to march from Grey Town the next morning.  The start was
delayed until the afternoon, as sufficient waggons had not arrived to
take on their baggage.  The road was rough, and it was late in the
afternoon before they arrived at the Mooin River.

The weather had set in wet, the river was in flood, and the oxen had
immense difficulty in getting the waggons across.  Two teams had to be
attached to each waggon, and even then it was as much as they could do
to get across, for the water was so high that it nearly took them off
their feet.

The troops were taken over in punts, and, after crossing, a halt was
made for the night.

After seeing the cattle outspanned and attended to, the boys wandered
away among the troops, as they were to start at daybreak, and it was
long past dark before all were over.  The tents were not pitched, and
the troops bivouacked in the open.  Brushwood was collected from the
rough ground around, and blazing fires were soon burning merrily.  It
was all new and very amusing to the boys.  The troops were in high
spirits at the prospect of an early brush with the enemy, and songs were
sung around the fires until the bugle rang out the order, "Lights out,"
when the men wrapped themselves in their blankets and lay down, and the
boys retired to their snug shelter under the waggons, where their
Kaffirs had as usual laid piles of brushwood to serve as their beds.

The next morning they were off early, and reached the Tugela after five
hours' march.  This river does not here form the frontier between
Zululand and Natal, this being marked by the Buffalo--a much larger and
more important stream--from the point where this falls into the Tugela,
some fifteen miles below the spot where they crossed the latter river,
which here runs towards the southwest.  Two more days' marching took the
column to Helpmakaar.  The weather was wet and misty, and the troops now
marched in close order, with flankers thrown out, for the road ran
parallel with the Buffalo, about five miles distant, and it was thought
possible that the Zulus might cross the river and commence hostilities.
A cordon of sentinels had, however, been placed all along the river from
Rorke's Drift down to the point of junction of the Buffalo and Tugela;
below the stream was so wide that there was no fear of the Zulus
effecting a crossing.

Most of the troops which had been stationed at Helpmakaar had already
marched up to Rorke's Drift, and after staying two days at Helpmakaar
the 2nd battalion of the 24th marched to that place, where the 1st
battalion of the same regiment were already encamped.

Two days later the remainder of the force destined to act under Colonel
Glyn had assembled at Rorke's Drift--the term "drift" meaning a ford
across a river.

This column was the strongest of those which had been formed for the
simultaneous invasion of Zululand, and General Thesiger was himself upon
the spot to accompany it.  Many of the waggons which had brought up
stores were sent back to Grey Town for further supplies; but those of
the boys, being laden with the spare ammunition and baggage of a portion
of the 24th, were to accompany the column in its advance.

The last two days of the term granted to Cetewayo to accede to our terms
were full of excitement; it had been reported, indeed, that the king was
determined upon resistance, but it was thought probable that he might
yield at the last moment, and the road leading down to the drift on the
other side of the river was anxiously watched.

As the hours went on and no messenger was seen approaching, the spirits
of the troops rose, for there is nothing that soldiers hate so much as,
after enduring the fatigues preparatory to the opening of a campaign,
the long marches, the wet nights, and other privations and hardships,
for the enemy to yield without a blow.  Men who had been in the
campaigns of Abyssinia and Ashanti told their comrades how on both
occasions the same uncertainty had prevailed as to the intentions of the
enemy up to the last moment; and the fact that in both campaigns the
enemy had at the last moment resolved to fight, was hailed as a sort of
presage that a similar determination would be arrived at by the Zulu
king.

To the boys these days passed very pleasantly; they had nothing to do
but to wander about the camp and watch the proceedings.  There was a
parade of the two native regiments before the general, who was much
pleased with their appearance, and who exhorted them on no account to
kill women, children, or prisoners.

Among these native regiments were curiously many Zulus; for great
numbers of this people had at various times been obliged to take refuge
in Natal, to avoid the destruction threatened them by their despotic
king, and these were now eager to fight against their late monarch.

Some of the bodies of volunteer horse were very smart and soldier-like
in their appearance.  They were for the most part composed of young
farmers, and Dick and Tom bitterly regretted that they had not been a
few years older, in which case, instead of looking after a lot of bulls,
as Dick contemptuously said, they might have been riding in the ranks of
the volunteers.

By the regulars the two days were spent in cleaning their arms and
accoutrements, whose burnish and cleanliness had suffered much in the
long wet march, and from the bivouacs on the damp ground.

After marching from Grey Town with the 24th the boys had been placed
regularly on the roll of the army, as conductors, and, although they
drew no pay, had now the advantage of receiving rations as white men.
They had upon the line of march frequently chatted with the young
officers of the regiment, who, finding that they were the sons of
well-to-do farmers and were cheery, high-spirited lads, took to them
very much, and invited them of an evening to join them round the
camp-fire.

The last day came, and still no messenger arrived from Cetewayo, and in
the evening orders were issued that the column should at daybreak pass
the drift and advance into the enemy's country.  The troops laid down
that night in high spirits, little dreaming of the disaster which was to
befall them in the campaign which they thought of so lightly.

CHAPTER FIVE.

ISANDULA.

At two o'clock on the morning of the 11th of January the bugle sounded
the reveille and the troops prepared to cross the Buffalo.  Tents were
struck, baggage piled on the waggons, and the regiments stood to arms at
half-past four.  The native contingent crossed first.  The cavalry
brigade under Lieutenant-Colonel Russell placed their ammunition on a
pontoon and rode over.  The river was in some places up to the necks of
the infantry, and even the cavalry were nearly swept away.  The first
and second battalions of the 24th crossed on the pontoons.  The third
regiment of the native contingent threw out skirmishers, but could find
no trace of the enemy.

A heavy storm had come on at daybreak, but this left off at nine
o'clock.  Lieutenant-Colonel Buller, commanding the Frontier Light
Horse, now rode in from the camp of Colonel Wood's force, which had
crossed the Blood River and had encamped in Zululand at a spot about
thirty-two miles distant.  Lord Chelmsford rode over there with an
escort of the Natal Mounted Police and the Natal Carabineers, who on
their return captured three hundred head of cattle, several horses, and
a number of sheep and goats.  During the day the waggons, oxen, and
ambulances were brought across the river on the platoon.

Early next morning the 1st battalion of the 1st Native Regiment, four
companies of the 1st battalion of the 24th, and 300 of the irregular
horse started on a reconnaissance towards the kraal of Sirayo, the chief
whose sons had been the greatest offenders in the raids into Natal.  The
cavalry were thrown out in skirmishing order, and after marching nine
miles they descended into the slope of the valley in which Sirayo's
kraals were situated.  The enemy were heard singing their war-songs in
one of the ravines, and the 3rd Native Regiment advanced against them
with the 24th in reserve.  The Zulus opened fire as they approached, and
so heavy was this that many of our natives turned and ran; they were
rallied, however, and with a rush carried the caves in which the Zulus
were lurking.

In the meantime the 24th's men had moved round to the head of the
ravine, and cut off the enemy's retreat.  There was a skirmish between
the cavalry and some mounted Zulus, and six of these, including a son of
Sirayo, were killed.  Thirty horses and 400 head of cattle were
captured.

The next day was spent in cleaning up arms and accoutrements, after the
heavy rain which had fallen the preceding week, and several days were
spent in making the roads passable for the waggons.

On the 20th the force moved forward, leaving one company of the 2nd
battalion of the 24th, under Lieutenant Bromhead, with some engineers
and a few natives to guard the ford and look after the platoons, and
garrison the store and hospital.  The column camped at Isandula, or, as
it is more properly called, Isandwhlana, ten miles distant from Rorke's
Drift.  A portion of the road was extremely rough, and the waggons had
the greatest difficulty in making their way forward.

The spot selected for a camping-ground was a wide flat valley, with
hills on the left and undulating ground on the right; almost in the
centre rose an isolated hill, perpendicular on three sides, and very
steep and difficult on the fourth.  The camp was pitched in front of
this hill, looking down the valley, with a mile of open country between
it and the hills on the left.

The camp was formed in the following order: on the left were the two
battalions of the 3rd Native Regiment; the Royal Artillery were in the
centre; next to these was the 2nd battalion of the 24th.  The line was
then taken up by the cavalry, with the 1st battalion of the 24th on the
right of the whole.  The waggons were all placed between the camp and
the hill at the back.

By a strange and criminal neglect no attempt was made to intrench this
position, although it was known that the column might at any moment be
attacked by the Zulus.

It was determined that the greater part of the force should advance the
next morning towards a stronghold, ten miles distant from the camp,
straight down the valley.  News had come that a large number of Zulus
were at this spot, and it was supposed that these would fight.  The
column consisted of eight companies of each of the battalions of the 3rd
Native Regiment, with the greater part of the cavalry.

The force started early and marched for three hours down the valley.
Here they came on much cultivated ground, but the kraals had been
deserted by the enemy.  At four o'clock, as the cavalry were skirmishing
at a distance on both flanks, they came upon a body of Zulus about 2000
strong.  The horse fell back upon the infantry, but, as it was now late,
Major Dartnell decided to encamp for the night, and to attack in the
morning.  A messenger was despatched into camp with a report of the
day's proceedings, and some provisions and blankets were sent out, with
news that the general would join the troops with reinforcements in the
morning.

At daybreak he left the camp at Isandula with seven companies of the 2nd
battalion of the 24th, and orders were sent to Colonel Durnford, at
Rorke's Drift, to bring up 200 mounted men and his rocket-battery, which
had reached that spot.

The Zulus were seen in all directions, and a good deal of skirmishing
took place.  By a gross neglect, equal to that which was manifested in
the omission to fortify the camp, no steps whatever were taken to keep
up communication between the column, which now consisted of the greater
part of the troops, and those who remained at the camp at Isandula.  No
signallers were placed on the hills, no mounted videttes were posted,
and the column marched on, absorbed in its own skirmishes with the
enemy, as if the general in command had forgotten the very existence of
the force at Isandula.  Even in the middle of the day, when the firing
of cannon told that the camp was attacked, no steps were taken to
ascertain whether reinforcements were needed there, and it was not until
hours after all was over that a party was despatched to ascertain what
had taken place at the camp.

Upon the day on which the two native regiments advanced, the two boys
felt the time hang heavy on their hands; they would have liked to take
their guns and go out to shoot some game for their dinners, but all
shooting had been strictly forbidden, as the sound of a gun might cause
a false alarm.  After hanging about the camp for an hour or two, Dick
proposed that they should climb the hill which rose so steeply behind
them.

"If the columns have any fighting," he said, "we should be sure to see
it from the top."

Borrowing a telescope from one of the officers of the volunteer cavalry,
they skirted round to the back of the hill, and there began their climb.
It was very steep, but after some hard work they reached the summit,
and then crossed to the front and sat down in a comfortable niche in the
rock, whence they could command a view far down the valley.  They could
see the two battalions of infantry marching steadily along, and the
cavalry moving among the hills and undulations on both flanks.  They had
taken some biscuits and a bottle of beer up with them, and spent the
whole day on the look-out.  The view which they gained was a very
extensive one, as the hill was far higher than those on either side, and
in many places they could see small bodies of the enemy moving about.
At sunset they descended.

"I vote we go up again," Tom said the next morning.  "The general has
gone forward with most of the white troops, and there is sure to be
fighting to-day.  We shall have nothing to do, and may as well go up
there as anywhere else."

After the general's departure there remained in camp five companies of
the 1st battalion of the 24th, and one of the 2nd battalion, two
field-pieces with their artillery men, and some mounted men.

Just as the boys were starting at eight in the morning, there was a
report in the camp that the Zulus were gathering in force to the north
of the camp.  This quickened the boys' movements and half an hour later
they gained the top of the hill, and from their old position looked down
upon the camp lying many hundred feet below them.  There was
considerable bustle going on, and the Kaffir drivers were hastily
collecting the cattle which were grazing round, and were driving them
into camp.

"There is going to be a fight!"  Dick exclaimed, as they gained their
look-out; "there are crowds of Zulus out there on the plains."

Could the boys have looked over the hills a mile away to their right,
they would have seen that the number of Zulus down in the valley in
front was but a small proportion of those gathering for the attack; for
15,000 men had moved up during the night, and were lying quietly behind
those hills, 3000 or 4000 more were taking the road to Rorke's Drift, to
cut off any who might escape from the camp, while as many more were
showing down the valley.  Altogether some 24,000 of the enemy had
gathered round the little body in the camp.  To the boys, however, only
the party down the valley was visible.

At eleven o'clock Colonel Durnford came into camp with his 350 mounted
men from Rorke's Drift, and advanced with them to meet the enemy
threatening the left flank, while two companies of the 1st battalion of
the 24th moved out to attack their right.  The Zulus, now reinforced
from behind the hills, moved forward steadily, and Colonel Durnford with
his cavalry could do little to arrest them.  For an hour the infantry
stood their ground, and the two field-pieces swept lines through the
thick ranks of the enemy.  The Zulus advanced in the form of a great
crescent.

"Things look very bad, Dick," Tom said; "what do you think we had better
do?"

"I think we had better stay where we are, Tom, and wait and see what
occurs; we have a splendid view of the fight, and if our fellows meet
them we shall see it all; but if--oh, look there, Tom!"

Over the hills on the left thousands of Zulus were seen pouring down.

"This is terrible, Tom.  Look here, I will crawl along over the crest,
so as not to be seen, and look behind to see if it is clear there.  If
it is, I vote we make a bolt.  It is of no use our thinking of going
down for a couple of horses; the Zulus will be in the camp long before
we could get there."

Five minutes later he again joined his friend.

"They are coming up behind too, Tom.  They have really surrounded us.
Look, they are close to the camp!"

It was a scene of frightful confusion.  Nothing could be seen of the
companies of the 24th, which had gone out to meet the Zulus.  The great
wave of the advancing army had swept over them.  Below, the panic was
complete and terrible, and soldiers, native drivers, and camp-followers
were running wildly in all directions.

One party of the 24th's men, about sixty strong, had gathered together
and stood like a little island.  The incessant fire of their rifles
covered them with white smoke, while a dense mass of Zulus pressed upon
them.  Many of the soldiers were flying for their lives; others again,
when they found that their retreat was cut off, had gathered in groups
and were fighting desperately to the last.  Here and there mounted men
strove to cut their way through the Zulus, while numbers of fugitives
could be seen making for the river, hotly pursued by crowds of the
enemy, who speared them as they ran.

"It is frightful, frightful, Tom!  I cannot bear to look at it."

For a few minutes the fight continued.  The crack of the rifles was
heard less frequently now.  The exulting yell of the Zulus rose louder
and louder.  On the right Colonel Durnford with his cavalry essayed to
make one last stand to check the pursuit of the Zulus and give time for
the fugitives to escape; but it was in vain, showers of assegais fell
among them, and the Zulu crowd surged round.

For a time the boys thought all were lost, but a few horsemen cut their
way through the crowd and rode for the river.  The artillery had long
before ceased to fire, and the gunners lay speared by the cannons.  The
first shot had been fired at half-past eleven, by one o'clock all was
over.  The last white man had fallen, and the Zulus swarmed like a vast
body of ants over the camp in search of plunder.

Horror-stricken and sick, the boys shrank back against the rock behind
them, and for some time sobbed bitterly over the dreadful massacre which
had taken place before their eyes.  But after a time they began to talk
more quietly.

"Will they come up here, do you think, Dick?"

"No, I don't think so," Dick replied.  "They could hardly have seen us
come up here, even if they had been on the look-out on the hills, and as
they reached the back of the mountain before the camp was taken, they
will know that nobody could have come up afterwards.  Lie back here; we
cannot possibly be seen from below.  They will be too much taken up with
plundering the camp to think of searching this hill.  What on earth is
the general doing?--I can see his troops right away on the plain.
Surely he must have heard the guns?  Our only hope now is that when he
hears it he will march straight back; but, even if he does, I fear that
the Zulus will be too strong for him.  The whole force which he has with
him is no stronger than that which has been crushed here, and I don't
expect the native regiments can make much stand if attacked by such a
tremendously strong force."

So long as the daylight lasted, the boys, peering occasionally over,
could see the Zulus at the work of plundering.  All the sacks and
barrels were taken from the waggons and cut or broken open, each man
taking as much as he could carry of the tea, sugar, flour, and other
necessaries; many of the yoke-oxen were assegaied at once, and cut up
and eaten, the rest being driven off towards the north by a party of
warriors.

At nightfall the tents were set on fire; they soon burnt out, and the
boys could no longer see what was taking place.  Rising from the
shelter, they walked back to the other side of the crest.

"I can hear firing now," Dick said; "it seems to me that it is back at
Rorke's Drift."

They were soon sure that they were not mistaken; as it grew darker a
flittering light was seen in that direction, and a continued fire of
distant musketry was heard.  Later on there was a broad glare in the
sky.

"I fear it is all over there too," Dick said, "and that the place has
been burnt."

Still, however, the firing continued, as heavy as ever, and long on into
the night the lads sat listening to it.  At last they fell asleep, and
when they awoke the sun was already high.  Thus they missed their chance
of escape.

At nine o'clock in the evening Lord Chelmsford's force, hearing at last
what had happened, marched back into the camp, and before day had fairly
broken continued their way down to Rorke's Drift.  The defenders here, a
little garrison, under Lieutenant Bromhead of the 24th, and Chard of the
Royal Artillery, had made an heroic defence against some 4000 of the
enemy.  With mealy bags and boxes they built up a breastwork, and this
they held all night, in spite of the desperate efforts of the Zulus to
capture it.  The hospital, which stood at one end of the intrenchment,
was carried and burnt by the Zulus, but the little garrison held out
till morning in an inner intrenchment round the store-house.

Here was seen what could be done in the way of defence by the aid of
hastily-thrown-up intrenchments; and had breastworks been erected at
Isandula, as they ought to have been the instant the troops arrived
there, and still more so when the major portion of the column marched
away, the force there, small as it was, would doubtless have made a
successful resistance.  Even had the step been taken, when the Zulus
were first seen approaching, of forming a laager--that is, of drawing up
the waggons in the form of a hollow square--at the foot of the steep
mountain, the disaster might have been averted.  It may be said that the
massacre of Isandula was due entirely to the over-confidence and
carelessness of the officers in command of the column.

The boys on waking crawled back cautiously to a spot where they could
obtain a view over the valley, and, to their surprise, the force which,
on the afternoon before, they had seen out there had entirely
disappeared.  Many bodies of Zulus were seen moving about, but there was
no trace of the white troops.  They made their way to the back of the
hill, and then, to their horror, saw the column moving away from them,
and already half-way on its road to Rorke's Drift.

Their first impulse was to get up and start off in a run in pursuit of
it, but this feeling lasted but a moment, for between the hill and the
column many scattered parties of Zulus were to be seen.  The boys looked
blankly at each other.  It was but too clear that they were cut off and
alone in the enemy's country.

"Whatever shall we do, Dick?"

"I have not the least idea, Tom.  At any rate there is nothing to be
done at present.  We should be assegaied in a moment if we were to go
down; let's go back to our old look-out."

After much talk they agreed that it would be hopeless to attempt to make
south and cross the Buffalo, as many of the fugitives had done.  There
were sure to be strong bodies of Zulus along the river, and even if they
passed these without detection they would be unable to cross the river,
as they would find no ford, and neither of them was able to swim.

There were great numbers of Zulus in the camp below, and these seemed to
be pursuing the work of plundering more minutely than they had done on
the previous day.  The stores scattered recklessly about were collected,
placed in empty barrels, and loaded up on the waggons.  Presently a
number of cattle were brought down; these were harnessed to the waggons
and driven off, and by nightfall nothing save scattered remnants marked
the place where the British camp had stood.  But from their post the
boys could see that the ground far and near was dotted with corpses,
black and white.

After nightfall the boys descended to the camp, and having marked the
exact spot where the waggons had stood were able to collect a number of
pieces of the broken biscuit scattered about; they were fortunate enough
to light upon a water-bottle still full, and with these treasures they
returned to the post on the mountain.  They had agreed to wait there for
three or four days, in fact as long as they could hold out, and then
quietly to walk into one of the native kraals.  If caught in the act of
flight they were certain of being killed, but they hoped that when the
Zulus' blood had cooled down after the conflict their lives might
possibly be spared.

This plan was carried out; for four days they remained on the hill of
Isandula, and then descending late one evening to the plain walked for
ten or twelve miles north, and waiting until daybreak showed them a
large native kraal at no great distance, they made for it, and sat
quietly down at the door of the principal hut.  Presently a girl issued
from a neighbouring hut, and, upon seeing them, gave a scream and ran
back again.  The cry brought others to the doors of the huts.  When the
boys were seen, a perfect hubbub of tongues broke forth, and many of the
men, running out with their spears, advanced towards the lads.  They sat
perfectly quiet, and held up their hands to show that they were unarmed.
The Zulus hesitated.  Dick went through the motion of eating and
drinking, and in his best Kaffir begged for a glass of water.

The Zulus, seeing that the boys were alone, approached them, and began
to ask them questions, and were evidently much surprised at hearing that
they had escaped from the massacre of the British.  From the door of the
hut in which they were sitting a chief, evidently of high rank, for the
others greeted him respectfully, now came out.

After the cause of the tumult was explained to the chief, he ordered the
boys to be bound.  This was done and they were put into an empty hut
while their fate was decided upon; after much deliberation it was agreed
by the Zulus that, as they were but boys and had come into the camp
unarmed and of their own accord, their lives should for the present be
spared.

It happened that in the village were a party of men who belonged to the
tribe of Umbelleni, whose territory lay to the north-west, and these
volunteered to take the prisoners to their chief, who was one of the
strongest opponents of the English.  His country, indeed, lay just
within the Zulu frontier, and, having been engaged in constant
skirmishes and broils with the Dutch settlers, he was even more
disappointed than the other chiefs at the taking over of the Transvaal
by England, just at the time when the Zulus were meditating its
conquest.

The road from Itelezi, the village at which the boys had given
themselves up, to Umbelleni's country ran along between the Blood River
and the lofty hill-country; and, although they were ignorant of the
fact, Colonel Wood's force was at that moment lying on this line.  They
were therefore taken up over a mountain-country, crossing Mount Ingwe,
to the Zlobani Mountain, a stronghold ten miles south of Umbelleni's
chief kraal, and where at present he was residing.  After three days'
journey the lads, exhausted and footsore, ascended to the plateau of the
Zlobani Mountains.

Upon their way they passed through many villages, and at each place it
needed the efforts of their guards to prevent their being seriously
maltreated, if not killed.  The Zulus, although victorious at Isandula,
had suffered terribly, it being estimated that nearly 3000 had fallen in
the attack.

Thus there was not a village but had lost some of its members, for,
although the Zulu regiments have local denominations and regular
military kraals, each regiment consists of men drawn from the population
at large.

Every four or five years all the lads who have passed the age of
eighteen since the formation of the last corps, are called out and
formed into a regiment, or are embodied with some regiment whose numbers
have fallen in strength.  Thus a regiment may consist of men differing
considerably from each other in point of age, the great distinction
being that some corps consist entirely of married men, while others are
all unmarried.  A regiment remains unmarried until the king formally
gives the permission to take wives, and the corps to whom the boon has
been granted are distinguished from the others by their hair being
arranged in a thick ring round the head.  So great is the enmity between
these married regiments and their less fortunate comrades that they are
never encamped in each other's view, as fighting in that case would
inevitably take place.  Thus it happened that, although some of the
corps had suffered far more than others, the loss was spread over the
whole of Zululand.

CHAPTER SIX.

ZLOBANI.

While disaster had fallen upon the centre column, the division under
Colonel Evelyn Wood had been showing what could be done when care and
prudence took the place of a happy-go-lucky recklessness.  It had
advanced from Utrecht on the 7th of January, and had moved up to the
frontier at Sandspruit.  At two in the afternoon of the 10th it moved
forward, halted at six, and again advanced by the light of the moon at
half-past one in the morning; a mounted advance-guard was thrown out,
flanking patrols were organised, and the troops moved in the greatest
silence.

The next day Colonel Buller, with his irregular horse, went out, and
after a skirmish with the Zulus brought in a thousand cattle, and
Captain Barton, with a party scouting in another direction, captured
550.

On the following morning a reconnaissance in force was made, and a good
deal of skirmishing took place; but, as Colonel Wood never allowed his
men to follow the Zulus into rough ground, the latter were unable to
effect anything against the column.  This division advanced forward but
slowly, as it was intended that they should keep within reach of the
leisurely-moving central column.

After several slight skirmishes the news reached them on the 24th of the
disaster of Isandula, and with it Colonel Wood received orders to fall
back; and on the 26th he encamped at Kambula.  Raids were made in all
directions with great success; the great military kraal of Manyamyoba
was captured and destroyed by Colonel Buller and his cavalry.  As
Colonel Wood's was now the most advanced column, Colonel Rowlands, with
a wing of the 80th and a couple of guns and 200 Swazis, together with
Raaff's Horse and Wetherby's Borderers, were sent as a reinforcement to
him.

The Zulus were not idle, and Umbelleni and Manyamyoba made several
successful raids across the border and destroyed the kraals of natives
friendly to the English.  These two chiefs were not regular Zulu
chieftains; both were adventurers who had gathered under them numbers of
broken men, and had for years carried on raids on their own account from
their mountain-stronghold, in much the same way that the Scotch
borderers of olden times harassed the country on the English side of the
frontier.

Oham, the king's brother, with his own following, came into Colonel
Wood's camp, and gave himself up, saying that he was altogether opposed
to the war.

The boys on their arrival at Zlobani were brought before Umbelleni.
That chief briefly gave orders that they should be killed; but two or
three of his headmen represented to him that they might be of use; they
would be able to carry a message to the British camp, should he desire
at any time to send one; by their appearance and dress, they could tell
him the nature of any troops they might intend to attack, and could read
and explain any letters which might be captured on messengers; finally,
they might be an acceptable present to send to Cetewayo, who might not
be pleased if he heard that prisoners had been killed in cold blood.

Umbelleni assented to the reasoning, and ordered the boys to be taken to
a hut.  The Zulu dwellings resemble in form great bee-hives.  They are
circular and dome-roofed; the entrance is but three feet high, and
people can only enter by crawling.  A woman was ordered to cook for
them.  No guard was placed over them, and they were permitted to wander
about freely, as escape from such a position was considered impossible.

Six weeks passed slowly, and on the 11th of March a messenger arrived,
and there was a sudden stir in the camp.  In a few minutes the
fighting-men assembled.  The boys were ordered to take their place in
the column, and at a swift march, with which they had the greatest
difficulty in keeping up, the column moved away.

"Where are they taking us now, I wonder?"  Tom said.

"I suppose they are going to attack some English party on the march; our
men are hardly likely, I should think, again to be caught napping, as
they were at Isandula."

Crossing two rivers, the Bevana and Pongola, they at night halted in
another mountain-kraal of Umbelleni, about three miles from the Intombe
River.  On the bank of the river could be seen twenty waggons.  These
waggons had come down from Derby, on their way to Luneberg, a town
situated four miles from the Intombe.  Major Tucker, who commanded
there, sent Captain Moriarty with a company of the 80th, seventy strong,
down to the river to protect the waggons whilst crossing, and that
officer had orders to neglect no precaution, and above all to keep an
incessant and vigilant look-out.

The river was in flood, and no crossing could be effected, and for four
days the waggons remained on the northern bank.  Captain Moriarty placed
the waggons in laager on the bank, and took post there with forty of his
men, leaving Lieutenant Harwood with thirty-four on the south bank with
directions to cover the sides of the laager with a flanking fire, should
it be attacked.  The position of the waggons was a dangerous one, as the
ground rose immediately behind them, and was covered with bush.

In the middle of the night of the 11th Umbelleni's men arose, and,
accompanied by the boys, started from the kraal, and Dick and Tom were
filled with forebodings of what was about to happen.  Dick had already
gathered from the natives that the guard of the waggons was an extremely
small one, and, as the body moving to attack them were between 4000 and
5000 strong, the chance of a successful resistance appeared small.

When within a short distance of the waggons two of the Zulus motioned to
the boys to stop.  In ten minutes they heard a sentry challenge; his
shout was answered by a loud yell, and the Zulus poured down to the
attack.  Unfortunately Captain Moriarty had not taken sufficient
precaution against surprise, and before the men were fairly under arms
the Zulus were upon them.

The force on the other side of the river were now on the alert, and
their rifle-fire opened before that of the defenders of the waggons.
For a moment or two there was a sharp rattling fire from the waggons;
then there were shouts and screams, the firing ceased, and the boys knew
that the laager had been captured.  Many of the soldiers indeed were
assegaied before they could leave their tents, most were slaughtered at
once, but a few managed to swim across the river.  The Zulus swarmed
after them.  Lieutenant Harwood jumped upon his horse and rode off to
Luneberg to fetch assistance.  The little detachment was broken by the
rush of the Zulus, but a serjeant and eight men fell back into a
deserted kraal, and succeeded in repelling the attacks of the enemy.

Lieutenant Harwood was afterwards tried by court-martial for his
conduct; he was acquitted, but the general in command refused to confirm
the verdict, and the commander-in-chief at home approved of the view he
took of the matter, and issued a general order to the effect that "An
officer, being the only one present with a party of soldiers actually
engaged with the enemy, is not under any pretext whatever justified in
deserting them, and thus by so doing abandoning them to their fate."

Apprehensive of the arrival of reinforcements from Luneberg, Umbelleni
did not continue his attack upon the little party in the kraal, but,
after hastily plundering the waggons, retreated with his force, and the
next day returned to Zlobani.

A few days passed and the boys learnt that two regiments from Ulundi
were expected shortly to reinforce Umbelleni's men.  The chief himself,
with the majority of his followers, was now at his kraal, four miles
distant, but the boys remained in the village on the Zlobani plateau.
Several times they saw parties of British horse riding over the plains
and from a distance reconnoitring the position, and they wondered
whether there could be any intention on the part of Colonel Wood to
attack it.  There was on the plateau a large number of cattle, part the
property of Umbelleni's men, but the great majority spoil taken in
raids.  It seemed to the boys that an attack could scarcely be
successful.  The sides of the mountains were extremely precipitous,
covered with bush, and contained large numbers of caves.  There was but
one path up which mounted men could ride; this was about hallway along
the west side, the hill being a much greater length from north to south
than from east to west.  Up the southern extremity of the plateau was a
path by which footmen could descend to the plain, but it was exceedingly
steep and altogether impracticable for cavalry; a handful of men should
have been able to hold the position against an army.

Colonel Wood having heard of the large quantity of cattle concealed on
the Zlobani Mountain had determined to attack it, and at three o'clock
in the morning of the 27th of March a cavalry party started.  It
consisted of 150 mounted infantry; the Frontier Light Horse, 125;
Raaff's Troop, 50; Piet-Uys' Boer Contingent, 50; Wetherby's Horse, 80;
Schermbrucker's Horse, 40;--a total of 495 men.  They were commanded by
Colonel Russell, and Colonel Wood was himself to join them in the
evening.  The party was a picked one, all being well mounted and good
rifle-shots.

The track led across a rough sandy country with deep nullahs, and
thickly covered with trees and bush.  At five o'clock they halted for
half an hour, and then again advanced.  After five miles' travelling
across a very rough country they came out into a large cultivated flat,
which terminated in a long, dark, winding gorge, black with bush and
skirted by precipices of sandstone and granite.  They turned into this
and followed a rivulet until they came to the end of the gorge, where
they discovered a steep path which seemed cut out of the solid rock, and
was only wide enough for one horseman to pass.  After three quarters of
an hour's climbing they gained the summit.  The country was wild in the
extreme.  The plateau upon which they found themselves extended for
seven or eight miles.  Huge masses of scrub and boulders, peaks,
terraces, and ledges of rock appeared everywhere, while caves and
immense fissures formed retreats for the cattle.  It was now late in the
afternoon, and the force bivouacked for the night, having brought with
them three days' provisions.  At seven in the evening Colonel Wood
joined them with his staff, eight mounted men of the 50th regiment and
six natives under Untongo, a son of Pongo, a friendly chief.  Untongo
had by some means obtained information that seven strong regiments had
marched from Ulundi seven days before, and was most anxious that the
column should return to Kambula.

Colonel Wood, however, could not carry out this advice, for Colonels
Buller and Wetherby and Piet-Uys, with their commands, who were in
front, had moved forward a long distance, and a retreat now would leave
them to be surrounded and cut off.  The troops lay down and slept, and
at half-past three o'clock again prepared to advance.  Distant shots
were heard, showing that Colonel Buller was attacked, and just as the
party was setting off, Colonel Wetherby with his troopers rode in,
having in the night got separated from Buller's men in the wild and
broken country.  As the troops advanced they came here and there across
the bodies of Zulus, showing that Buller had had to fight his way.
Captain Ronald Campbell ascended a rock and scanned the country with his
glass.  Far away, almost in the centre of the gigantic and apparently
inaccessible cliff of Zlobani, the remains of Buller's column could be
seen slowly advancing, driving some dark masses of cattle and Zulus
before them.

Colonel Wetherby obtained permission to lead his men on at once to
Buller's assistance, while Colonel Wood followed with the remainder of
the force.  Wetherby moved by a terribly difficult path to the right,
while Wood kept to what seemed the main track.  About half a mile
further the latter came on a party of 200 Zulus, armed with rifles;
these crossed in front of him, taking an occasional shot at the leading
files of the party, who on account of the difficulties of the road were
compelled to dismount and lead their horses.  Their object was evidently
to cut off Wetherby's troop from the main column.  Lieutenant Lysons,
leaving the column, reconnoitred the ground, and found that Wetherby's
party was already divided from them by a deep and impassable ravine, at
the bottom of which was the pathway by which Buller had made his way to
the summit of the cliff.  A strong party of Zulus were seen faraway in
front, working as if to cut off Buller's horse.  It was clear that there
was nothing to do but to press forward in hopes that the line taken by
Wetherby and that which the main column was following would come
together.

At this moment a heavy fire was opened by a party of the enemy from a
narrow ledge of rock a hundred yards above them.  Untongo and two of his
men guided a party of eight marksmen to a still higher point, and their
fire speedily drove off the Zulus.  Half an hour's march brought Wood
upon Wetherby's track, and high above them to the right the rear of
Buller's column could be seen.  No more unsuitable ground for the
operation of mounted men could be found; perpendicular rocks rose in all
directions, while steep precipices fell away at their feet.  Killed and
wounded horses were seen at every turn of the road, showing how stoutly
the enemy had held their ground, and how difficult an operation Buller
had performed.  Sending fifty men to work upon the right flank and
endeavour to take the Zulus in the rear, Colonel Wood kept his men for a
few moments under cover of a friendly ledge of rocks, to take breath and
look to their rifles, girths, and ammunition, and then pressed rapidly
forward and joined the Border Horse.

The scene was now most exciting.  The firing was almost continuous, and
the yells of the savages rose from every rock and bush, mingled with the
loud cheers of Buller's men far up in front, as they saw the column
approaching to their aid.  The ground was now more level and practicable
for riding, and Colonel Wood mounted his horse and, accompanied by his
own little escort of a dozen men and the Border Horse under Colonel
Wetherby himself, with his gallant boy, aged fifteen, who was fighting
by his side, galloped forward for the front, leaving Colonel Russell in
command of the column.  When within a hundred paces of the summit of the
cliff a rain of fire opened upon their front and flank from a mass of
Zulus firing from caves, crevices, and behind enormous boulders.  From
one cave to the right front an excessively heavy fire was kept up, and
Colonel Wetherby dashed at this with his men just as Colonel Wood's
horse staggered from a deep assegai wound in the chest.  At the same
moment a native from behind a boulder fired at that officer at ten
paces' distance; the bullet missed him and Lieutenant Lloyd rode at the
man, but fell, shot through the head.  Colonel Wood and Captain Ronald
Campbell rode forward to cover his body.  Two more Zulus fired at the
same instant and the colonel's horse fell dead.  Colonel Wetherby's men
were hotly engaged at close quarters with the Zulus, and were unable to
join the colonel.  Captain Campbell, Lieutenant Lysons, and the eight
90th men of the escort rushed at the opening.  Captain Campbell fell,
shot through the head, but the rest dashed forward.

There was a movement in the cave and a sudden shout in English of "Come
on!" and as the little band dashed in and fell upon the Zulus they saw,
to their astonishment, two English boys, armed with assegais, attacking
these in the rear.  In another minute the Zulus were all cut down, and
the party returned to Colonel Wood.

On the previous afternoon Zulu scouts had arrived at Zlobani with the
news that an English column was on its way towards it.  Messengers were
despatched to Umbelleni's kraal, and at night his force there came to
the assistance of those at Zlobani.  Early in the morning the boys
proceeded with a number of Zulus to the edge of the plateau, and were
placed with eight of their guards in a cave.  From its mouth they
watched anxiously the events of the day.

Colonel Buller's party had struck upon the right road, and after hard
fighting gained the summit of the cliff.  Here a great quantity of
cattle were collected, and these were sent off in charge of a body of
friendly natives, which accompanied the force.  This column in the
advance had not passed near the cave in which the boys were placed.
Their hearts beat high as they saw Colonel Wood's column suddenly turn
off from the line which Buller had followed, and make straight for it.
Their excitement grew higher and higher as the conflict increased in
vigour.

Soon the Zulus in the cave were at work.  When Captain Campbell charged
forward with his handful of men, Dick and Tom exchanged a glance.  They
stood quiet until it was evident that the English attack would be pushed
home; then, as the men of the 90th, led by Lysons, dashed at the
entrance of the cavern, the boys seized two assegais and each pinned one
of the crouching Zulus to the ground.  Before the others could turn
round upon them Lysons and his men were among them.

The fire of Buller's men from above drove the Zulus from their
hiding-places.  But Colonel Wood, finding it impossible to make his way
up at this point, moved round at the foot of the rocks, to try and find
the point at which Buller had ascended the cliff.  Before doing so,
however, the bodies of Captain Campbell and Lieutenant Lloyd were
carried down the hill, and buried in a hastily-made grave.  As, carrying
their wounded men, the little party made their way to the foot of the
cliff, Untongo, who had been reconnoitring the rocks on both sides, ran
down to him and began to talk rapidly, pointing over towards the plain.

Colonel Wood did not understand Kaffir, but Dick, who was standing by,
said--

"He says, sir, that there is a great Zulu army marching below."

Colonel Wood mounted a fresh horse, and making his way with great
difficulty across some broken ground reached a point where he could see
the plain.  There, in five continuous columns, the Zulu army from
Ulundi, 20,000 strong, was sweeping along at its usual rapid pace.  It
was evident at once that only by a speedy retreat could any of the force
hope to escape.  Colonel Wood despatched a message at once to Colonel
Russell, who had with his force by this time commenced the ascent at the
extreme westerly point, to retrace his steps instantly, and to cover as
far as possible the retreat of the native allies with the cattle.

Colonel Buller above had also seen the coming danger.  So far he had
accomplished his work admirably.  The Zulu position had been
triumphantly stormed, and a large number of cattle taken and driven off.

Had Colonel Wood's force and Wetherby's troop arrived on the scene of
action immediately after Buller had ascended to the plateau, the retreat
could have been made in time, and the expedition would have been
successful at all points.  The unfortunate incident of their losing the
track, the delay caused thereby, and their inability to rejoin him had
given time for the Ulundi army to come up.

Colonel Buller found that it was impossible now to descend to the plain
by the path by which he had ascended.  Not only would he have to fight
his way back through the whole force of Umbelleni, but his retreat by
that route would be cut off by the Ulundi men.  Consequently, pursued by
a great body of exulting Zulus, he made his way along the plateau to the
steep path at its extremity.

The scene here was terrible.  The Zulus blocked the way in front and
lined both sides.  Buller himself, with Piet-Uys, defended the rear,
assisting the wounded, and often charging desperately into the ranks of
the Zulus pressing upon him.  The path was slippery with blood and
strewn with dead.  As the last of his troop made their way down it,
Piet-Uys, a most gallant Dutchman, fell dead across the body of his
horse, with six Zulus, whom he had shot with his revolver, around him.

Wetherby's troop was surrounded, and forty-five out of his eighty men
killed.  The colonel himself and his boy both fell, the latter refusing
to leave his father, although the latter urged him to gallop off and
join the column, which appeared to be making its way through the Zulus.
Colonel Russell's command got through without so much opposition; but
Buller's horse, Piet-Uys' troop, and Wetherby's command suffered
terribly.

Fortunately the Ulundi army did not follow the retreat; first, because
the tremendous three days' march which they had made had in a great
measure exhausted the men, who had started in such haste that they had
brought no provisions with them, and secondly, on account of the steady
attitude and resolute bearing of Russell's command.

Buller's force reached Kambula camp at half-past seven at night.  It had
set in stormy, and torrents of rain were falling.  Although he had been
in the saddle for forty-eight hours, Colonel Buller, on hearing that a
small party of the survivors had taken refuge in hiding ten miles away,
collected a party of volunteers, and, taking led horses, set out to
rescue them.  This was effected; the fugitives were found to be seven in
number, and returned with their rescuers safely to camp.

The boys had both escaped, two of Wetherby's men, who accompanied
Colonel Wood, taking them on their saddles behind them.  The total loss
was ten officers and seventy-eight men.

For the night the boys were handed over to the charge of one of the
officers of the staff, but in the morning Colonel Wood sent for them,
and they then told him the story of their adventures since the battle of
Isandula, with which he was greatly interested.  He said that he would
at once have sent them to Utrecht, but that the camp would probably be
attacked during the day.

The troops had been on the alert all night, expecting an attack.  Before
daylight Captain Raaff was sent out with twenty-five men to reconnoitre,
and returned with one of Oham's natives.  This man had joined the Zulu
army as it advanced, and was, fortunately for himself, not recognised by
them as being one of Oham's people.  In the night he had slipped away.
He reported the Zulus 20,000 strong, a great portion of them being armed
with rifles.

Fortunately little preparation was necessary at Kambula.  Nothing had
been left to chance here, and there was therefore no fear of a
repetition of the Isandula disaster.  Each corps, each subdivision, each
section, and each man had his place allotted to him, and had been told
to be in that place at the sound of the bugle.

The little fort was in a strong position, laid out upon an elevated
narrow reach of table-land.  A precipice, inaccessible to a white man,
guarded the right flank; on the left a succession of steep terraces had
been utilised and carefully intrenched, each successive line commanding
that below it.  At one end there was a narrow slip of land swept by two
7-pounders.  Immediately in the rear, upon an eminence 120 feet higher
than the fort, was a small work, armed with two guns.  The camp
consisted of an outer defence of 100 waggons, and an inner one of
fifty--the whole protected by earthworks and ditches.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

KAMBULA.

Immediately Oham's Zulu had made his report, the bugle sounded, and the
garrison quietly and quickly took up the places assigned to them.
Messengers went out to order a fatigue-party, which had gone out
wood-cutting, to return at once.  These men reported that they had seen
the Zulus scouting, about five miles to the west.  The tents were
struck, the men lined the shelter-trenches, and ammunition was served
out by fatigue-parties told off for this duty.  The white conductors and
commissariat men, most of whom were old settlers and good shots, were
told off to the different faces of the laager.  A small party were
provided with stretchers, in order to carry the wounded to the hospital
in the centre.

Dick and Tom, having no duty and being without arms, thought that they
might as well make themselves useful at this work, and therefore, taking
a stretcher, they proceeded to one of the outer shelter-trenches.

It was nearly eleven o'clock when the Zulus were seen approaching, and
halted just out of musket-range.  Here apparently a council of war was
held, and it was more than an hour before any forward movement was made.
Then a body of them, about 7000 strong, ran at a tremendous pace along
a ledge situated at the edge of the cultivated land.  The troops were
ordered not to fire, as it was thought better to wait until the Zulus
came on in earnest.  At half-past one a cloud of skirmishers advanced
from the Zulu army, and fed by supports began to scale the north front
of the English position.  Here, behind the outermost line of
intrenchments, some of Buller and Russell's dismounted men, and a
portion of the band of the gallant Piet-Uys were stationed, and these
opened fire upon the Zulus.  Scarcely one of them but was a dead-shot,
and no sooner did a head or a shield appear above rock or boulder or
tuft of grass than the deadly rifle rang out, and in most cases there
was an enemy the less to encounter.

The Boers particularly distinguished themselves at this work.  Most of
these men are certain shots, being trained from childhood in the use of
their large single-barrelled guns, carrying an enormous bullet, and
suited for the destruction of big game.  Animated by a hatred of the
Zulus, and a longing for vengeance for the death of their late leader,
the Boers picked off their foes with unerring aim.  The enemy's
skirmishers now retired, and a more solid line took their place,
supported by a dense column in its rear.  The cavalry remounted and fell
slowly back, and Major Russell, with twenty of his men, made a brilliant
charge on a party of Zulus who were running to take possession of a
sheltering ledge of rocks, and, after cutting down a great many,
retreated without the loss of a man.

Buller and Russell now retired slowly within the laager, their retreat
being covered by Colonel Gilbert and four companies of the 13th, who
were posted at this face of the works.  One company of the 13th, under
Captain Cox, held the cattle-laager, which was situated outside the
line, and so were able to take the enemy in flank, as they attacked the
main work.  This little garrison and Colonel Gilbert's men poured a
tremendous fire upon the Zulus, who still, however, pushed forward.

Major Hackett was now ordered to take a couple of companies of the 90th,
and to advance up the slope, round the rear of the cattle-laager.
Taking post here, they opened a deliberate and deadly fire upon the
enemy, and then advancing drove back the Zulus with great loss.  The
Zulu general, however, led a party of his best marksmen round to his
right, and opened a heavy fire upon the 90th, as they fell back upon
their intrenchments.  Lieutenant Bright fell mortally wounded, and in
running forward to pick him up Major Hackett was struck by a ball
sideways, which passed through both eyes and destroyed his sight for
ever.  Meanwhile, from the works on the heights, Captain Nicholson was
doing great execution with his two 7-pounders.  The Zulu main body had
now come within range, and grape and canister were poured into their
heavy masses.  As Nicholson was standing on the parapet, field-glass in
hand, directing the pointing of two guns, a bullet struck him on the
temple and he fell dead.  He was seen from the laager to fall, and Major
Vaughan was sent to take his place.  Major Tremlett, R.A., now took the
four guns, hitherto held in reserve, to a small piece of rising ground
outside the laager, and opened fire upon the masses of the enemy with
immense execution.  From time to time Buller and Russell, as they saw
openings for a charge, swept down and drove the enemy's skirmishers back
on to their main body; the Zulus, altogether unaccustomed to cavalry,
always falling back precipitately at these assaults.

At three o'clock a hot cross-fire was opened upon a company commanded by
Captain Woodgate, which was stationed half-way between the laager and
the upper fort, keeping open a communication between them, the enemy's
fire from a height commanding this line being particularly galling.  Two
of Tremlett's guns were brought to bear on the point, and the enemy's
fire speedily slackened.  For another hour and a half the troops
continued to be hotly engaged, for the enemy, when driven back from one
flank, swept round in most perfect order and attacked another.

At half-past four the Zulus, concentrating again, attacked the northern
side, and made some desperate rushes up to the muzzles of the English
rifles, and the fighting for a time was almost hand to hand.

The boys had worked round with their stretchers, wherever the fire was
hardest, and had carried many wounded men into hospital.  They were at
the north face when the Zulus swarmed up towards it, and Woodgate's men
fell back into the shelter of the laager.  As they came in, a young
lieutenant, who was commanding the rear, fell, apparently dead.  Being
in the rear of the company his fall was unnoticed by the men.  Dick, who
was peering over the intrenchment, saw him fall, and saw too that he
moved slightly.

"Quick, Tom!" he exclaimed; and, carrying the stretcher, the boys
scrambled over the breastwork and ran towards the officer.  He had
fallen some twenty yards outside, and the Zulus, rushing on, were but
eighty yards away.

On reaching the side of the young officer, the boys laid their stretcher
on the ground, rolled him upon it, and, lifting it, turned towards the
camp.  A ringing cheer from the men had greeted this action, mingled
with shouts of "Run! run!" for by this time the Zulus were but twenty
yards behind.

A stream of fire broke out from the top of the breastworks; an assegai
whizzed over Dick's shoulder, and another grazed Tom's arm, but they
hurried on until they reached the ditch, and then threw themselves and
their burden down.  There for five or six minutes they lay, while the
fight raged above them.  Then the British cheer rose, and the boys knew
that the Zulus had fallen back.

A minute later a dozen men leapt from the intrenchment into the ditch
outside, and lifted the wounded lieutenant over it into the arms of
those behind.

"Bravo! boys, bravo!" a hundred voices shouted, as the boys scrambled
back into the works, while the men crowded round to pat them on the
shoulder and shake their hands.

It was evident now that the Zulu fire was slackening, and three
companies of the 13th went out, and, taking posts by the edge of the
slope of the cattle-laager, opened fire upon them, as they retired.
Every gun was brought to bear upon them, and as, disheartened and
beaten, they fell back, Buller and Russell, with every mounted man in
camp, sallied out and fell upon them, and, burning with the desire to
wipe out their misfortune of the preceding day, chased them for seven
miles, like a flock of sheep, cutting down immense numbers.

It was ascertained afterwards from prisoners that the Zulu force which
attacked was composed of 25,000 men.  It was commanded by Tyangwaiyo,
with Umbelleni as his second.  Many of the leading chiefs of Zululand
and 3000 of the king's bravest and best troops fell in the attack on
Kambula, and this battle was by far the hottest and best-contested which
took place during the war.

Upon our side two officers and twenty-one men were killed.  The
difference between the result of the action at Kambula and that at
Isandula was due entirely to the fact that in one case every precaution
was taken, every means of defence utilised; while in the other no more
attention was paid to any of these points than if the troops had been
encamped at Aldershot.

Upon the day following the battle Colonel Wood set his men to work to
erect further defences at the points which the recent action had shown
to be weak, and never ceased work until the place had been made almost
impregnable against an assault of savages, however brave.

The messenger who carried to Natal the news of the victory of Kambula
also took letters from the boys to their parents, acquainting them of
their safety; and with the first convoy of wounded on the following day
the boys started for home, Colonel Wood having given to each a
flattering testimonial as to their gallant conduct in the action, and
having presented them with two horses belonging to men of Buller's corps
who had fallen in the action, ordering that the horses should be entered
as bought for the Queen's service, and the value paid to the relatives
of their late owners.

Three days' march took the convoy to Utrecht, and the next morning the
boys rode home, the distance from there to Newcastle being about forty
miles.  They were received as if they had risen from the dead, for their
letters had not arrived before them, and their parents had of course
assumed that they had been killed at Isandula.  Both the mothers were in
mourning, and their joy at the restoration of their sons was unbounded.

Mrs Jackson fainted from surprise and delight, as Tom rode up; but
Dick, remembering the effect which the news of his being alive in the
snow had produced upon his mother, was careful to save her the shock.
Accordingly, instead of riding direct to the house, he made a devour and
rode across the farm until he met Bill Harrison.  The man was delighted
at the sight of his young master, and could hardly believe his eyes, as
he saw him riding towards him.

After the first warm greeting was over, Dick learned that his mother had
been seriously ill, and was now recovering, and that his father had been
much shaken.  Dick told Harrison to go to the house, and, under the
excuse of some question about his work, to call Mr Humphreys out, and
to tell him of his return, leaving it to him to break the news to his
wife.

This Mr Humphreys, after recovering from his own emotion at the joyful
intelligence, did so gradually and quietly, that the tale produced no
injurious effect upon the mother.

He began by saying that he had heard that a rumour was afloat that some
of those that were supposed to have been killed at Isandula had been
kept captives by the Zulus.

Mrs Humphreys for a time doubted the news, but, upon her husband's
assurance that the intelligence was well founded, a faint feeling of
hope began to spring up; then gradually, step by step, he told her that
it was reported that these captives consisted chiefly of non-combatants,
men who had taken refuge among the rocks and bushes when the fight was
seen to be going against the troops.  This still further raised Mrs
Humphreys' hopes; for, from the presence of mind and shrewdness which
Dick had shown on the occasion of the snow-storm, it seemed probable
that he would be quick to avail himself of any chance of escape there
might be.  Then Mr Humphreys said that the report affirmed that among
the prisoners were two or three quite young lads, and so step by step he
went on, until the delighted mother learned that her son was already
upon the farm, and was only waiting until he knew she would be strong
enough to see him.

Mr Humphreys now went to the door and gave a loud shout, and Dick, who
had been waiting the signal agreed on at a short distance from the
house, ran up and was soon in his parents' arms.  A minute or two later
his younger brother ran in, having just heard the news from Harrison,
and it was indeed a happy party which that night assembled in the
sitting-room of the farmhouse, and listened to Dick's account of the
adventures he had gone through.  Not a little proud were the father and
mother, as they read Colonel Wood's testimony to the gallant conduct of
their son.

The next day Mr and Mrs Jackson drove over with Tom, and the warmest
congratulations were exchanged.

"Have you been paid for the waggons, father?"  Dick asked.

"Yes, my boy, for there was a notice that the owners of all waggons and
teams destroyed at Isandula would be paid at once.  As there was a
record kept of the ownership of those which accompanied the column,
there was of course no difficulty in proving the loss, and both Mr
Jackson and myself received orders on the public treasury for their
value last week.  You see more transports were required, and there was
such a panic after Isandula, that if government had not promptly paid
for their losses there, they would have got no more waggons from farmers
for their work.  We have already four more building for us at
Newcastle."

"I suppose there was a great fright in the colony after the defeat?"

"Terrible!"  Mr Humphreys answered.  "Everyone imagined that the Zulus
would at once cross the frontier, and carry fire and sword throughout
the colony.  The rest of the 4th Regiment instantly went forward to
Colonel Glyn's column, and this restored it to something like its
strength before the fight.  The rivers were high, which may have
accounted partly for the Zulus not taking the offensive.  Probably too
the great loss which they themselves must have suffered had some effect;
while they might not have liked to have advanced in force across the
frontier, being, as they were, threatened on the one side by the column
of Colonel Wood at Kambula, and on the other by that of Colonel Pearson
at Ekowe."

"I have not heard about that column, father.  What are they doing?"

"I will tell you about it this evening, Dick, as it is rather a long
story."

After the Jacksons had driven off in the evening, Dick again asked his
father about the doings of Colonel Pearson's column.

"Well, my boy, they have neither suffered a great defeat, like that
under Lord Chelmsford, nor obtained a decisive victory, like the column
of Colonel Wood; they have beaten the enemy in a fight, and are at
present besieged in a place called Ekowe, or, as it is sometimes spelt,
Etckowi.  The column consisted of eight companies of the 3rd Buffs under
Colonel Parnell; six companies of the 99th, under Colonel Welman; one
company of Royal Engineers and two 7-pounder guns; they had, besides a
naval brigade consisting of 270 bluejackets and marines of her Majesty's
ships _Active_ and _Tenedos_, with three gatling-guns, 200 mounted
infantry; 200 colonial mounted riflemen also formed part of the column,
with about 2000 men of the native contingent.  They had great difficulty
in crossing the Tugela, which was nearly 400 yards wide.  But, thanks to
the exertions of the sailors, a flying bridge was constructed--that is,
a boat with ropes attached to both shores, so that it can be pulled
backwards and forwards, or, as is sometimes done, taken backwards and
forwards by the force of the stream itself.

"It was the 13th before the crossing was effected.  The enemy were in
considerable force near the river.  A small earthwork, called Fort
Tenedos, was thrown up on the Zulu bank of the river.  On the 18th the
leading division started on its march into the enemy's country, followed
the next day by the second division, a small detachment being left to
garrison the fort.  Every precaution was taken in the advance, and the
cavalry scouted the country in front of the column.  At the end of the
first day's march the Inyoni, a small stream ten miles north of the
Tugela, was reached.

"The second day they encamped on the Umsindusi.  The third day's march
brought the column to the Amatikulu; beyond this the country became
covered with bush, and great care was then taken, as it was known that a
large force was marching from Ulundi to oppose their farther advance.
Early on the morning of the 22nd, the day which proved so fatal to
Colonel Glyn's column, the first division had just crossed the Inyezane
River and was halted for breakfast, when they were attacked by a large
force of the enemy, who, having chosen this position, were lying in wait
for them.  The ground chosen for the halt was not a favourable one, as
it was surrounded by bush.  But as no other place could be found by
Major Barrow, who commanded the horse, near water, the halt had been
made here.  Scarcely had they begun their preparations for breakfast,
when Captain Hart, who was out scouting in front with the advance
company of the native contingent, discovered the enemy advancing rapidly
over the ridge in his front and attempting to gain the bush on both
flanks of the halting-place.  The Zulus at once opened a heavy fire upon
the native contingent, and of these one officer and four
non-commissioned officers and three men fell almost immediately.

"The native contingent was called in, and the naval brigade and two
guns, under Lieutenant Lloyd, and two companies of the Buffs were
ordered to take up a position upon a knoll close to the road, on which
they were halted.  The sailors at once opened fire on the enemy with two
7-pounders and two 24-pounder rocket-tubes, while the Buffs poured a
heavy fire with their rifles upon them.  The waggons were still coming
up, and these were parked as they reached the ground; and two companies
of the Buffs, who were guarding them on the march, being now free to
act, were ordered to move out in skirmishing order, and draw the enemy
out of the bush, when, as they retired, they were exposed to the fire
from the knoll.

"The engineers and mounted troops moved forward, with the infantry
skirmishers, supported by a half-company of the Buffs and a half-company
of the 99th.  The enemy tried to outflank their left, and Captain
Campbell with a portion of the naval brigade and some of the native
contingent went out and drove them from a kraal of which they had taken
possession.  A still farther advance was now made, and the Zulus took to
flight, leaving 300 dead upon the ground.  The attacking party were 5000
strong, and against these some 500 or 600 of our troops were engaged.
We had only eight Europeans killed and four natives, and about twenty
wounded.  The next day Colonel Pearson reached Ekowe.  The position was
a strong one, as the place stood upon rising ground; it had been a
missionary station, and there was a church which could at the worst be
converted into a citadel.

"Colonel Pearson at once set to work to fortify the position.  The same
evening the news arrived of the disaster at Isandula.  After a
consultation with his officers Colonel Pearson decided to hold the spot
at which he now was, convinced that, without further supplies of
reinforcements, he could hold the place for two months.  In order to
economise food, the mounted men and most of the natives were sent back,
and there remained 1200 British troops.

"Colonel Pearson at once commenced his preparations for a siege.  Three
moderate-sized brick erections were turned into store-houses, and the
church into a hospital, the tower making a capital look-out; from this a
splendid view was obtained, the hill by the Tugela being clearly
visible.  The men set to work to fortify the place.  The intrenchments
were of a six-sided form, about sixty yards across, with a ditch outside
them eighteen feet deep and twelve feet wide.  Assegais were planted in
the bottom.  Added to the south side was a kraal for cattle and horses,
also defended by a small wall.  Outside the fort were entanglements of
rows of felled trees and bushes.  The supply of water was obtained from
a good well, outside the walls, but covered by the fire of the fort.
The guns were placed in position, and the garrison was ready for any
attack that might be made upon them.  All these details we learned in
the early days of the siege by occasional messengers, who managed to
find their way through, but these had been few and far between; of
twelve messengers sent out the first week of February, only one got
through.  The garrison had made several sorties, and had destroyed
Dabulamanzi's kraal.  They also went out and cut off a large convoy of
cattle on its way to Ulundi."

"But how have they found out what is being done at Ekowe, if the first
week only one messenger got through out of twelve?"  Dick said.

"By a very ingenious plan, Dick.  For three weeks we knew nothing of
what was going on, and then it struck an engineer that communication
might be established by flashing signals."

"What are flashing signals, father?"

"Well, my boy, as a general rule they are made by showing a light either
for a long or short period.  Thus, one long and one short might be A;
one short and one long, B; two short and one long, C; and so on all
through the Alphabet.  The distance was so great that ordinary lights
would not have answered, but it struck one of the engineers that with a
looking-glass the sunlight might be reflected.  You know at what a
distance the sun's reflection on a window can be made out.  Well, it was
tried in vain for a whole week by Lieutenant Haynes, of the Royal
Engineers, but at the end of that time he was delighted at seeing
answering flashes from the hill on which Ekowe stands.  Since that time
news has been regularly received every day by this means of what is
passing in the fort.

"In the meantime preparations were being made for the relief of the
garrison.  The news of the defeat at Isandula was sent home by a swift
ship, by which the particulars were telegraphed from Saint Vincent.  The
people at home did not lose an hour.  The _Shah_, which was on her way
home, heard the news at Saint Helena, and Captain Bradshaw, who
commanded her, at once, on his own responsibility, turned his ship's
head south, and steered for Durban, bringing with him the garrison of
the island.  Some draughts from the 4th, 88th, and 99th Regiments were
brought down from the Cape; the _Boadicea_ also arrived, and every man
who could be spared from her and the _Shah_ was landed and sent up to
the Tugela.

"In the second week in March the 57th and 91st Regiments arrived from
England.  One hundred and sixty men were brought over from the garrison
of Mauritius, and a few days later the 3rd battalion of the 60th
Regiment also arrived.  These assembled on the Tugela on the 27th, and
that day set out.  The vanguard was composed of the seamen and marines
of the _Shah_ and _Tenedos_--640 men and two gatlings, the 91st regiment
of 900 men, 400 men of the 99th, 180 men of the 3rd Buffs, 150 mounted
infantry, 200 of the mounted native contingent, and 1600 men of the
native infantry contingent.  The second division consisted of 200 men of
the _Boadicea_ with gatlings, the 37th Regiment, and the 3rd battalion
of the 60th, 900 men, and two troops of mounted natives.  That is all I
can tell you, my boy.  The news only arrived here yesterday that they
had started.  In the course of three or four more days I hope that we
shall hear that they have given the Zulus a thorough licking.  It is a
strong force, and as there are about 3300 white troops among them, and
there is no fear of their being taken by surprise this time, we need not
have any anxiety about the result.  I understand that, in accordance
with the advice which Colonel Pearson has flashed from Ekowe, they are
not going to follow the road he took, but to keep along on the lower
ground near the sea."

"And do you think, father, that they will push on for Ulundi when they
have rescued the garrison of Ekowe?"

"No, Dick; I think they are quite strong enough to do so, but as there
are at least half a dozen more regiments on their way out from England,
including some regiments of cavalry, it will be more prudent to stop
until our whole fighting force is here, when we ought to be enabled to
make short work of them, and to do the work completely and effectually.
And now, Dick, I am thoroughly sleepy--the sooner we are in bed the
better."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE SECOND ADVANCE.

It was some days before the news reached Newcastle of the complete
success of the relieving column.  On their first day's march no
difficulty was met with.  The road was a good one, and the Zulus did not
show in any force.  The column halted for the night near the junction of
the Inyoni and Amatikulu rivers.  The waggons were placed in laager and
a ditch and parapet formed round the camp.  The ground was open and the
waggons were able to travel six abreast.  Numerous Zulu kraals were
passed; but these were found deserted.

On the afternoon of the 1st they encamped at Ginghilovo.  From this
point Ekowe was visible; signals were exchanged with the besieged, and
Colonel Pearson warned Lord Chelmsford that the Zulus were moving
forward to attack him.  The night passed quietly, but the greatest
vigilance was maintained.

At daybreak dense masses of Zulus were seen in the distance, and at six
o'clock they approached the camp.  They came on in their usual order,
with a massive centre and advanced horns on either flank.  The British
were kept lying down behind the shallow trenches they had thrown up.
The Zulus advanced in splendid order with a sort of dancing step.  Their
white and coloured shields, their crests of leopard skins and feathers,
and the long ox-tails dangling from their necks gave them a wild and
strange appearance.  Every ten or fifteen yards the first line would
halt, a shot would be fired, then a loud yell burst forth, and they
again advanced with a humming sound, in time to which their dancing
movement was kept up.  The 60th, who lay opposite to the point against
which they advanced, withheld their fire until the first line of
skirmishers came to within 300 yards.  Then a deadly sheet of flame
flashed along the ridge of the shelter-trench, and a number of the Zulu
warriors fell.

The main body now rushed forward, and although a tremendous fusilade was
kept up on them, the Zulu advance pressed on, ever fed by those in the
rear, which deployed in excellent order as they reinforced the first
line.  For twenty minutes the fire of the 60th never ceased.  Again and
again the Zulus pressed forward, but their leading ranks were swept away
by the storm of bullets.

At half-past six the Zulu masses, without the smallest confusion, faced
to their right, ran round in columns, and fell upon the face of the
laager held by the 57th and 91st.  Here they were as hotly received as
they had been by the 60th.  Notwithstanding the deadly fire, the Zulus
pressed forward with noble courage.  They had ceased to shout now, and
seemed only anxious to reach the square.  Four times they rushed
forward; each time they fell back with terrible loss.  The fire of the
soldiers was assisted by that of the native contingent, who, posted in
the waggons behind, added their fire to that of the 91st and 57th.

The last attack was led by Dabulamanzi in person, and arrived within
five yards of the muzzles of the men's rifles; indeed one or two of the
chiefs actually seized the hot barrels with one hand, while they stabbed
at the men with their shortened assegais.

This was their final repulse, and they now began to fall back.  The
moment that they did so, the cavalry dashed out in pursuit, and chased
them far across the plain.  The gatlings and 9-pounders added in no
slight degree to the effect of the rifles.  The entire English loss was
but two officers and four privates killed, and three officers and
thirty-four privates wounded; while the Zulu loss exceeded 1000.  The
force under Dabulamanzi was about 11,000, and a similar force was close
at hand, but fortunately had not joined that of Dabulamanzi before he
attacked the British.

On the following day the 57th, 60th, and 91st, together with the mounted
men and several of the mounted brigade, taking with them three days'
provisions, marched for Ekowe.  Major Barrow scouted the ground, and
reported that everywhere assegais, shields, feathers, ear and head
ornaments, skins, furs, blankets, and ever; guns were lying about in
confusion, evidently cast away in their headlong flight by the Zulus,
but that none of these had been seen.

The column, however, advanced with every precaution, as it was possible
that Dabulamanzi might procure reinforcements.  No enemy, however, was
met with, and the column continued its march until they were met by
Colonel Pearson with 500 men, coming out to lend a hand to them in case
they should be attacked.  The united column then marched into Ekowe.
The health of the garrison had suffered much from exposure to the sun
and rain, and from the want of vegetables and useful medicine.  Beef
they had plenty of, as it was considered advisable to kill and consume
the waggon-oxen rather than see them die from want of forage.

The great event of the siege had been the discovery of certain strange
flashes of light on the white walls of the church-tower; these, after
puzzling many of the officers and soldiers, were at length brought under
the notice of an officer of the naval brigade, who had been trained in
the use of the heliograph, and he was able at once to explain the
mystery.  They were three days before they could contrive an apparatus,
which could be worked, to reply.  Fortunately an old mirror was found,
and communication was opened.  The effect of their renewed intercourse
with the outer world, and of learning the preparations which were being
made for their relief, acted more beneficially on the health of the
imprisoned garrison than all the tonics the hospital could afford.
Nevertheless between the commencement of the siege and the arrival of
the relief thirty deaths had occurred.

To the great regret of the garrison they found that it had been
determined by the general to abandon the fort which they had held so
long, as the whole force was required in Natal for operations in the
veld in conjunction with the reinforcements on their way out.  Before
leaving, however, it was determined to strike another blow at
Dabulamanzi, whose private residence had escaped at the time that his
kraal was burnt.  A small party of about 200 men therefore went out and
fired the place without resistance.  Ekowe was evacuated, and, having
left a garrison at Ginghilovo, Lord Chelmsford retired with his force
across the Tugela.

Every day for the next fortnight news reached Newcastle of the arrival
of one or more transports with reinforcements, and in a month from the
date of the arrival of the first from England, seventeen transports came
in, bringing more than 9000 soldiers and 2000 horses.  The force
consisted of two regiments of cavalry, 1250 sabres, two batteries of
artillery with 540 men, 190 men of the Royal Engineers, six regiments of
infantry, 5320 bayonets, draughts of the regiments already in the colony
and Army Service Corps' men, 1200.  Most of the regiments brought their
equipments complete and ready for the field--tents, waterproof-sheets,
cooking utensils, and camp stores.  The Army Service Corps brought with
them 100 light but strongly-built waggons.

Among the arrivals was the Prince Imperial of France, who had come out
as a volunteer.

To convey the baggage and stores of so numerous a force an immense
number of waggons was required, and a very urgent appeal was made to the
loyalty of the colonists to furnish transport for the troops engaged in
fighting their battles.

In answer to this appeal Mr Humphreys and Mr Jackson decided to send
down the new waggons which had just been finished.  Immediately they
heard of the decision, Dick and Tom begged for permission again to
accompany the waggons.  Their mothers at first refused even to listen to
the request, but their fathers, talking the matter over between them,
agreed that harm was not likely this time to come of it.

The force was so overwhelmingly strong that there was not the slightest
prospect of a repetition of the disaster of Isandula.  At that time
several hundred English soldiers had been surprised and crushed by some
20,000 of the enemy, but in future every precaution would be taken, and
the British force would be ten times as strong as that which fought at
Isandula.  The colonists thought that it would be really an advantage to
the boys to take part in the expedition; it was quite possible that if
they remained in the colony they might have occasion to take part in
wars with one or other of the native tribes, and the experience that
they would gain in the campaign would in that case assuredly be useful
to them.  Having thus decided, Mr Humphreys and his friend succeeded in
obtaining their wives' consent to the boys accompanying the waggons, and
in high glee they started for Durban on the 20th of April.

The campaign was arranged on a new plan.  The numerous columns in which
the strength of the force had been frittered away were abolished, and
the following was adopted as the designation of the forces in the field,
under the lieutenant-general commanding, viz.:--1st Division South
African Field-forces, Major-General Crealock, C.B., commanding,
consisting of all troops on the left bank of the Lower Tugela; 2nd
Division South African Field-forces, Major-General Newdigate commanding,
consisting of all troops in the Utrecht district other than those
attached to the Flying Column under Brigadier-General Wood, V.C., C.B.,
which was designated as "Brigadier-General Wood's Flying Column."
Major-General Marshall assumed command of the cavalry brigade, and
Major-General the Hon.  H.H.  Clifford, C.B., V.C., took up the command
of the base of operations and superintendence of the lines of
communication.  The forces were divided as follows:--

  First Division (General Crealock's),
  Lower Tugela Command.

  Naval Brigade... 800
  M.  Battery, 6th Brigade, Royal Artillery... 90

  Detachment, 11-7th Royal Artillery... 25
  2-3rd Regiment... 836
  57th Regiment... 830
  3-60th Regiment... 880
  88th Regiment... 640
  91st Regiment... 850
  99th... 870
  Mounted Infantry, 2nd Squadron... 70
  Army Service Corps... 50
  Army Hospital Corps... 20
  Royal Engineers... 150
  8-7th Royal Artillery... 80
  0-6th Regiment... 50
  Lonsdale's Horse... 84
  Cooke's Horse... 78
  Colonial Volunteers... 105
  Native Contingent:--
  Foot... 2556
  Mounted... 151

  Total strength, effective and non-effective... 9215

  Second Division (General Newdigate's.)

  1st Dragoon Guards attached to 2nd Division... 650
  17th Lancers attached to 2nd Division... 626
  N-5th Royal Artillery... 76
  N-6th Royal Artillery... 80
  10-7th Royal Artillery... 70
  10-6th Royal Artillery... 30
  Royal Engineers... 60
  2-4th Regiment... 790
  Detachment, 1-13th Regiment... 63
  2-21st (two companies at Maritzburg)... 820
  1-24th Regiment... 530
  2-24th Regiment... 586
  58th (one company at Durban)... 906
  80th (several companies in the Transvaal)... 300
  94th (one company at Grey Town)... 870
  Army Service Corps... 60
  Army Hospital Corps... 30
  Grey Town District Colonial Volunteers... 139
  Natal Mounted Police... 75
  Natal Carabineers... 27
  Newcastle Mounted Rifles... 18
  Buffalo Mounted Guard... 20
  Native Contingent:--
  Europeans... 41
  Natives (foot)... 3128
  Natives (mounted)... 243

  Total strength, effective and non-effective... 10,238

  General Wood's Flying Column.

  11-7th Royal Artillery... 87
  Royal Engineers... 13
  1-13th Regiment... 721
  90th Regiment... 823
  1st Squadron, Mounted Infantry... 103
  Army Service Corps... 9
  Army Hospital Corps... 13
  Frontier Light Horse... 173
  Baker's Horse... 179
  Transvaal Rangers... 141

  1st Battalion, Wood's Irregulars:--
  Europeans... 14
  Natives... 377

  2nd Battalion, Wood's Irregulars:--

  Europeans... 5
  Natives... 355

  Natal Native Horse:--
  Europeans... 4
  Natives... 75

  Total strength, effective and non-effective... 3092

  Grand Total.
  1st Division... 9215
  2nd Regiment... 10,238
  General Wood's Flying Column. 3092

  Total, effective and non-effective: namely, Europeans, 15,660, and
  natives, 6885... 22,545

Out of this grand total there were about 400 sick and non-effective with
the 1st Division, 300 with the 2nd Division, and 600 (including some of
Wood's Irregulars, absent and not accounted for since the 28th of March)
with Wood's Flying Column.  So that altogether, deducting, say, 1500,
Lord Chelmsford had at his disposal, from the middle of April, a total
of 21,000 troops, of which over 15,000 were European.  Colonels Pearson
and Wood were made Brigadier-Generals, and the former was to command
Number 1 Brigade, 1st Division, and Colonel Pemberton, 3-60th, the
other.  They both, however, had to give up their commands through
sickness, and Colonels Rowland, V.C., C.B., and Clark, 57th Regiment,
succeeded them.

Major-General Clifford, V.C., C.B., had the following staff for the
management of the base of the operations and the maintenance of the
lines of communication between Zululand and Natal:--

Lieutenant Westmacott, 77th Foot, aide-de-camp; Major W.J.  Butler,
C.B., assistant-adjutant and quartermaster-general, stationed at Durban;
and Captain W.R.  Fox, Royal Artillery, deputy assistant-adjutant and
quartermaster-general.

On the arrival of the boys with the waggons at Pieter-Maritzburg, they
reported themselves at the headquarters of the transport corps, and were
told that they were not to go down to Durban, but were to load up at
once and accompany the Dragoon Guards, who were to march the next
morning for the front.

This time the lads were mounted, as their fathers thought that they
would gain more benefit from their experience if they were able to move
about instead of being confined to the sides of their waggons, and it
was a satisfaction to their mothers that, in case of any untoward event
again happening, they would be in a better position for making their
escape.

General Newdigate's columns were encamped at Landmann's Drift; the
cavalry, under General Marshall, was also there.  The march was
altogether without incident.

Some days passed quietly, when a small party of horse made an expedition
to Isandula; they reported that nearly a hundred waggons were still
standing upon the field of battle.  On the 17th of May, three days
later, the rumour ran through the camp that the cavalry were to start on
the 19th, to bury the dead and bring away the waggons.  The Army Service
Corps and waggons were to accompany the party, which was to consist of
the Dragoon Guards and Lancers, with a party of native mounted scouts.

In the afternoon of the 18th the two boys went to Colonel Marshall's
tent; they waited patiently until he came out, accompanied by two or
three other officers.

"We have come to ask, sir, if you will allow us to go with your column.
We are in charge of waggons here, but they are not going.  We were at
the battle, and saw the whole thing, and were taken prisoners afterwards
and carried to Umbelleni's kraal, where we were liberated when Colonel
Wood's cavalry attacked the Zlobani hill.  We are well mounted, sir, and
are good shots; so, if you will let us go, we could keep with the scouts
and not be in your way."

"How did you see the fight?"  General Marshall asked.

"We had gone up to the top of the hill, sir, before it began, and
fortunately the natives did not notice us."

"Oh, yes, you can go," the general said.  "Probably you can give us a
better account of the action than any one else, as others who escaped
were occupied by their own business, and could not mark the general
progress of the battle.  So you were taken prisoners!  Well, I am going
out now, but if you will call in this evening at about half-past eight,
I shall be glad to have a talk with you."

In the evening the boys called upon the general, one of the most popular
and dashing officers in the service.  Three or four of his staff were
there, and all listened with great interest to the boys' account of
their adventures.

"You seem to have plenty of pluck and coolness, youngsters," the general
said, when they had finished.  "In future you need not trouble to ask
for permission to accompany me whenever the cavalry go out, providing we
have natives mounted with us; you must go as recruits, and can either
keep with them or ride with my orderlies."

Much pleased with the permission given, the lads returned to the
waggons, and the next morning they started on their way.

The column bivouacked that night at Dill's Town, and reached Rorke's
Drift between three and four o'clock in the morning, and were there
joined by the Natal Carabineers and Colonel Harness, R.A., with guns.

At daybreak on the 20th the reconnoitring force crossed the river.  No
signs of the enemy were seen until they neared Isandula; then
signal-fires blazed up on the hills to the right, and spread quickly
from hill to hill far into the interior.  Pushing steadily on, the plain
of Isandula was reached by ten o'clock.  The whole scene of the conflict
was overgrown with long grass, thickly intermixed with growing crops of
oats and Indian corn.  Lying thickly here, and scattered over a wide
area, lay the corpses of the soldiers.  The site of the camp itself was
marked by the remains of the tents, intermingled with a mass of broken
trunks, boxes, meat-tins, papers, books, and letters in wild disorder.
The sole visible objects, however, rising above the grass, were the
waggons, all more or less broken up.

The scouts were placed in all directions to give warning of the approach
of any enemies.  The Army Service Corps set to work to harness the
seventy pairs of led horses they had brought with them to the best of
the waggons, and the troops wandered over the scene of the engagement,
and searched for and buried all the bodies they found, with the
exception of those of the 24th Regiment, as these, Colonel Glyn had
asked, should be left to be buried by their comrades.  The bodies of the
officers of Colonel Durnford's corps were all found together, showing
that when all hope of escape was gone they had formed in a group and
defended themselves to the last.  The men of the Royal Artillery buried
all the bodies of their slain comrades who could be found, but the
shortness of the time and the extent of the ground over which the fight
had extended rendered anything like a thorough search impossible.

The object of the expedition was not to fight, and as at any moment the
Zulus might appear in force upon the field, a start was made as soon as
the waggons were ready.  Forty of the best waggons were brought out,
with some water-carts, a gun-limber and a rocket-battery cart.  Twenty
waggons in a disabled condition were left behind.  Some seventy waggons
were missing, these having been carried off by the Zulus, filled either
with stores or with their own wounded.  Having accomplished this work
the cavalry rejoined headquarters at Landmann's Drift.

On the 27th of May the column advanced, Newdigate's division leading the
way.  By two o'clock in the afternoon the men had crossed the Buffalo
and marched to Kopje-allein through a bare and treeless country.  One of
the most popular figures in the camp was the Prince Imperial of France,
who, having received a military education at Woolwich, and being anxious
to see service, had applied for and obtained leave to accompany the
expedition.  The young prince had been extremely popular at Woolwich,
and was indeed an immense favourite with all who knew him--high-spirited
and full of life, and yet singularly gentle and courteous in manner.  He
was by nature adapted to win the hearts of all who came in contact with
him.  His abilities too were of the very highest order, as was proved by
the fact that, although suffering under the disadvantage of being a
foreigner, he yet came out so high in the final examination at Woolwich
as to be entitled to a commission in the Royal Engineers.  When it is
considered how keen is the competition to enter Woolwich, and that all
the students there, having won their places by competitive examinations,
may be said to be considerably above the average of ability, it will be
seen that, for one who had previously gone through an entirely different
course of education, and had now to study in a language that was not his
own, to take rank among the foremost of these was a proof both of
exceptional ability and industry.

A splendid career was open for the young prince, for there is little
doubt that, had he lived, he would sooner or later have mounted the
throne of his father, and there are few pages of history more sad than
those which relate to his death in a paltry skirmish in a corner of
Africa.  To Englishmen the page is all the more sad, inasmuch as, had
the men accompanying him acted with the coolness and calmness generally
shown by Englishmen in a moment of danger, instead of being carried away
by a cowardly panic, the Prince Imperial might yet be alive.

At Kopje-allein Newdigate's column was joined by that of General Wood.
Three days were spent in carefully exploring the country, and on the 1st
of June the division, as nearly as possible 20,000 strong, with a
baggage-train of 400 native waggons, moved forward and encamped near the
Itelezi River.  The flying column of General Wood went on one march
ahead, and the country was carefully scouted by Buller's horse for
twenty miles round, and no Zulus were found.

CHAPTER NINE.

ULUNDI.

On Sunday, the 1st of June, General Wood with a small escort was out
reconnoitring in advance of his column, which was about five miles in
front of the force of General Newdigate.  The morning was clear and
fresh, the ridges of the hills on either side were dotted with Buller's
horsemen.  They crossed the river by a ford, and having ridden about
another mile forward they observed some of the vedettes on the high
ground signalling that horsemen were approaching.

Riding on to see who they could be, they were joined by Colonel Buller
and a dozen of his men, and together they rode forward to meet the five
men who were seen approaching.  In a few seconds Lieutenant Carey and
four troopers of Bettington's Horse rode up, and when they had told
their story English soldiers had the shame and humiliation of knowing
that an English officer and four English troopers had escaped unwounded
from a Zulu ambush, in which they had left a gallant young prince, the
guest of England and the hope of France, to be barbarously slain.

Early in the morning the prince had learnt that a patrol was to be sent
out in advance of the column, and had applied for and obtained
permission to accompany it.  Colonel Harrison, acting as
quartermaster-general, granted the permission, and had an interview with
the prince.

Six men of Bettington's Horse and the same number of Shepstone's Basutos
were to form the party; but unfortunately the Basutos did not come up at
the appointed time, and the patrol consisted therefore only of the
prince, Lieutenant Carey, the six men of Bettington's Horse, and one
Zulu.  Considering the importance of the safety of the prince, a grave
responsibility attaches to the staff-officer who allowed him to go with
so small a party.

After an hour's ride they reached the crest of a hill and dismounted to
fix the position of some distant points by the compass.  Here Colonel
Harrison overtook them, and remarked that the whole of the escort was
not with them, and that they had better wait for the Basutos to come up.
The prince said--

"Oh, we are quite strong enough--besides, we have all our friends around
us, and with my glass I can see General Marshall's cavalry coming up."

Unfortunately Colonel Harrison did not insist that the party should wait
until the Basutos arrived, and they proceeded another seven miles, and
then halted in an isolated kraal in a valley.  A worse spot could not
have been selected for a halt, as it was surrounded by long grass, six
or seven feet high; here the saddles were taken off the horses, and
coffee was prepared.  Without any search being made they sat down to
make coffee, although it was clear, from the burnt embers, bones, and
other _debris_, that the place had been but recently occupied.

The Zulu was the first to see the enemy in the long grass, and the
horses were at once saddled.  The escort stood ready by them, and just
as the prince gave the word, "Prepare to mount," the Zulus' war-cry
burst out, and some guns were fired from the grass.

The horses started at the outburst, and some broke away.  Never were a
body of troops in an enemy's country so unprepared for the attack.  Not
a carbine was loaded! not a sentry placed!  Each of the troopers,
including the officer, was seized with a wild panic, and thought only of
flight,--one indeed had fallen at the first shot.  The prince's horse
was ill-tempered and badly broken, and, frightened by the firing and
yells, he was so restive that the prince was unable to mount.  Had one
of those men stood for an instant at his head the prince might have
gained his saddle, but all had galloped away, leaving him alone.
Running by his horse, he in vain endeavoured to mount; he had not had
time to tighten the girth, the saddle slipped round, and the horse
galloped away.  Unfortunately the prince's revolvers were in the
holsters, so he was unarmed, save with his sword, and with this he stood
bravely at bay, and died nobly facing his foes, who pierced him with
assegais at a distance.

According to Zulu accounts afterwards obtained, there were but five or
six men engaged in the attack, and had the Englishmen accompanying the
prince, nay even had one of them, possessed but the smallest amount of
presence of mind and courage, the Prince Imperial might have been saved.
There is no blacker page in the annals of English military history.

The feeling of indignation, shame, and regret in the English camp, when
this shameful episode was known, was indescribable.  Of all the party
the friendly Zulu was the only one who came out with honour; he had gone
towards the river to fetch water when he discovered the enemy, and might
have instantly taken flight.  He returned, however, and gave warning
that the Zulus were lurking round.  Even then it does not appear that he
attempted to fly, but fought the foe until overcome by numbers.  His
body was afterwards discovered not far from that of the prince, riddled
with wounds, together with a number of his own assegais broken, but
stained with the blood of his assailants.

The next morning the cavalry rode out to find and bring in the prince's
body.  When it was discovered, it was tenderly brought into camp.  It
was afterwards taken over to England, and laid by the remains of his
father at Chislehurst.  A court-martial was held on Lieutenant Carey.
The sentence was kept secret, but it was generally understood that he
was dismissed from the service with ignominy.  He was sent home under
arrest, but on his arrival there the proceedings of the court-martial
were declared null and void on account of some technical irregularity,
and he was ordered to resume his duties.  It was reported that this
extraordinary leniency was shown by the special desire of the Empress,
who made a personal request to the Queen that nothing should be done in
the matter.

Early in June some messengers arrived in Lord Chelmsford's camp from
Cetewayo.  Lord Chelmsford told them that before any negotiations could
be entered into, the whole of the spoil taken at Isandula, especially
the two captured 7-pounder guns, must be restored.

Considerable delays now took place, and for three weeks a force of
Englishmen sufficient to march through and through Zululand in every
direction was kept doing nothing at a distance of three days' march from
the enemy's capital.  So extraordinary and unaccountable was the delay
that the English government appointed Sir Garnet Wolseley to go out to
supersede Lord Chelmsford.  Upon the receipt of this news preparations
for an advance were at last made.  On the 21st General Newdigate's
column reached the right bank of the Umlatoosi.  General Crealock, who
commanded the division which was operating by the sea, also moved
forward about this time, but met with such difficulties, owing to the
sickness which attacked his transport-train, that he was unable to
co-operate with the first division, although his force did service by
occupying a large number of the enemy, who would otherwise have been
free to act against the main column.

Between the 24th and 26th General Newdigate's and Wood's columns
advanced but six miles.  But Buller with his horse scouted ahead, and
cut up a number of Zulus who were engaged in burning the grass, to
hinder the advance of the horses and cattle.  On the 26th Colonel
Drury-Lowe, with the light cavalry, 450 of Buller's men and two guns,
went out and attacked and burnt five large military kraals.  On the 27th
the column advanced five miles towards Ulundi, leaving their tents
behind them, and taking only 200 ammunition-waggons and ten days'
rations; 500 infantry were left to guard the stores.

On the afternoon of that day some messengers came in from Cetewayo,
bringing 150 of the cattle captured at Isandula, together with a pair of
elephant's tusks, and a letter written in English by a trader captured
at Isandula.  The letter said that the king could not comply with all
Lord Chelmsford's commands, as the arms taken from us at Isandula were
not brought to him, and that it was beyond his power as a king to order
or compel any of his regiments to lay down their arms.  He said the
cannons should be sent in, and on the receipt of the cattle and these
weapons the English must retire from Zululand.  The trader had written
in a corner of the letter, in pencil, a few words of warning, and an
intimation that Cetewayo had with him at Ulundi a picked force of 20,000
men.

Lord Chelmsford refused to receive the tusks, and told the messengers to
inform Cetewayo, that before he should think of retiring, all the
conditions must be complied with, and the Zulu regiments lay down their
arms.  Late in the evening several large bodies of the enemy, amounting
to some thousands, were noticed moving from the direction of Ulundi,
passing by their left flank.

The next morning General Wood moved forward as far as the left bank of
the White Umvolosi, and Newdigate's column followed in the afternoon.
Wood's division bivouacked on the farther side of the river, Newdigate's
halted on the right.  The most vigilant watch was kept, with pickets in
every direction, and patrols of cavalry beyond these.

At daybreak on the 27th the main body crossed the river, and joined Wood
on the left bank.  They were now but fifteen miles from Ulundi, and the
king's five kraals were visible to the naked eye.  Three days were given
to Cetewayo to comply with the conditions, but the original terms were
altered so far, that Lord Chelmsford consented to receive 1000 captured
rifles instead of insisting upon the regiments laying down their arms.
While waiting, the army remained on the Umvolosi, having retired to the
right side, pending the decision of peace or war.

During these three days the Zulus had made many hostile demonstrations
against us.  On the first and second they kept up a scattered fire at
distant ranges at our men, and on the third, growing bolder, pushed
their skirmishers down to the rocks on the opposite side of the river,
and fired upon the men, as they were watering their horses in the
stream.  One horse was killed and several men wounded.

Buller therefore asked and obtained permission to make a raid on the
other side.  A couple of guns were brought into requisition to defend
his crossing, and two or three rounds of shrapnel sent a crowd of Zulus,
who had approached the opposite heights, straggling in all directions.
Buller's horse, the mounted infantry, and Baker's horse dashed over the
river at once.  At full speed they raced across the country; Baker's
men, guided by their leader, inclined to the left front, by Buller's
orders, to carry and hold a hillock which commanded the ford.

Colonel Raaff, with a portion of Buller's horse, was halted near the
kraal of Unodwingo to act as a reserve, and Buller, with 100 of his best
mounted men, pushed on with the intention of exploring the ground as far
as possible towards Ulundi.  He knew that the bulk of the king's army
was away upon Lord Chelmsford's right flank, and thought therefore that
he might push on to Ulundi without opposition.  The country consisted of
a plain, across which ran some stony undulations, and at one point were
two hollows, united at a right angle.  The Zulu general disposed his men
in shelter, and as Buller with his little band of horsemen rode up they
rose and poured a very heavy fire into the ranks of the horsemen.
Sudden and unexpected as was this attack, Buller's men were too well
used to native fighting to evince the slightest confusion.  In the most
perfect order they began to fall back in alternate ranks, keeping up a
steady fire upon the enemy, who were eagerly advancing.  Raaff and his
men rode up to the assistance of the hotly-pressed party, and Baker's
horse, upon their hillock, opened a steady fire upon the Zulus.
Gradually and steadily the cavalry fell back towards the river, the two
guns on the opposite bank aiding them by their fire of grape and
shrapnel upon the Zulus, who pressed forward with extreme bravery.

Many gallant deeds were done.  Lord William Beresford, who had
accompanied the party as a volunteer, distinguished himself by his
bravery and coolness.  Seeing upon the ground a dismounted and wounded
trooper, surrounded by a dozen Zulus, he wheeled his horse and dashed
down among them, knocking over three with the rush of his horse, and
cutting down two with right and left strokes of his sabre; in another
moment he had the wounded man on his horse behind him, and carried him
off in safety.

Commander D'Arcy, also seeing a wounded man on the ground, tried to
carry him off, but his horse, being restive, reared and fell back upon
him, so that the unfortunate trooper was overtaken and assegaied; while
D'Arcy, who was severely bruised by falling on his revolver, was able to
get back safely, but was unable to take part in the next day's fight.

A little before daybreak Wood with his flying column crossed the river,
followed by the main army.  The whole of the baggage was left in charge
of the 24th, and nothing was taken, save the ammunition and water-carts,
each man carrying four days' supply of biscuits and preserved meat in
his haversack.  The crossing of the river was made without any
opposition, but the movements of the troops were watched by a party of
Zulus from a hillock on the left.

As soon as favourable ground had been reached, Wood was signalled to
halt and wait for the main body, and when the junction was effected the
order was given to form a large hollow square.  Inside this square were
two companies of engineers, together with the ammunition-carts,
water-carts, and ambulance waggons, carts with intrenching tools,
stretchers and bearers, together with two gatling-guns in a reserve.
The front face of the square was formed by the 80th Regiment, with two
gatling-guns in their centre and two 7-pounders on their right.  The
right face of the square was formed of seven companies of the 13th
Regiment.  Next to these came two 7-pounder and one 9-pounder guns; four
companies of the 58th completed the line on this side.  The rear face
was composed of two companies of the 21st, and three companies of the
94th, with a 9-pounder gun.  On the left or west flank were three
companies of the 94th, two 7-pounder guns, eight companies of the 90th,
and two 9-pounders.  Buller's cavalry were away, scouring the country on
the flanks.  Colonel Drury-Lowe, with two squadrons of the 17th Lancers
and Captain Shepstone's Basutos, formed the rearguard.  The square moved
forward for a few miles, when they began to near the smaller kraals.
Towards the left front the Zulu columns could now be seen across the
plain, with the sun glancing down upon their long lines of white
shields.  Upon reaching the first kraal the square was halted while it
was fired.  The next kraal was a very large one, called Unodwingo.  This
was also fired; but, as it was found that the smoke drifted across the
plain so as to act as a screen to the Zulus, Lord Chelmsford ordered its
extinction.  Strong columns of the enemy could now be seen moving out in
good order from Ulundi, and the square halted on some slightly-rising
ground.

The Zulus soon opened a dropping fire on the right front, and from a
strong force operating on some broken ground near Unodwingo on the left.
By nine o'clock the Zulu attack was fairly developed.  Buller's men
then made a strong demonstration on the left, driving the Zulus from the
hollow where they were sheltered back to the Unodwingo kraal.  This
movement was well supported by Shepstone and the Basutos.

The Zulus now brought up a strong reinforcement from the right, so as to
assist those engaged with the cavalry.  Buller's men fought in the Dutch
fashion, in two ranks; the first mounted and ready to dash in a moment
upon any weak point in the enemy's line, the second on foot, using their
saddles as a rest for their rifles.  As soon as the front rank became
too hardly pressed, they cantered to the rear and dismounted and opened
fire, while the second rank mounted in readiness to charge.  Gradually
Buller and Shepstone fell back, the Zulu column pressing upon them until
well within reach of the gatlings and Martinis.  The cavalry then took
refuge in the square, and over the ridges of the front and left the Zulu
column with loud shouts swept down upon the square.  The British
infantry now opened fire.  Gatlings and rifles poured in their deadly
hail of fire, while the guns swept the Zulu ranks with shrapnel and
grape.  Terrible as the fire was, the Zulus pressed bravely forward,
filling up the gaps made in their ranks, their wild war-cry rising even
above the roll of the rifle-fire.  The fiercest attack came from the
Unodwingo kraal.  Forming under cover of the kraal, a large body, led by
a chief on a white horse, and formed in a hollow square, dashed at the
right rear angle of the British formation.  Tremendous as the fire was,
they pressed forward until it seemed as if they would come to close
quarters with the column; but, brave as the Zulus were, it was
impossible to withstand the fire which the 21st, 94th, 58th, and Royal
Engineers poured into them.  The square was broken up, and after a
moment's pause the Zulus turned and sought shelter from the leaden hail.

While the fight was raging here, another Zulu column had attacked the
front; but here the assault was speedily repulsed, the cool and steady
fire of the 80th having so deadly an effect that the Zulus never
attempted to make a rush upon them.  It was now a quarter to ten--but a
quarter of an hour from the firing of the first shot, but the combat was
virtually at an end.  The Zulus, astounded at the storm of fire by which
they had been received, were everywhere wavering; Lord Chelmsford gave
the order, and the two squadrons of lancers burst from the square,
greeted with a loud cheer from the infantry, and with their pennons
fluttering in the breeze, and their long lances in rest they dashed upon
the flying Zulus, and drove them headlong into a little ravine.  But
flanking this, and hidden by the long grass, half a Zulu regiment had
been posted to cover the retreat, and as the squadrons of lancers came
on a volley was poured in, which emptied several saddles and killed
Lieutenant Wyatt-Edgell, who was leading his men.  In another moment the
line of lancers dashed down upon the Zulu ranks, and before the level
line of lances the enemy went down like grass.  Shattered and broken in
an instant, the Zulus fought in stubborn knots, stabbing at the horses,
throwing themselves on the men, and trying to dismount them.

In a _melee_ like this the lance was useless, and the troopers drew
their swords and fought hand to hand with the foe; and now a troop of
the King's Dragoon Guards and Buller's horse took up the charge, and the
flying Zulus were cut down in scores before they could gain the crest of
the hill.  The Zulus here fought with far less determination than they
had exhibited at Kambula.  There for four hours they had striven in vain
to carry General Wood's strongly-intrenched position; here they made one
great effort, and then all was over.  Their force was estimated at
23,000, and of these they lost only about 1500, of whom at least
one-third were killed in the retreat.  The battle over, the remaining
kraals were burnt.  Most unfortunately, the day after the battle of
Ulundi, the news of the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley reached the
front, and the movements of the army were paralysed by the change of
command.  Instead therefore of a vigorous pursuit of the enemy, nothing
was done, and the army halted until the new commander-in-chief should
arrange his plans of action.  Lord Chelmsford at once resigned command
of his column, and left for England.

The two boys had been present at the battle of Ulundi.  They had, during
the weary weeks which preceded the advance, made the acquaintance of
most of the officers of the cavalry, and Colonel Lowe had repeated the
permission given them by General Marshall.  They had therefore, when on
the morning of the fight the column marched out, attached themselves to
Shepstone's mounted Basutos, and had fought in

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