n, near the Natal frontier, and took possession of the
key, the stationmaster having to make his way on a trolley to Ladysmith.
There, as yet, all was externally peaceful, as though no enemy were
near, but a suppressed anxiety to be "up and at 'em" prevailed among the
troops. Their ardour was in nowise damped by the incessant rain that
fell, and converted the surrounding country into a wide morass, nor by
the snow that followed, which gave the Drakenberg Mountains an
additionally impregnable aspect and rendered them at once picturesque
and forbidding.

A steady increase of the commandoes in the neighbourhood of Doornberg
continued, and an attack within a few days seemed imminent.

Thereupon a large number of troops left Ladysmith for Acton Homes, where
a Boer commando of four miles long was reported to be laagered. But the
Boers retreated, and the troops remained some ten miles from Ladysmith,
the Dublin Fusiliers alone moving back to Glencoe, whence they had come
by train by order of General Symons.

At Glencoe we had, as before stated, some 4000 men, but report said that
General Viljeon had an enormous force, nearly double ours in number,
which was lying at the foot of Botha's Pass, one and a half miles on the
Natal side of the Border. Besides this, General Kock had a commando at
Newcastle. The invasion of Natal by the Boers in three columns was
formally announced by an official statement from the Governor:--

"PIETERMARITZBURG, _October 16_.

"Natal was invaded from the Transvaal early on the morning of the 12th
inst., an advance being made by the enemy in three columns. On the right
a mixed column of Transvaal and Free State Burghers with Hollander
Volunteers marched through Botha's Pass. In the centre the main column,
under General Joubert's personal command, crossed Lang's Nek and moved
forward _via_ Ingogo. On the left a large commando advanced from
Wakkerstroom _via_ Moll's Nek and Wool's Drift. The object of all three
columns was Newcastle, which was occupied on the night of the 14th, the
central column having slept the previous night at Mount Prospect,
General Colley's old camping-place. On Sunday an advance party of 1500
Boers, with artillery, pushed south of Ingagane, but the greater portion
of this commando retired later in the day on Newcastle. A Boer force
which had been concentrating at De Jager's Drift captured six Natal
policemen. A picket of the King's Royal R