there also arrived from Maritzburg the 2nd
Border Regiment,[2] afterwards to be the comrades of the battalion in
the 5th Brigade.

[Footnote 2: A great friendship sprang up between this
celebrated regiment and ourselves.]

Colonel Cooper took over the command of the garrison and immediately
set to work on the arrangement of the defences. The next day, however,
General Wolfe-Murray and his staff appeared on the scene. Estcourt had
thus the honour of having three different commandants in two days.

CHAPTER IV.

ESTCOURT AND FRERE.

'Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand
judgment.'--_Job_, xxxii. 9.

The stay at Estcourt (November 3rd to 26th) was a period of great
anxiety and hard work. That there was cause for anxiety may be easily
understood when the state of affairs is remembered. The Army Corps had
not yet arrived from England, nor could any fresh troops be expected
before the 10th. The Boers had invaded Natal, had shut up in Ladysmith
the only British army in the field, and could still afford to send
five or six thousand men against Maritzburg. The Estcourt garrison
alone stood in their way.

There were necessarily many outposts, and tours were long and
frequent. Thunderstorms, Natal thunderstorms, visited the town with
painful regularity, and rendered piquet work even more uncomfortable
than usual. It was a period of strained waiting, when every one
wondered whether a Boer commando or a British brigade would be the
first arrival. Reliable news was scarce, though rumours of every kind
were rife.

The battalion was encamped in the market square, while the officers
inhabited a small room encumbered with planks. Trenches covered the
town to the north and north-east, and were pushed forward some two
miles on the Weenen road. The citadel, so to speak, was the sugar-loaf
hill, on which Lieutenant James, R.N., constructed, towards the middle
of the month, emplacements for his two naval twelve-pounders. These
guns arrived on November 14th, a welcome addition to the garrison,
which had been strengthened on the 13th by the West Yorkshire
Regiment. These reinforcements came at an opportune moment, for the
Boers had at last moved forward and on November 14th their patrols
were close to Estcourt. Their approach caused a certain amount of
alarm, and at first the evacuation of the town was proposed. The camp
was even struck, and a great part of the baggage was put on