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Updated: June 4, 2025
On the other hand Jolly could not abide such as his set called 'cranks, and Val's set called 'smugs, so that he was still balancing when the clock of Black Week struck. One two three, came those ominous repulses at Stormberg, Magersfontein, Colenso. The sturdy English soul reacting after the first cried, 'Ah! but Methuen! after the second: 'Ah! but Buller! then, in inspissated gloom, hardened.
In Natal the main force under Sir Redvers Buller himself completely failed in the attack on the Boer army at Colenso on December 15th; Lord Methuen's advance for the relief of Kimberley came to a standstill at the Modder River, and met with a serious repulse at Magersfontein; while the smaller parties of Gatacre and French have made little headway against the Free State troops and the rebellious Cape farmers.
Uttered in the week following Magersfontein and Colenso, the opinions just quoted are certainly open to the charge of being wise after the event; nevertheless, it is indisputable that they express a fundamental military truth.
It stirred the hazy stillness at dawn this morning like sweet music. It grew louder and apparently nearer as the morning advanced, until in imagination one could mark the positions of individual batteries pounding away opposite Colenso and Skiet's drift. At last the roar died away in sullen growls, giving us the hope that a position had been gained. February 6.
At Colenso and Magersfontein the burghers remained in their trenches on the hills while thousands of shrapnel and other shells exploded above and around them, but very few men were injured, and when the British infantry advanced under cover of the shell fire the Boers merely remained in the trenches until the enemy had approached to within several hundred yards and then assailed them with rifle fire.
In the afternoon we were to have had a military tournament on the Islington model, but the General stopped it, because the enemy would certainly have thrown shells into our midst, and women and children would have been there. At night, however, the Natal Volunteers gave another open-air concert. In the midst we heard guns real guns from Colenso way.
Various occurrences of the day led him to apply his views to questions connected with the Established Church. After the 'Essays and Reviews' had ceased to be exciting there were some eager discussions about Colenso, and his relations as Bishop of Natal to the Bishop of Capetown.
One day in camp we counted up the price per word of this cablegram, and Churchill was delighted to find that it must have cost the man who sent it five pounds. On the day of his arrival in Durban, with the cheers still in the air, Churchill took the first train to "the front," then at Colenso. Another man might have lingered.
"He broke his trust to a dying man," he said softly, "to a man who lay on the veldt at Colenso with three great wounds in his body, and his life's blood staining the ground. He had carried those letters into action with him, because they were precious to him. His last thought was that they should be destroyed. Your brother swore to do this. He broke his word. He turned blackmailer."
Our guns were rapidly trained on the spot, our men placed in position, and we waited. I ran into the tent to telegraph the news to Colenso. No reply to my hasty call. The wire is cut! "Go at once," said the chief, "and repair the line." As I rode off the mist cleared, and a few minutes later the fight had begun.
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