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

quietly, when a small party of horse made an expeditionto Isandula; they reported that nearly a hundred waggons were stillstanding upon the field of battle. On the 17th of May, three dayslater, the rumour ran through the camp that the cavalry were to start onthe 19th, to bury the dead and bring away the waggons. The Army ServiceCorps and waggons were to accompany the party, which was to consist ofthe Dragoon Guards and Lancers, with a party of native mounted scouts.

  In the afternoon of the 18th the two boys went to Colonel Marshall'stent; they waited patiently until he came out, accompanied by two orthree 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 atthe battle, and saw the whole thing, and were taken prisoners afterwardsand carried to Umbelleni's kraal, where we were liberated when ColonelWood's cavalry attacked the Zlobani hill. We are well mounted, sir, andare good shots; so, if you will let us go, we could keep with the scoutsand 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, andfortunately the natives did not notice us."

  "Oh, yes, you can go," the general said. "Probably you can give us abetter account of the action than any one else, as others who escapedwere occupied by their own business, and could not mark the generalprogress of the battle. So you were taken prisoners! Well, I am goingout 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 popularand dashing officers in the service. Three or four of his staff werethere, and all listened with great interest to the boys' account oftheir adventures.

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

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

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

  At daybreak on the 20th the reconnoitring force crossed the river. Nosigns of the enemy were seen until they neared Isandula; thensignal-fires blazed up on the hills to the right, and spread quicklyfrom hill to hill far into the interior. Pushing steadily on, the plainof Isandula was reached by ten o'clock. The whole scene of the conflictwas overgrown with long grass, thickly intermixed with growing crops ofoats and Indian corn. Lying thickly here, and scattered over a widearea, lay the corpses of the soldiers. The site of the camp itself wasmarked by the remains of the tents, intermingled with a mass of brokentrunks, boxes, meat-tins, papers, books, and letters in wild disorder.The sole visible objects, however, rising above the grass, were thewaggons, all more or less broken up.

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

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

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

  A splendid career was open for the young prince, for there is littledoubt that, had he lived, he would sooner or later have mounted thethrone of his father, and there are few pages of history more sad thanthose which relate to his death in a paltry skirmish in a corner ofAfrica. To Englishmen the page is all the more sad, inasmuch as, hadthe men accompanying him acted with the coolness and calmness generallyshown by Englishmen in a moment of danger, instead of being carried awayby 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 1stof June the division, as nearly as possible 20,000 strong, with abaggage-train of 400 native waggons, moved forward and encamped near theItelezi River. The flying column of General Wood went on one marchahead, and the country was carefully scouted by Buller's horse fortwenty miles round, and no Zulus were found.

  CHAPTER NINE.

  ULUNDI.

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

  Riding on to see who they could be, they were joined by Colonel Bullerand a dozen of his men, and together they rode forward to meet the fivemen who were seen approaching. In a few seconds Lieutenant Carey andfour troopers of Bettington's Horse rode up, and when they had toldtheir story English soldiers had the shame and humiliation of knowingthat an English officer and four English troopers had escaped unwoundedfrom a Zulu ambush, in which they had left a gallant young prince, theguest 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 sentout in advance of the column, and had applied for and obtainedpermission to accompany it. Colonel Harrison, acting asquartermaster-general, granted the permission, and had an interview withthe prince.

  Six men of Bettington's Horse and the same number of Shepstone's Basutoswere to form the party; but unfor
tunately the Basutos did not come up atthe appointed time, and the patrol consisted therefore only of theprince, Lieutenant Carey, the six men of Bettington's Horse, and oneZulu. Considering the importance of the safety of the prince, a graveresponsibility attaches to the staff-officer who allowed him to go withso small a party.

  After an hour's ride they reached the crest of a hill and dismounted tofix the position of some distant points by the compass. Here ColonelHarrison overtook them, and remarked that the whole of the escort wasnot 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 aroundus, and with my glass I can see General Marshall's cavalry coming up."

  Unfortunately Colonel Harrison did not insist that the party should waituntil the Basutos arrived, and they proceeded another