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BATTLE OF COLENSO.
Two serious defeats had within the week been inflicted upon the British forces in South Africa.

Cronje, lurking behind his trenches and his barbed wire entanglements barred Methuen's road to Kimberley, while in the northern part of Cape Colony Gatacre's wearied troops had been defeated and driven by a force which consisted largely of British subjects.

But the public at home steeled their hearts and fixed their eyes steadily upon Natal.

There was their senior General and there the main body of their troops.