In this national uprising passed the last days of December and the first weeks of January. It was a sad Christmas and a sad New Year, and there was ample cause for gloom in the country. Yet the eagerness with which England and the Colonies had replied to the call to arms was a source of encouragement and hope, though the question might still be asked, with some uneasiness, whether even now a sufficient force was being prepared for the difficult work of a prolonged war of conquest. Still, 50,000 men of the regular army or the volunteers, 15,000 of the militia, and some 10,000 colonists were now preparing to take the field in South Africa. The new generals who were to organise victory by throwing this great force into the balance were already upon their way to the scene of action. But weeks, if not months, must pass before the new divisions and battalions could enter into line, and in that time much might happen. Could Ladysmith, could Kimberley, could Mafeking, protract their resistance through this period of delay? That was the question which rendered this period one of such harassing anxiety, for the fall of these places would unquestionably be followed by the great insurrection of the Cape Dutch, which was the last and crowning calamity to be feared. It is very clear that the Boers had all along counted on this movement on the part of their blood relations in British territory; and it is equally certain that they would not have counted in vain had they themselves shown a more daring and enterprising spirit. In every direction disloyal Afrikanders were doing their utmost to assist the Boers and to hinder the British; their sons were they "knew not where;" they had left their homes on mysterious, or not mysterious, hunting expeditions, rifles in hand and good horses beneath them. More rifles were only awaiting a safe opportunity for producing them. The guarding of lines of communications had to be as strenuous as if the Cape Colony had been an enemy's country. Much more, therefore, than the fate of the garrisons themselves depended on the power of the beleaguered towns to hold out until the British forces could assume the offensive. [Illustration: SOME NOBLEMEN AT THE FRONT. [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._ THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.] [Illustration: [_Photo by Russell & Sons._ LORD ALWYNE COMPTON.] [Illustration: [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._ THE HON. T. A. BRASSEY.] [Illustration: [_Photo by Russell & Sons._ EARL DUDLEY.] [Illustration: [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._ THE HON. SCHOMBERG McDONNELL, In the uniform of the City Imperial Volunteers.] [Illustration: AMERICANS IN THE BOER ARMY BESIEGING LADYSMITH.