On the 15th a second and easily preventable reverse befell our troops in Natal, causing general discouragement. This was the derailment of an armoured train near Chieveley--a catastrophe which had been foreseen for some days by every private and subaltern in the British camp. Early on the 15th the train, with a company of Dublin Fusiliers, half a company of Durban Light Infantry, and one wretched little muzzle-loading 7-pounder gun from H.M.S. _Tartar_, mounted on a truck and manned by bluejackets, left Estcourt. The train passed Frere, the station south of Chieveley, in safety without seeing any Boers. Just beyond Chieveley, however, the enemy were made out in some strength upon a hill. A message reporting this fact was sent back to Estcourt, whereupon the train was promptly ordered to return to Frere. The order was obeyed, but when less than two miles from Frere, a hill in front commanding the line at a distance of only 600 yards, was seen to be held by the enemy. The Boers gave no sign of life till the train was close under them, and then opened a tremendous fire from their rifles and from two field guns and a Maxim automatic one-pounder. Simultaneously the driver of the locomotive put on all steam and the train headed furiously down a steep gradient towards Frere. But the enemy had made full preparations. A large stone had been placed on the line, and this derailed the leading truck (containing plate-layers' tools, a breakdown gang, and the guard), an armoured car behind it, and another truck. The occupants were flung through the air, and several of them severely injured. The engine, one armoured car, and the truck with the 7-pounder, kept the rails. [Sidenote: Endeavours to clear the obstruction.] Unfortunately the derailed armoured car and truck blocked the line and had to be removed. The Boer guns had changed their position, and opened a pitiless fire at a range of 1,300 yards. None the less, the men of the Durban Light Infantry and the Dublin Fusiliers, led by Captain Haldane and Mr. Winston Churchill--sometime a lieutenant in the Army and now acting as a newspaper correspondent--bravely set to work. Shells and bullets rained upon them, yet, in spite of this, one truck was dragged backwards and then toppled over so as almost to clear the line; it still overlapped slightly, and the engine was set to work to butt it aside. There was great danger of derailing or injuring the locomotive in this operation. Attempt after attempt was made carefully, with unsuccess. Each time the engine moved it a little, but only a little, and the successive pushes failed to clear the line. At last, however, a well-aimed shell struck the locomotive, setting the wood with which it was protected on fire, and the driver in despair turned on full steam. With a grating, tearing sound the engine tore its way past, but, unhappily, the armoured car and truck behind it parted their couplings, and could not be got past the obstruction. They had to be abandoned.