f upon
him. The burghers attempted to ride in, as they had successfully done
at Brakenlaagte, but they were opposed by the steady old troopers of the
two regiments of Imperial Horse, and by a General who was familiar with
every Boer ruse. The horsemen never got nearer than 150 yards to the
British line, and were beaten back by the steady fire which met them.
Finding that he made no headway, and learning that Campbell's column
was coming up from Bethlehem, De Wet withdrew his men after four hours'
fighting. Fifteen were hit upon the British side, and the Boer loss
seems to have been certainly as great or greater.

De Wet's general aim in his operations seems to have been to check the
British blockhouse building. With his main force in the Langberg he
could threaten the line which was now being erected between Bethlehem
and Harrismith, a line against which his main commando was destined,
only two months later, to beat itself in vain. Sixty miles to the north
a second line was being run across country from Frankfort to Standerton,
and had reached a place called Tafelkop. A covering party of East
Lancashires and Yeomanry watched over the workers, but De Wet had left
a portion of his force in that neighbourhood, and they harassed the
blockhouse builders to such an extent that General Hamilton, who was
in command, found it necessary to send in to Frankfort for support.
The British columns there had just returned exhausted from a drive, but
three bodies under Damant, Rimington, and Wilson were at once despatched
to clear away the enemy.

The weather was so atrocious that the veld resembled an inland sea, with
the kopjes as islands rising out of it. By this stage of the war the
troops were hardened to all weathers, and they pushed swiftly on to the
scene of action. As they approached the spot where the Boers had been
reported, the line had been extended over many miles, with the result
that it had become very attenuated and dangerously weak in the centre.
At this point Colonel Damant and his small staff were alone with the two
guns and the maxim, save for a handful of Imperial Yeomanry (91st), who
acted as escort to the guns. Across the face of this small force there
rode a body of men in khaki uniforms, keeping British formation, and
actually firing bogus volleys from time to time in the direction of some
distant Boers. Damant and his staff seem to have taken it for granted
that these were Rimington's men, and the clever ruse