d, 91st
(the gun escort) one officer and one man not hit, all the rest killed or
wounded; staff, every officer hit.' That is what it means to those
who are caught in the vortex of the cyclone. The total loss was about
seventy-five.

In this action the Boers, who were under the command of Wessels,
delivered their attack with a cleverness and dash which deserved
success. Their stratagem, however, depending as it did upon the use of
British uniforms and methods, was illegitimate by all the laws of war,
and one can but marvel at the long-suffering patience of officers and
men who endured such things without any attempt at retaliation. There is
too much reason to believe also, that considerable brutality was shown
by those Boers who carried the kopje, and the very high proportion
of killed to wounded among the British who lay there corroborates the
statement of the survivors that several were shot at close quarters
after all resistance had ceased.

This rough encounter of Tafelkop was followed only four days later by a
very much more serious one at Tweefontein, which proved that even after
two years of experience we had not yet sufficiently understood the
courage and the cunning of our antagonist. The blockhouse line was being
gradually extended from Harrismith to Bethlehem, so as to hold down this
turbulent portion of the country. The Harrismith section had been pushed
as far as Tweefontein, which is nine miles west of Elands River Bridge,
and here a small force was stationed to cover the workers. This column
consisted of four squadrons of the 4th Imperial Yeomanry, one gun of the
79th battery, and one pom-pom, the whole under the temporary command of
Major Williams of the South Staffords, Colonel Firmin being absent.

Knowing that De Wet and his men were in the neighbourhood, the camp
of the Yeomen had been pitched in a position which seemed to secure it
against attack. A solitary kopje presented a long slope to the north,
while the southern end was precipitous. The outposts were pushed well
out upon the plain, and a line of sentries was placed along the crest.
The only precaution which seems to have been neglected was to have other
outposts at the base of the southern declivity. It appears to have been
taken for granted, however, that no attack was to be apprehended from
that side, and that in any case it would be impossible to evade the
vigilance of the sentries upon the top.

Of all the daring and skilful attacks de