e of the trio
of fighting chiefs whose name will always be associated with the gallant
resistance of the Boers. He was there as adviser, but Cronje was in
supreme command.

His dispositions had been both masterly and original. Contrary to the
usual military practice in the defence of rivers, he had concealed
his men upon both banks, placing, as it is stated, those in whose
staunchness he had least confidence upon the British side of the river,
so that they could only retreat under the rifles of their inexorable
companions. The trenches had been so dug with such a regard for the
slopes of the ground that in some places a triple line of fire was
secured. His artillery, consisting of several heavy pieces and a
number of machine guns (including one of the diabolical 'pompoms'), was
cleverly placed upon the further side of the stream, and was not only
provided with shelter pits but had rows of reserve pits, so that the
guns could be readily shifted when their range was found. Rows of
trenches, a broadish river, fresh rows of trenches, fortified houses,
and a good artillery well worked and well placed, it was a serious
task which lay in front of the gallant little army. The whole position
covered between four and five miles.

An obvious question must here occur to the mind of every non-military
reader--Why should this position be attacked at all? Why should we not
cross higher up where there were no such formidable obstacles?' The
answer, so far as one can answer it, must be that so little was known
of the dispositions of our enemy that we were hopelessly involved in
the action before we knew of it, and that then it was more dangerous to
extricate the army than to push the attack. A retirement over that open
plain at a range of under a thousand yards would have been a dangerous
and disastrous movement. Having once got there, it was wisest and best
to see it through.

The dark Cronje still waited reflective in the hotel garden. Across the
veld streamed the lines of infantry, the poor fellows eager, after seven
miles of that upland air, for the breakfast which had been promised
them. It was a quarter to seven when our patrols of Lancers were fired
upon. There were Boers, then, between them and their meal! The artillery
was ordered up, the Guards were sent forward on the right, the 9th
Brigade under Pole-Carew on the left, including the newly arrived Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders. They swept onwards into the fatal fire
z