ixty foreigners fighting for the Boers, and the death of the gallant
Frenchman, De Villebois-Mareuil, who appears to have had the ambition of
playing Lafayette in South Africa to Kruger's Washington. From the time
that Kimberley had been reoccupied the British had been accumulating
their force there so as to make a strong movement which should coincide
with that of Roberts from Bloemfontein. Hunter's Division from Natal
was being moved round to Kimberley, and Methuen already commanded
a considerable body of troops, which included a number of the newly
arrived Imperial Yeomanry. With these Methuen pacified the surrounding
country, and extended his outposts to Barkly West on the one side, to
Boshof on the other, and to Warrenton upon the Vaal River in the centre.
On April 4th news reached Boshof that a Boer commando had been seen some
ten miles to the east of the town, and a force, consisting of Yeomanry,
Kimberley Light Horse, and half of Butcher's veteran 4th battery, was
sent to attack them. They were found to have taken up their position
upon a kopje which, contrary to all Boer custom, had no other kopjes
to support it. French generalship was certainly not so astute as Boer
cunning. The kopje was instantly surrounded, and the small force upon
the summit being without artillery in the face of our guns found itself
in exactly the same position which our men had been in twenty-four hours
before at Reddersberg. Again was shown the advantage which the mounted
rifleman has over the cavalry, for the Yeomanry and Light Horsemen left
their horses and ascended the hill with the bayonet. In three hours all
was over and the Boers had laid down their arms. Villebois was shot
with seven of his companions, and there were nearly sixty prisoners.
It speaks well for the skirmishing of the Yeomanry and the way in which
they were handled by Lord Chesham that though they worked their way up
the hill under fire they only lost four killed and a few wounded. The
affair was a small one, but it was complete, and it came at a time when
a success was very welcome. One bustling week had seen the expensive
victory of Karee, the disasters of Sanna's Post and Reddersberg, and the
successful skirmish of Boshof. Another chapter must be devoted to the
movement towards the south of the Boer forces and the dispositions which
Lord Roberts made to meet it.

CHAPTER 23. THE CLEARING OF THE SOUTH-EAST.

Lord Roberts never showed his self-command and fixe