which
was necessary for the very existence of the army, was held too strongly
for attack. The Bethulie Bridge was a particularly important point; but
though the Boers approached it, and even went the length of announcing
officially that they had destroyed it, it was not actually attacked.
At Wepener, however, on the Basutoland border, they found an isolated
force, and proceeded at once, according to their custom, to hem it in
and to bombard it, until one of their three great allies, want of food,
want of water, or want of cartridges, should compel a surrender.

On this occasion, however, the Boers had undertaken a task which was
beyond their strength. The troops at Wepener were one thousand seven
hundred in number, and formidable in quality. The place had been
occupied by part of Brabant's Colonial division, consisting of hardy
irregulars, men of the stuff of the defenders of Mafeking. Such men are
too shrewd to be herded into an untenable position and too valiant to
surrender a tenable one. The force was commanded by a dashing soldier,
Colonel Dalgety, of the Cape Mounted Rifles, as tough a fighter as his
famous namesake. There were with him nearly a thousand men of Brabant's
Horse, four hundred of the Cape Mounted Rifles, four hundred Kaffrarian
Horse, with some scouts, and one hundred regulars, including twenty
invaluable Sappers. They were strong in guns--two seven-pounders, two
naval twelve-pounders, two fifteen-pounders and several machine guns.
The position which they had taken up, Jammersberg, three miles north of
Wepener, was a very strong one, and it would have taken a larger force
than De Wet had at his disposal to turn them out of it. The defence had
been arranged by Major Cedric Maxwell, of the Sappers; and though the
huge perimeter, nearly eight miles, made its defence by so small a force
a most difficult matter, the result proved how good his dispositions
were.

At the same time, the Boers came on with every confidence of victory,
for they had a superiority in guns and an immense superiority in men.
But after a day or two of fierce struggle their attack dwindled down
into a mere blockade. On April 9th they attacked furiously, both by day
and by night, and on the 10th the pressure was equally severe. In these
two days occurred the vast majority of the casualties. But the defenders
took cover in a way to which British regulars have not yet attained, and
they outshot their opponents both with their rifles a