ering 13,000 rifles with thirty guns, advanced upon Dewetsdorp,
Rundle, as senior officer, being in command. As they marched the blue
hills of Wepener lined the sky some twenty miles to the south, eloquent
to every man of the aim and object of their march.

On April 20th, Rundle as he advanced found a force with artillery across
his path to Dewetsdorp. It is always difficult to calculate the number
of hidden men and lurking guns which go to make up a Boer army, but with
some knowledge of their total at Wepener it was certain that the force
opposed to him must be very inferior to his own. At Constantia Farm,
where he found them in position, it is difficult to imagine that there
were more than three thousand men. Their left flank was their weak
point, as a movement on that side would cut them off from Wepener
and drive them up towards our main force in the north. One would have
thought that a containing force of three thousand men, and a flanking
movement from eight thousand, would have turned them out, as it has
turned them out so often before and since. Yet a long-range action began
on Friday, April 20th, and lasted the whole of the 21st, the 22nd, and
the 23rd, in which we sustained few losses, but made no impression upon
the enemy. Thirty of the 1st Worcesters wandered at night into the wrong
line, and were made prisoners, but with this exception the four days
of noisy fighting does not appear to have cost either side fifty
casualties. It is probable that the deliberation with which the
operations were conducted was due to Rundle's instructions to wait until
the other forces were in position. His subsequent movements showed that
he was not a General who feared to strike.

On Sunday night (April 22nd) Pole-Carew sallied out from Bloemfontein on
a line which would take him round the right flank of the Boers who were
facing Rundle. The Boers had, however, occupied a strong position at
Leeuw Kop, which barred his path, so that the Dewetsdorp Boers were
covering the Wepener Boers, and being in turn covered by the Boers of
Leeuw Kop. Before anything could be done, they must be swept out of the
way. Pole-Carew is one of those finds which help to compensate us for
the war. Handsome, dashing, debonnaire, he approaches a field of battle
as a light-hearted schoolboy approaches a football field. On this
occasion he acted with energy and discretion. His cavalry threatened the
flanks of the enemy, and Stephenson's brigade carried t