he position in
front at a small cost. On the same evening General French arrived and
took over the force, which consisted now of Stephenson's and the Guards
brigades (making up the 11th division), with two brigades of cavalry and
one corps of mounted infantry. The next day, the 23rd, the advance was
resumed, the cavalry bearing the brunt of the fighting. That gallant
corps, Roberts's Horse, whose behaviour at Sanna's Post had been
admirable, again distinguished itself, losing among others its Colonel,
Brazier Creagh. On the 24th again it was to the horsemen that the honour
and the casualties fell. The 9th Lancers, the regular cavalry regiment
which bears away the honours of the war, lost several men and officers,
and the 8th Hussars also suffered, but the Boers were driven from their
position, and lost more heavily in this skirmish than in some of the
larger battles of the campaign. The 'pom-poms,' which had been supplied
to us by the belated energy of the Ordnance Department, were used with
some effect in this engagement, and the Boers learned for the first
time how unnerving are those noisy but not particularly deadly fireworks
which they had so often crackled round the ears of our gunners.

On the Wednesday morning Rundle, with the addition of Pole-Carew's
division, was strong enough for any attack, while French was in a
position upon the flank. Every requisite for a great victory was there
except the presence of an enemy. The Wepener siege had been raised and
the force in front of Rundle had disappeared as only Boer armies can
disappear. The combined movement was an admirable piece of work on
the part of the enemy. Finding no force in front of them, the combined
troops of French, Rundle, and Chermside occupied Dewetsdorp, where the
latter remained, while the others pushed on to Thabanchu, the storm
centre from which all our troubles had begun nearly a month before. All
the way they knew that De Wet's retreating army was just in front
of them, and they knew also that a force had been sent out from
Bloemfontein to Thabanchu to head off the Boers. Lord Roberts might
naturally suppose, when he had formed two cordons through which De Wet
must pass, that one or other must hold him. But with extraordinary
skill and mobility De Wet, aided by the fact that every inhabitant was
a member of his intelligence department, slipped through the double net
which had been laid for him. The first net was not in its place in time,
and t