d driven
back on to their camp with a loss of twelve killed, twenty-six wounded,
and fourteen missing. Some of the British were dismounted men, and
it says much for Plumer's conduct of the fight that he was able to
extricate these safely from the midst of an aggressive mounted enemy.
Personally he set an admirable example, sending away his own horse,
and walking with his rearmost soldiers. Captain Crewe Robertson and
Lieutenant Milligan, the famous Yorkshire cricketer, were killed, and
Rolt, Jarvis, Maclaren, and Plumer himself were wounded. The Rhodesian
force withdrew again to near Lobatsi, and collected itself for yet
another effort.

In the meantime Mafeking--abandoned, as it seemed, to its fate--was
still as formidable as a wounded lion. Far from weakening in its defence
it became more aggressive, and so persistent and skilful were its
riflemen that the big Boer gun had again and again to be moved further
from the town. Six months of trenches and rifle-pits had turned
every inhabitant into a veteran. Now and then words of praise and
encouragement came to them from without. Once it was a special message
from the Queen, once a promise of relief from Lord Roberts. But the
rails which led to England were overgrown with grass, and their brave
hearts yearned for the sight of their countrymen and for the sound of
their voices. 'How long, O Lord, how long?' was the cry which was wrung
from them in their solitude. But the flag was still held high.

April was a trying month for the defence. They knew that Methuen, who
had advanced as far as Fourteen Streams upon the Vaal River, had retired
again upon Kimberley. They knew also that Plumer's force had been
weakened by the repulse at Ramathlabama, and that many of his men
were down with fever. Six weary months had this village withstood the
pitiless pelt of rifle bullet and shell. Help seemed as far away from
them as ever. But if troubles may be allayed by sympathy, then theirs
should have lain lightly. The attention of the whole empire had centred
upon them, and even the advance of Roberts's army became secondary to
the fate of this gallant struggling handful of men who had upheld the
flag so long. On the Continent also their resistance attracted
the utmost interest, and the numerous journals there who find the
imaginative writer cheaper than the war correspondent announced their
capture periodically as they had once done that of Ladysmith. From a
mere tin-roofed village Maf