the supports which might conceivably have altered the result. It was a
gallant attack gallantly met, and for once the greater wiliness in fight
was shown by the British. The end was characteristic. 'Good evening,
Commandant,' said Powell to Eloff; 'won't you come in and have
some dinner?' The prisoners--burghers, Hollanders, Germans, and
Frenchmen--were treated to as good a supper as the destitute larders of
the town could furnish.

So in a small blaze of glory ended the historic siege of Mafeking, for
Eloff's attack was the last, though by no means the worst of the trials
which the garrison had to face. Six killed and ten wounded were the
British losses in this admirably managed affair. On May 17th, five
days after the fight, the relieving force arrived, the besiegers were
scattered, and the long-imprisoned garrison were free men once more.
Many who had looked at their maps and saw this post isolated in the
very heart of Africa had despaired of ever reaching their heroic
fellow-countrymen, and now one universal outbreak of joybells and
bonfires from Toronto to Melbourne proclaimed that there is no spot so
inaccessible that the long arm of the empire cannot reach it when her
children are in peril.

Colonel Mahon, a young Irish officer who had made his reputation as a
cavalry leader in Egypt, had started early in May from Kimberley with a
small but mobile force consisting of the Imperial Light Horse (brought
round from Natal for the purpose), the Kimberley Mounted Corps, the
Diamond Fields Horse, some Imperial Yeomanry, a detachment of the Cape
Police, and 100 volunteers from the Fusilier brigade, with M battery
R.H.A. and pom-poms, twelve hundred men in all. Whilst Hunter was
fighting his action at Rooidam on May 4th, Mahon with his men
struck round the western flank of the Boers and moved rapidly to the
northwards. On May 11th they had left Vryburg, the halfway house, behind
them, having done one hundred and twenty miles in five days. They pushed
on, encountering no opposition save that of nature, though they knew
that they were being closely watched by the enemy. At Koodoosrand it was
found that a Boer force was in position in front, but Mahon avoided them
by turning somewhat to the westward. His detour took him, however, into
a bushy country, and here the enemy headed him off, opening fire at
short range upon the ubiquitous Imperial Light Horse, who led the
column. A short engagement ensued, in which the casualties