There remained, however, a formidable force, the regiments in which had
been strengthened by the addition of drafts and volunteers from home.
Not less than twenty thousand sabres and bayonets were ready and eager
for the passage of the Biggarsberg mountains.

This line of rugged hills is pierced by only three passes, each of which
was held in strength by the enemy. Considerable losses must have ensued
from any direct attempt to force them. Buller, however, with excellent
judgment, demonstrated in front of them with Hildyard's men, while the
rest of the army, marching round, outflanked the line of resistance, and
on May 15th pounced upon Dundee. Much had happened since that October
day when Penn Symons led his three gallant regiments up Talana Hill, but
now at last, after seven weary months, the ground was reoccupied which
he had gained. His old soldiers visited his grave, and the national flag
was raised over the remains of as gallant a man as ever died for the
sake of it.

The Boers, whose force did not exceed a few thousands, were now rolled
swiftly back through Northern Natal into their own country. The long
strain at Ladysmith had told upon them, and the men whom we had to meet
were very different from the warriors of Spion Kop and Nicholson's Nek.
They had done magnificently, but there is a limit to human endurance,
and no longer would these peasants face the bursting lyddite and the
bayonets of angry soldiers. There is little enough for us to boast of in
this. Some pride might be taken in the campaign when at a disadvantage
we were facing superior numbers, but now we could but deplore the
situation in which these poor valiant burghers found themselves, the
victims of a rotten government and of their own delusions. Hofer's
Tyrolese, Charette's Vendeans, or Bruce's Scotchmen never fought a finer
fight than these children of the veld, but in each case they combated a
real and not an imaginary tyrant. It is heart-sickening to think of the
butchery, the misery, the irreparable losses, the blood of men, and
the bitter tears of women, all of which might have been spared had one
obstinate and ignorant man been persuaded to allow the State which he
ruled to conform to the customs of every other civilised State upon the
earth.

Buller was now moving with a rapidity and decision which contrast
pleasantly with some of his earlier operations. Although Dundee was only
occupied on May 15th, on May 18th his vanguard was in Newc