le of the campaign, and occasionally the
service rendered so voluntarily by the burghers was of momentous
consequences, even if the act itself seemed trivial at the time.

A second feature of the Boer army, and equally as important as the freedom
of action of its individuals, was its mobility. Every burgher was mounted
on a fleet horse or pony, and consequently his movements on the
battlefield, whether in an advance or in a retreat, were many times more
rapid that those of his enemy--an advantage which was of inestimable value
both during an engagement and in the intervals between battles when it was
necessary to secure new positions. During the progress of a battle the
Boers were able to desert a certain point for a time, mount their horses
and ride to another position, and throw their full strength against the
latter, yet remaining in such close touch with the former that it was
possible to return and defend it in an exceedingly short space of time.
With the aid of their horses they could make such a sudden rush from one
position to another that the infantry of the enemy could be surrounded and
cut off from all communications with the body of its army almost before it
was known that any Boers were in the vicinity, and it was due to that fact
that the Boers were able to make so many large numbers of captives.

The fighting along the Tugela furnished many magnificent examples of the
Boers' extreme mobility. There it was a constant jump from one position to
another--one attack here yesterday, another there to-day. It was an
incessant movement made necessary by the display of energy by the British,
whose thrice-larger forces kept the Boers in a state of continued
ferment. On one side of the river, stretched out from the south of Spion
Kop, in the west, to almost Helpmakaar, in the east, were thirty thousand
British troops watching for a weak point where they might cross, and
attacking whenever there seemed to be the slightest opportunity of
breaking through; on the other side were between two and three thousand
mounted Boers, jumping from one point to another in the long line of
territory to be guarded, and repelling the attacks whenever they were
made. The country was in their favour, it is true, but it was not so
favourable that a handful of men could defend it against thousands, and it
was partly due to the great ease and rapidity with which the Boers could
move from one place to another, that Ladysmith remained besiege