village
had been barricaded and were strongly occupied. My two professional
scouts, Jordaan and Mellema, had also reconnoitred the village from
another direction, and had brought back confirmatory information and
the news that Lydenburg was occupied by about 2,000 British soldiers,
consisting of the Manchester Regiment and the First Royal Irish,
together with a corps of "hands-uppers" under the notorious Harber.
Three other Boer spies scouting about the forts on the Crocodile
Heights also brought in discouraging reports.

At the Council of War which then took place, and over which I
presided, these reports were discussed, and we agreed to attack the
two blockhouses nearest the village, and thereafter to storm the
village itself. I should mention that it was necessary for us to
capture the blockhouses before attempting to take the village itself,
for had we left them intact we should have run the danger of having
our retreat cut off.

The attack was to take place next night, and as we approached the
British lines on horseback, between Spekboom River and Potloodspruit,
we dismounted, and proceeded cautiously on foot. One of the objective
blockhouses was on the waggon path to the north of the village, and
the other was 1,000 yards to the east of Potloodspruit. Field-Cornet
Young, accompanied by Jordaan and Mellema, crept up to within 10 feet
of one of these blockhouses, and brought me a report that the barbed
wire network which surrounded it rendered an assault an impossible
task in the darkness. Separating my commando of 150 men into two
bodies, I placed them on either side of the blockhouse, sending, in
the meanwhile, four men to cut down the wire fences. These men had
instructions to give us a signal when they had achieved this object,
so that we could then proceed to storm the fort. It would have been
sacrificing many in vain to have attempted to proceed without
effecting the preliminary operation of fence cutting, since, if we had
stormed a blockhouse without first removing the wire, we should have
become entangled in the fences and have offered splendid targets to
the enemy at a very short range, and our losses would, without doubt,
have been considerable.

My fence-cutters stuck doggedly to their task despite the fact that
they were being fired upon by the sentries on guard. It was a long
and weary business, but we patiently waited, lying on the ground.
Towards 2 o'clock in the morning the officer in command of