fully and spread out. When
we were about 500 feet from the train the British fired a volley at
us, but in so doing they merely displayed by their firing that there
were not many riflemen on the train, and that those that there were
shot badly and at random. Thus shown the weakness of the enemy, we
stormed with renewed vigour, and on arriving at about a hundred yards
distance we dismounted. The defenders did not face our fire long
before displaying the white flag. I stopped fire at once and the
train was ours.

It was Lieutenant Crossby, of the Remount Department, who waved the
white flag, and he now surrendered with about 20 "Tommies."

Among the occupants of the train was an old major, and on his saying
that he was very sick, and was on his way to the hospital, we
immediately apologised for having disturbed him and for the delay
which our little operation had caused him. There were eight sacks of
European mail in the train and these we seized. We liberated the
"Tommies" after disarming them. The Lieutenant in charge was the sole
person detained as a prisoner-of-war, and he was added to six other
British officers who were vegetating under our charge. Only a part of
the train could be destroyed by us, as one section was occupied by
women and children who were being transported to the Concentration
Camps.

On the following morning the field-cornet brought me the papers and
said with a smile, "You see I have brought you what you required,
General." I was overjoyed to obtain tidings from the outside world.
The letters were distributed about the laager, and there was abundance
of reading matter. I felt rather sorry for the "Tommies" who were
being thus mercilessly robbed of their letters, but I consoled myself
with the thought that our plight was quite as bad as theirs, for we
Boers had had no communication from any members of our families for
twelve months, and we felt justified in making the "Tommies" share our
misfortune. The Boers did not, however, get much satisfaction out of
other men's epistles, and even those who could read English gave up
the operation after having perused one or two, and threw away the
sackfuls of letters with disappointed faces.

The capture of this train was our second success. Shortly before we
had seized a train near Pan Station and had obtained a splendid haul.
This particular train was carrying Christmas presents for the British
soldiers, and we found a miscellaneous assortment of cakes,