ere flashed in
the direction they had taken. It was not until next morning that they
were discovered, quite close to the place they had been ordered to go
to. It was characteristic of the nature of the country in which we
were operating, and the excellent manner in which they hid themselves,
that Captain Nelson should have missed them, for at one time he must
have passed quite close to the piquet.

Next morning Boers were reported in the vicinity. It is impossible to
say they were in our front, as our front coincided with the report of
the first visible Boer, and we simply went for anything we saw. Rumour
put this force at 700 strong, but most people considered that an
exaggerated estimate. We moved off in three columns: the South Wales
Borderers took the right, moving along the difficult, serrated tops of
the hills; the cavalry and yeomanry took the lower, more undulating,
easier hills to the left, while the rest of us with the guns moved
along in the centre; the General, conspicuous by a large red flag
which a trooper carried behind him, moving wherever any opposition
presented itself. It must be the unanimous opinion of all troops who
knew our General, that a braver man never fought in action, but at the
same time the man who carried that red flag deserved some honourable
distinction. Perhaps he got it; probably he did not.

After moving some two or three miles, our further way was blocked by
mauser-fire from a very ominous, black-looking kopje which stretched
down into the valley from the high ground on our left. The guns came
into action against this hill at a range of about two thousand yards,
and it seemed as if a golden-crested wren could not have escaped if it
had been unlucky enough to be there. The shrapnel kept up an almost
incessant hail, covering the wooded sides of the kopje with jets of
round white balls of smoke, while every now and then the deeper note
of the 4.7 was followed by a huge cloud of dust and yellowish vapour
thrown up, and off, by the explosion of the lyddite in the huge
projectile. How many Boers held that hill will probably never be
known; only four were found. But a strange spectacle ensued. Emerging
from the cover on the far side, rode, _ventre-a-terre_, a solitary
horseman. Immediately two companies extended in our front opened fire
on him. How he escaped was a marvel, for in front, behind, on every
side of him could be seen 'the bullets kicking dust-spots on the
green.' But escape h