om. Colonel Paget, who commanded the
Scots Guards, sent four companies to Colonel Pulteney's assistance,
but even with this reinforcement it was impossible to make further
progress across the plain.

[Sidenote: 1st Coldstream, thrown in on right, are stopped by Riet.]

[Sidenote: but move along it and entrench upon it.]

When Major-General Colvile saw that the Boers had thus arrested the
march of the Scots Guards, he determined to employ his reserve, the
1st Coldstream, in prolonging the line of the brigade to the right so
as to extend beyond the enemy's left. The 1st Coldstream was then on
the right rear of the leading battalions and was formed in two lines,
one behind the other, each in echelon of companies from the left.
Lt.-Colonel Codrington, who commanded it, accordingly moved to the
right, where he was unexpectedly stopped by the Riet, of the existence
of which he was unaware. Major Granville Smith's company, which was
one of those that first reached the river, was ordered to line part of
the left bank, to repel an expected attack in flank from burghers who
had been seen on the plain beyond the further bank. In this part of
its winding course the right of the Riet is higher than the left, so
that Major Granville Smith's field of view was very limited. He
therefore sought for a ford by which he could reach the dominant bank.
Finding traces of a disused drift, he waded alone over a narrow spit
of rock through water which reached to his chin, to the right side of
the river, where he was soon joined by Lt.-Colonel Codrington with two
other officers and 18 non-commissioned officers and men. After driving
away some Boers by musketry, the little party reconnoitred up and down
the stream in the vain hope of finding a more practicable ford, and
was then ordered by a staff officer to recross and return. During the
time employed in this unsuccessful quest the greater part of Colonel
Codrington's battalion had pushed down the river, some companies in
the bed, others along the bank. As they scrambled on, fording was
attempted at many points, but in every case the deep water, and the
almost equally deep mud at the bottom of the stream, proved
impassable. The leading company reached the angle of the bend where
the Riet breaks away to the westward, but there, shot down by
invisible Boers, some hidden along the right bank, others holding a
farm and garden on the left bank, they could get forward no further. A
patrol worked dow