and therefore our men were drawn
back from the river preparatory to a general retirement. Pieters'
Heights were held till everything was ready, and then the retirement was
effected without even an attempt at pursuit by the enemy.

When the Pieters' Heights fighting began I was ordered thither. Going
through the Klip River, our heavily laden waggon stuck fast. We quickly
obtained the loan of another span of mules and hitched them on in
front, but the double team only succeeded in breaking the trek-chain.
There was nothing for it but to outspan and carry the heavy loads up the
steep bank. At this we toiled till midnight. Too tired to catch the
mules and haul the waggon out, we went to sleep, leaving that operation
for the morning.

Before we woke, however, another waggon came along. Finding the road
blocked by ours, the driver roared at us to clear the way immediately.
We were not going to rise so early just to please him, so we answered
him that if he was in a hurry he could pull the waggon out himself. This
he was obliged to do, in order to get past. We then thanked him, and
gently told him that if he had addressed us in a decent manner in the
beginning he would have spared himself all his trouble. We meekly added
the hope that this little lesson would not be lost upon his wayward
mind. His remarks cannot be reproduced here, but it was plain that he
felt very much as little States do sometimes when taken in hand by one
of the great Powers and subjected to a little kind cruelty.

After reloading the waggon we went on, and reached Pieters in due
course. The first thing that drew my attention was the sight of one of
my young colleagues standing under the verandah of the telegraph
office, his face a picture of grief. His father had been killed that
morning.

Going a few miles further, I took charge of the telegraph office in
Lukas Meyer's laager. Meyer, a grand-looking man, formerly possessed
much influence, being at one time President of the New Republic, a State
founded by himself in a tract of country granted him and his followers
by a Kafir chief for assistance rendered during an intertribal war. This
small republic, soon incorporated with the Transvaal, was thenceforth
represented in the First Volksraad by its former president, Louis Botha
becoming its member for the Second Chamber. At the battle of Dundee
Botha distinguished himself. Meyer did not. Then the former gained fresh
laurels at Colenso, and this finally