With Steyn and De Wet | Page 3

foot to
reconnoitre. After a while they returned with the startling news that the
enemy was approaching in force. They were sent forward again to
make sure, and again returned, saying there could be no doubt about the
matter.
"We heard the rumble of an approaching train, the march of cavalry,
and saw the glint of arms between the trees!"
This was definite enough. A man was instantly despatched to alarm the
main laager, while the rest of us followed leisurely. We were about
half-way back when the messenger returned with an additional
twenty-five men and an order that we were instantly to return to our
post; if in possession of the enemy, to retake and hold it until relieved.
A very tall order, and more than one man uttered the belief that
discretion was the better part of valour, and that there was no humour
in attacking numberless Britons with fifty men. We braced up our
nerves, however, retraced our steps, and presently reached the vicinity
of the kraal. Two men crept up close and came back to say the place
was full of English. Leaving the horses in charge of a few men, we
crept forward and surrounded the kraal. Each sought a suitable shelter
and laid himself down to await the dawn. It was now about midnight.
The next four hours passed very slowly, lying there in the cold and with
the expectation of a desperate struggle in the morning. We thought how
brave we were, and how sorry our general would be when he heard
how we had all been shot down to a man, and how in after years this
night attack of ours would rank with the charge of the Light Brigade.
We hoped Chamberlain would die soon after us, so that we could meet
his soul in the great Beyond and drag it through a sieve.
What was our surprise to find when it grew light that there had never
been an Englishman near! The whole thing from beginning to end was

only another false alarm, and all our valour had been wasted.
This kind of alarm was rather frequent at the time. A burgher woke up
one night to find himself being roughly shaken and someone shouting
in his ear--
"What are you doing? Get up, quick! Don't you hear the alarm?"
"Yes, another false one, I daresay," turning over for another nap.
Happening to open his eyes, he became aware for the first time that he
was speaking to no one less than General Joubert himself!
The poor fellow did not argue the point any further, but forthwith fled
into the night, glad to get off at that price.
One morning two of us were returning from our usual swim when
suddenly we saw the whole camp a beehive of commotion, burghers
running to and fro, saddling their horses, shouting at each other, and
generally behaving with a great lack of decorum--like madmen, in fact,
or members of the Stock Exchange. Hastening on, we heard that the
enemy were coming out to attack us. We hastily seized our nags, and in
five minutes were on top of the nearest hill between ourselves and the
enemy, who could be seen approaching three thousand yards away. We
formed ourselves into groups, and each group packed itself a low wall
of the loose stones lying about.
One German, armed with a Martini-Henry, found himself shunned by
all his comrades on account of his cartridges not containing smokeless
powder, and was obliged to entrench himself on his own at some
distance from the rest. The poor fellow was the butt of all the primitive
humourists from the backwoods, and was assured with much solemnity
that his rifle would draw all the British fire in his direction, and that he
was as good as dead already. Thorny is the path of glory!
The British guns in Ladysmith opened fire as their cavalry advanced,
the shells falling a few hundred yards to our right, on a hill whence our
cannon had lately been removed.
When within two thousand yards the enemy suddenly wheeled to the
left and were quickly out of sight between the hills. They found the
Pretoria men there, and came back helter-skelter to the accompaniment
of rapid rifle firing. First one saddle and then another was emptied as
they raced across from right to left, making for a low scrub-covered
kopje.
In this kopje a party of our men were concealed. With keen interest we

watched the scene, waiting to see the enemy caught in the trap. Then a
volley burst from the brush. Like a flash the horsemen wheeled and
raced back into Ladysmith. The volley had been fired too soon.
A few mornings later we heard that during the night something very
serious had