By nightfall the whole of General Lyttelton’s Brigade had occupied Vaal Krantz, and were entrenching themselves.  The losses in the day’s fighting were not severe, and though no detailed statement has yet been compiled, I do not think they exceeded one hundred and fifty.  Part of Sir Redvers Buller’s plan had been successfully executed.  The fact that the action had not been opened until 7 A.M. and had been conducted in a most leisurely manner left the programme only half completed.  It remained to pass Clery’s Division across the third bridge, to plant the batteries in their new position on Vaal Krantz, to set free the 1st Cavalry Brigade in the plain beyond, and to begin the main attack on Brakfontein.  It remained and it still remains.

During the night of the 5th Lyttelton’s Brigade made shelters and traverses of stones, and secured the possession of the hill; but it was now reported that field guns could not occupy the ridge because, first, it was too steep and rocky—­though this condition does not apparently prevent the Boers dragging their heaviest guns to the tops of the highest hills—­and, secondly, because the enemy’s long-range rifle fire was too heavy.  The hill, therefore, which had been successfully captured, proved of no value whatever.  Beyond it was a second position which was of great strength, and which if it was ever to be taken must be taken by the Infantry without Artillery support.  This was considered impossible or at any rate too costly and too dangerous to attempt.

During the next day the Boers continued to bombard the captured ridge, and also maintained a harassing long-range musketry fire.  A great gun firing a hundred-pound 6-in. shell came into action from the top of Doornkloof, throwing its huge projectiles on Vaal Krantz and about the bivouacs generally; one of them exploded within a few yards of Sir Redvers Buller.  Two Vickers-Maxims from either side of the Boer position fired at brief intervals, and other guns burst shrapnel effectively from very long range on the solitary brigade which held Vaal Krantz.  To this bombardment the Field Artillery and the naval guns—­seventy-two pieces in all, both big and little—­made a noisy but futile response.  The infantry of Lyttelton’s Brigade, however, endured patiently throughout the day, in spite of the galling cross-fire and severe losses.  At about four in the afternoon the Boers made a sudden attack on the hill, creeping to within short range, and then opened a quick fire.  The Vickers-Maxim guns supported this vigorously.  The pickets at the western end of the hill were driven back with loss, and for a few minutes it appeared that the hill would be retaken.  But General Lyttelton ordered half a battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, supported by the King’s Royal Rifles, to clear the hill, and these fine troops, led by Colonel Fitzgerald, rose up from their shelters and, giving three rousing cheers—­the thin, distant sound of which came back to the anxious, watching army—­swept the Boers back at the point of the bayonet.  Colonel Fitzgerald was, however, severely wounded.