By daybreak all were moving, and as the Irregular Cavalry forded the Blue Krantz stream on their enveloping march we heard the boom of the first gun.  The usual leisurely bombardment had begun, and I counted only thirty shells in the first ten minutes, which was not very hard work for the gunners considering that nearly seventy guns were in action.  But the Artillery never hurry themselves, and indeed I do not remember to have heard in this war a really good cannonade, such as we had at Omdurman, except for a few minutes at Vaal Krantz.

The Cavalry Brigade marched ten miles eastward through most broken and difficult country, all rock, high grass, and dense thickets, which made it imperative to move in single file, and the sound of the general action grew fainter and fainter.  Gradually, however, we began to turn again towards it.  The slope of the ground rose against us.  The scrub became more dense.  To ride further was impossible.  We dismounted and led our horses, who scrambled and blundered painfully among the trees and boulders.  So scattered was our formation that I did not care to imagine what would have happened had the enemy put in an appearance.  But our safety lay in these same natural difficulties.  The Boers doubtless reflected, ’No one will ever try to go through such ground as that’—­besides which war cannot be made without running risks.  The soldier must chance his life.

The general must not be afraid to brave disaster.  But how tolerant the arm-chair critics should be of men who try daring coups and fail!  You must put your head into the lion’s mouth if the performance is to be a success.  And then I remembered the attacks on the brave and capable General Gatacre after Stormberg, and wondered what would be said of us if we were caught ‘dismounted and scattered in a wood.’

At length we reached the foot of the hill and halted to reconnoitre the slopes as far as was possible.  After half an hour, since nothing could be seen, the advance was resumed up the side of a precipice and through a jungle so thick that we had to cut our road.  It was eleven o’clock before we reached the summit of the ridge and emerged on to a more or less open plateau, diversified with patches of wood and heaps of great boulders.  Two squadrons had re-formed on the top and had deployed to cover the others.  The troopers of the remaining seven squadrons were working their way up about four to the minute.  It would take at least two hours before the command was complete:  and meanwhile!  Suddenly there was a rifle shot.  Then another, then a regular splutter of musketry.  Bullets began to whizz overhead.  The Boers had discovered us.

Now came the crisis.  There might be a hundred Boers on the hill, in which case all was well.  On the other hand there might be a thousand, in which case——! and retreat down the precipice was, of course, quite out of the question.  Luckily there were only about a hundred, and after a skirmish, in which one of the Natal Carabineers was unhappily killed, they fell back and we completed our deployment on the top of the hill.