The Boers admitted afterwards that they thought that the squadrons visible on the other hills two miles back were the head of our column, and they also blamed their scouts, particularly one, an Austrian.  ’It all comes of trusting these cursed foreigners!  If we had only had a veldt Boer out we should never have been caught.’  Caught, however, they undoubtedly were.  The Carabineers and the Imperial Light Horse held their fire until the scouts walked into their midst, and then let drive at the main body, 300 yards range, mounted men, smooth open grass plain.  There was a sudden furious, snapping fusillade The Boer column stopped paralysed; then they broke and rushed for cover.  The greater number galloped fast from the field; some remained on the ground dead or wounded.  Others took refuge among the rocks of the kopjes and apparently proposed to hold out until dark, and hence the arrival of Lieutenant Barnes demanding reinforcements, 60th Rifles, Mounted Infantry, and anything else, so as to attack these fellows in flank and ‘bag the lot.’  Meanwhile Lord Dundonald had arrived on our hill.  ’Certainly, every man we can spare.’  Off gallops the Mounted Infantry and one squadron of the South African Light Horse, and later on some of Thorneycroft’s, and later still the Brigadier himself.  I arrived in time to see the end.  The Boers—­how many we could not tell—­were tenaciously holding the black rocks of a kopje and were quite invisible.  The British riflemen curved round them in a half-moon, firing continually at the rocks.  The squadron of South African Light Horse had worked almost behind the enemy, and every Dutchman who dared make a dash for liberty ran a terrible gauntlet.  Still the surrender did not come.  The white flag flickered for a moment above the rocks, but neither side stopped firing.  Evidently a difference of opinion among the enemy.  What do we care for that?  Night is coming on.  Let us rush them with the bayonet and settle the matter.  This from the Rifles—­nobody else had bayonets.  So a section pushes forward against the rocks, crawling along the ground.  Anxious to see the surrender, I followed on my pony, but on the instant there broke out a savage fire from the kopje, and with difficulty I found shelter in a donga.  Here were two of the Natal Carabineers—­one a bearded man of the well-to-do farmer class, the other a young fair-haired gentleman—­both privates, both as cool as ice.  ‘Vewy astonishing outburst of fire,’ said the younger man in a delicate voice.  ’I would recommend your remaining here with your horse for the present.’  Accordingly we lay still on the grass slope and awaited developments.  The young gentleman put his helmet over the crest on the end of his rifle, and was much diverted to hear the bullets whistle round it.  At intervals he substituted his head for the helmet and reported the state of the game.  ’Bai Jove, the Rifles are in a hot place.’  I peered cautiously.  A hundred yards away the Mounted Infantry section