J battery were brought out into the open and shelled the portion of the kopje which was held by the Boers.  The latter were reinforced, but could make no advance against the accurate rifle fire with which they were met.  The Bisley champion of the battalion, with a bullet through his thigh, expended a hundred rounds before sinking from loss of blood.  It was an excellent defence, and a pleasing exception to those too frequent cases where an isolated force has lost heart in face of a numerous and persistent foe.  With the coming of darkness the Boers withdrew with a loss of over two hundred killed and wounded.  Orders had come from Clements that the whole right wing should be drawn in, and in obedience to them the remains of the victorious companies were called in by Hacket Pain, who moved his force by night in the direction of Rensburg.  The British loss in the action was twenty-eight killed and nearly a hundred wounded or missing, most of which was incurred when the sangars were rushed in the early morning.

While this action was fought upon the extreme right of the British position another as severe had occurred with much the same result upon the extreme left, where the 2nd Wiltshire Regiment was stationed.  Some companies of this regiment were isolated upon a kopje and surrounded by the Boer riflemen when the pressure upon them was relieved by a desperate attack by about a hundred of the Victorian Rifles.  The gallant Australians lost Major Eddy and six officers out of seven, with a large proportion of their men, but they proved once for all that amid all the scattered nations who came from the same home there is not one with a more fiery courage and a higher sense of martial duty than the men from the great island continent.  It is the misfortune of the historian when dealing with these contingents that, as a rule, by their very nature they were employed in detached parties in fulfilling the duties which fall to the lot of scouts and light cavalry—­duties which fill the casualty lists but not the pages of the chronicler.  Be it said, however, once for all that throughout the whole African army there was nothing but the utmost admiration for the dash and spirit of the hard-riding, straight-shooting sons of Australia and New Zealand.  In a host which held many brave men there were none braver than they.

It was evident from this time onwards that the turning movement had failed, and that the enemy had developed such strength that we were ourselves in imminent danger of being turned.  The situation was a most serious one:  for if Clements’s force could be brushed aside there would be nothing to keep the enemy from cutting the communications of the army which Roberts had assembled for his march into the Free State.  Clements drew in his wings hurriedly and concentrated his whole force at Rensburg.  It was a difficult operation in the face of an aggressive enemy, but the movements were well timed and admirably carried out.  There is always the possibility of a retreat degenerating