On Wednesday, the 21st, the British, being now sure of their grip of Cronje, turned upon the Boer force which had occupied the hill to the south-east of the drift.  It was clear that this force, unless driven away, would be the vanguard of the relieving army which might be expected to assemble from Ladysmith, Bloemfontein, Colesberg, or wherever else the Boers could detach men.  Already it was known that reinforcements who had left Natal whenever they heard that the Free State was invaded were drawing near.  It was necessary to crush the force upon the hill before it became too powerful.  For this purpose the cavalry set forth, Broadwood with the 10th Hussars, 12th Lancers, and two batteries going round on one side, while French with the 9th and 16th Lancers, the Household Cavalry, and two other batteries skirted the other.  A force of Boers was met and defeated, while the defenders of the hill were driven off with considerable loss.  In this well-managed affair the enemy lost at least a hundred, of whom fifty were prisoners.  On Friday, February 23rd, another attempt at rescue was made from the south, but again it ended disastrously for the Boers.  A party attacked a kopje held by the Yorkshire regiment and were blown back by a volley, upon which they made for a second kopje, where the Buffs gave them an even rougher reception.  Eighty prisoners were marched in.  Meantime hardly a night passed that some of the Boers did not escape from their laager and give themselves up to our pickets.  At the end of the week we had taken six hundred in all.

In the meantime the cordon was being drawn ever tighter, and the fire became heavier and more deadly, while the conditions of life in that fearful place were such that the stench alone might have compelled surrender.  Amid the crash of tropical thunderstorms, the glare of lightning, and the furious thrashing of rain there was no relaxation of British vigilance.  A balloon floating overhead directed the fire, which from day to day became more furious, culminating on the 26th with the arrival of four 5-inch howitzers.  But still there came no sign from the fierce Boer and his gallant followers.  Buried deep within burrows in the river bank the greater part of them lay safe from the shells, but the rattle of their musketry when the outposts moved showed that the trenches were as alert as ever.  The thing could only have one end, however, and Lord Roberts, with admirable judgment and patience, refused to hurry it at the expense of the lives of his soldiers.

The two brigades at either end of the Boer lines had lost no chance of pushing in, and now they had come within striking distance.  On the night of February 26th it was determined that Smith-Dorrien’s men should try their luck.  The front trenches of the British were at that time seven hundred yards from the Boer lines.  They were held by the Gordons and by the Canadians, the latter being the nearer to the river.  It is worth while entering into