The Boers are great masters in the ambuscade.  Never has any race shown such aptitude for this form of warfare—­a legacy from a long succession of contests with cunning savages.  But never also have they done anything so clever and so audacious as De Wet’s dispositions in this action.  One cannot go over the ground without being amazed at the ingenuity of their attack, and also at the luck which favoured them, for the trap which they had laid for others might easily have proved an absolutely fatal one for themselves.

The position beside the Modder at which the British camped had numerous broken hills to the north and east of it.  A force of Boers, supposed to number about two thousand men, came down in the night, bringing with them several heavy guns, and with the early morning opened a brisk fire upon the camp.  The surprise was complete.  But the refinement of the Boer tactics lay in the fact that they had a surprise within a surprise—­and it was the second which was the more deadly.

The force which Broadwood had with him consisted of the 10th Hussars and the composite regiment, Rimington’s Scouts, Roberts’s Horse, the New Zealand and Burmah Mounted Infantry, with Q and U batteries of Horse Artillery.  With such a force, consisting entirely of mounted men, he could not storm the hills upon which the Boer guns were placed, and his twelve-pounders were unable to reach the heavier cannon of the enemy.  His best game was obviously to continue his march to Bloemfontein.  He sent on the considerable convoy of wagons and the guns, while he with the cavalry covered the rear, upon which the long-range pieces of the enemy kept up the usual well-directed but harmless fire.

Broadwood’s retreating column now found itself on a huge plain which stretches all the way to Bloemfontein, broken only by two hills, both of which were known to be in our possession.  The plain was one which was continually traversed from end to end by our troops and convoys, so that once out upon its surface all danger seemed at an end.  Broadwood had additional reasons for feeling secure, for he knew that, in answer to his own wise request, Colvile’s Division had been sent out before daybreak that morning from Bloemfontein to meet him.  In a very few miles their vanguard and his must come together.  There were obviously no Boers upon the plain, but if there were they would find themselves between two fires.  He gave no thought to his front therefore, but rode behind, where the Boer guns were roaring, and whence the Boer riflemen might ride.

But in spite of the obvious there were Boers upon the plain, so placed that they must either bring off a remarkable surprise or be themselves cut off to a man.  Across the veld, some miles from the waterworks, there runs a deep donga or watercourse—­one of many, but the largest.  It cuts the rough road at right angles.  Its depth and breadth are such that a wagon would dip down the incline, and disappear