was actually waiting with fixed bayonets for the whistle which was to be their signal, when the white flag flew out from the farm, and all was over.  Warned by many a tragic experience the British still lay low in spite of the flag.  ’Come out! come out!’ they shouted.  Eighty-two unwounded Boers filed out of the enclosure, and the total number of prisoners came to 114, while between twenty and thirty Boers were killed.  Six guns, a pom-pom, and 1000 head of cattle were the prizes of the victors.

This excellent little action showed that the British mounted infantry had reached a point of efficiency at which they were quite able to match the Boers at their own game.  For hours they held them with an inferior force, and finally, when the numbers became equal, were able to drive them off and capture their guns.  The credit is largely due to Major Lean for his prompt initiative on discovering their laager, and to Major Taylor for his handling of the force during a very critical time.  Above all, it was due to the dead leader, Le Gallais, who had infected every man under him with his own spirit of reckless daring.  ’If I die, tell my mother that I die happy, as we got the guns,’ said he, with his failing breath.  The British total losses were twelve killed (four officers) and thirty-three wounded (seven officers).  Major Welch, a soldier of great promise, much beloved by his men, was one of the slain.  Following closely after the repulse at Frederickstad this action was a heavy blow to De Wet.  At last, the British were beginning to take something off the score which they owed the bold raider, but there was to be many an item on either side before the long reckoning should be closed.  The Boers, with De Wet, fled south, where it was not long before they showed that they were still a military force with which we had to reckon.

In defiance of chronology it may perhaps make a clearer narrative if I continue at once with the movements of De Wet from the time that he lost his guns at Bothaville, and then come back to the consideration of the campaign in the Transvaal, and to a short account of those scattered and disconnected actions which break the continuity of the story.  Before following De Wet, however, it is necessary to say something of the general state of the Orange River Colony and of some military developments which had occurred there.  Under the wise and conciliatory rule of General Pretyman the farmers in the south and west were settling down, and for the time it looked as if a large district was finally pacified.  The mild taxation was cheerfully paid, schools were reopened, and a peace party made itself apparent, with Fraser and Piet de Wet, the brother of Christian, among its strongest advocates.