the scene of action, and joined hands with Wilson.  De Wet’s men were as numerous, however, as the two columns combined, and they harassed the return march into Heilbron.  A determined attack was made on the convoy and on the rearguard, but it was beaten off.  That night Rimington’s camp was fired into by a large body of Boers, but he had cleverly moved his men away from the fires, so that no harm was done.  The losses in these operations were small, but with troops which had not been trained in this method of fighting the situation would have been a serious one.  For a fortnight or more after this the burghers contented themselves by skirmishing with British columns and avoiding a drive which Elliot’s forces made against them.  On December 18th they took the offensive, however, and within a week fought three actions, two of which ended in their favour.

News had come to British headquarters that Kaffir’s Kop, to the north-west of Bethlehem, was a centre of Boer activity.  Three columns were therefore turned in that direction, Elliot’s, Barker’s, and Dartnell’s.  Some desultory skirmishing ensued, which was only remarkable for the death of Haasbroek, a well-known Boer leader.  As the columns separated again, unable to find an objective, De Wet suddenly showed one of them that their failure was not due to his absence.  Dartnell had retraced his steps nearly as far as Eland’s River Bridge, when the Boer leader sprang out of his lair in the Langberg and threw himself upon him.  The burghers attempted to ride in, as they had successfully done at Brakenlaagte, but they were opposed by the steady old troopers of the two regiments of Imperial Horse, and by a General who was familiar with every Boer ruse.  The horsemen never got nearer than 150 yards to the British line, and were beaten back by the steady fire which met them.  Finding that he made no headway, and learning that Campbell’s column was coming up from Bethlehem, De Wet withdrew his men after four hours’ fighting.  Fifteen were hit upon the British side, and the Boer loss seems to have been certainly as great or greater.

De Wet’s general aim in his operations seems to have been to check the British blockhouse building.  With his main force in the Langberg he could threaten the line which was now being erected between Bethlehem and Harrismith, a line against which his main commando was destined, only two months later, to beat itself in vain.  Sixty miles to the north a second line was being run across country from Frankfort to Standerton, and had reached a place called Tafelkop.  A covering party of East Lancashires and Yeomanry watched over the workers, but De Wet had left a portion of his force in that neighbourhood, and they harassed the blockhouse builders to such an extent that General Hamilton, who was in command, found it necessary to send in to Frankfort for support.  The British columns there had just returned exhausted from a drive, but three bodies under Damant, Rimington, and Wilson were at once despatched to clear away the enemy.