fall back almost at right angles so as to present a fresh face to the attack.  The pivot of the resistance was a maxim gun, most gallantly handled by Captain Begbie and his men.  The fight at this point was almost muzzle to muzzle, fifty or sixty New Zealanders and Australians with the British gunners holding off a force of several hundred of the best fighting men of the Boer forces.  In this desperate duel many dropped on both sides.  Begbie died beside his gun, which fired eighty rounds before it jammed.  It was run back by its crew in order to save it from capture.  But reinforcements were coming up, and the Boer attack was beaten back.  A number of them had escaped, however, through the opening which they had cleared, and it was conjectured that the wonderful De Wet was among them.  How fierce was the storm which had broken on the New Zealanders may be shown by their roll of twenty killed and forty wounded, while thirty dead Boers were picked up in front of their picket line.  Of eight New Zealand officers seven are reported to have been hit, an even higher proportion than that which the same gallant race endured at the battle of Rhenoster Kop more than a year before.

It was feared at first that the greater part of the Boers might have escaped upon this night of the 23rd, when Manie Botha’s storming party burst through the ranks of the New Zealanders.  It was soon discovered that this was not so, and the columns as they closed in had evidence from the numerous horsemen who scampered aimlessly over the hills in front of them that the main body of the enemy was still in the toils.  The advance was in tempestuous weather and over rugged country, but the men were filled with eagerness, and no precaution was neglected to keep the line intact.

This time their efforts were crowned with considerable success.  A second attempt was made by the corraled burghers to break out on the night of February 26th, but it was easily repulsed by Nixon.  The task of the troopers as the cordon drew south was more and more difficult, and there were places traversed upon the Natal border where an alpen stock would have been a more useful adjunct than a horse.  At six o’clock on the morning of the 27th came the end.  Two Boers appeared in front of the advancing line of the Imperial Light Horse and held up a flag.  They proved to be Truter and De Jager, ready to make terms for their commando.  The only terms offered were absolute surrender within the hour.  The Boers had been swept into a very confined space, which was closely hemmed in by troops, so that any resistance must have ended in a tragedy.  Fortunately there was no reason for desperate councils in their case, since they did not fight as Lotter had done, with the shadow of judgment hanging over him.  The burghers piled arms, and all was over.