dley,
and having been joined by the troops stationed there, had proceeded in
the direction of Bethlehem; consequently a very large British force was
marching on that town.

We on our part now numbered over five thousand men, for General Roux had
joined us with some[57] of his burghers.

The English were unopposed until they reached Elandsfontein, but there a
battle took place in which big guns played the main role, although there
was also some heavy fighting with small arms.

In this engagement Commandant Michal Prinsloo did a brave deed. I
arrived at his position just after the burghers had succeeded in
shooting down the men who served three of the enemy's guns. With a
hundred men he now stormed the guns, hoping to be able to bring them
back with him to our lines. Whilst he charged, I cannonaded the enemy,
with a Krupp and fifteen pound Armstrong, to such good effect that they
were forced to retreat behind a ridge. In this way Commandant Prinsloo
reached the guns safely, but he had no horses with him to drag them back
to us. He could do nothing but make the attempt to get them away by the
help of his burghers, and this he tried to accomplish under a fierce
fire from the English. But he would still have succeeded in the
endeavour, had not unfortunately a large force of the enemy appeared on
the scene, and attacked him and his hundred burghers. I was unable to
keep the English back, for both my guns had been disabled. The nipple of
the Armstrong had been blown away, and--for the first time--the lock of
the Krupp had become jammed. Had it not been for this mishap, Commandant
Prinsloo would certainly have been able to remove the guns to the other
side of a ridge, whither teams of our horses were already approaching.
But, as it was, he had to hurry away as fast as possible, and leave the
guns behind.

When the enemy arrived they had outflanked us so far to the north, that
we had nothing open to us but again to abandon our positions. We
therefore retired to Blauwkop, and on the following day to Bethlehem.

In the meantime I had once more become encumbered with a large waggon
camp, which proved a source of great danger. During the last few weeks
waggons had been accumulating round me without attracting my attention.
The reason that the burghers were so anxious to bring their waggons with
them, was to be found in the fact that the English, whenever they
arrived at one of our farms, always took the waggons and oxen. The Bo