h his staff, in all some twenty men. I, however, could
muster seventy, and we decided to cut off the retreat of the enemy. But
they had, in the meantime, been riding on so fast that we did not reach
them until it had grown quite light. An engagement, short and fierce as
the last, ensued, but as the enemy was from six to seven times as strong
as we were, and had a gun and a Maxim-Nordenfeldt with them, we could
not stand against them, and had to let them go on their road.

We were fortunate in suffering no loss there, and while the English
marched on to Bethlehem we rode off in the opposite direction.

We had now a short period of repose. The English were so busy building
blockhouses that they had no time to fight us. Our poor horses were in a
miserable condition, for so little rain had fallen that the grass was
very dry and sapless. But at least we could now give them the rest which
they sorely needed.

CHAPTER XXXII

My Commando of Seven Hundred Men

Towards the end of September Commandant F.E. Mentz had an engagement
with Colonel Byng's column near Heilbron. A portion of this officer's
force had held a ridge where there were some Kaffir kraals for cover;
and Commandant Mentz had with fifty burghers stormed this ridge,
shooting down from thirty to forty of the enemy, and taking twenty-five
prisoners. We lost two killed and three wounded. The Frankfort burghers
under Commandant Ross had also not been idle, for they had attacked a
division of Colonel Rimington's troops with the result that sixteen
killed and wounded fell into their hands--among these were seven of the
National Scouts.

Thus fighting was taking place all over the country. I do not give any
report of the various engagements, as I was not present at them, and, as
I have already said, I only wish to record my own experiences. But it
will be easily seen, even from the scanty information I can give of
these skirmishes, that our small commandos had a splendid record of
success.

It is my intention to ask all my Vice-Commanders-in-Chief to narrate
their experiences. And when the whole story is told I am convinced that
the world will be astonished at what we were able to accomplish.

But however well these small commandos had fought, I myself believed
that the time had now come to make a great stroke. With this object in
view I gave orders that a number of the burghers should come to
Blijdschap, in the district of Bethlehem, under the command of