w
flung themselves at the remnant of the foe. Suddenly a white flag was
seen to flutter defeat from a kopje beyond the laager. On the instant
the soldiers paused at the surprising notes of the "Cease fire,"
followed by the "Retire." For a moment they wavered between discipline
and dismay. At that instant from a small kopje east of the nek came a
violent burst of firing as some fifty of the enemy made a last effort
to regain their position.

There was a momentary panic in the British lines. But a little bugler
shouted "Retire be damned," and sounded the "Advance." Gradually the
infantry recovered, and the Gordons and Devons, rushing on the enemy,
took a fearful revenge for the dastardly trick.

French had scored his first victory within a day of his arrival. What
wonder if men called him "French the lucky?" From now onwards that
tradition was to cling to his name. But a great deal more than luck
went to the winning of Elandslaagte. Had French not advanced his men
throughout in open formation, the day might never have been his. It
has been said that he was our only general to master the Boer methods.
He was certainly the first and the most able imitator of those
methods. But he was prepared to meet them before he ever stepped on
South African soil. For his whole theory of cavalry tactics is based
on the realisation that massive formations are now hopelessly out of
date.

[Page Heading: LUCK OR BRAINS]

One of the newspaper correspondents[8] happened to run across French
twice during the battle. He tells how at the end of the engagement he
met the General, who had come along the ridge in the fighting line of
the Manchesters and Gordons, and offered him his congratulations on
the day. He adds: "Last time I had met him was when the artillery on
both sides were hard at it; he appeared then more like a man playing a
game of chess than a game of war, and was not too busy to sympathise
with me on the badness of the light when he saw me trying to take
snap-shots of the Boer shells bursting amid the Imperial Light Horse
near us."

French's luck lay in his ability to see his opportunities and grasp
them. But the soldier will never be convinced on that point, even if
French himself attempt his conversion. For him the British leader has
remained "The luckiest man in the army" ever since Elandslaagte. Yet
in a letter to Lady French after the engagement he had written, "I
never thought I would come out alive."

As frequently h