ed back from the north side, and also the 9th
Division. Before daybreak both these had halted on the south side, at
Paardeberg.

When Cronje camped on the afternoon of the 17th, the only chance left
him was to cross at once to Wolveskraal, abandoning his guns and
wagons. On the morning of the 18th no chance was left, except by
outside help, which could come only from the eastward, probably only
from Joubert before Ladysmith. Realising this, and to gain time for
{p.281} such assistance to arrive, he took up a defensive position
based upon the bed of the Modder.

In broad outline his dispositions were as follows. The bed of the
river, which lies nearly east and west, is from fifty to one hundred
yards wide and about thirty deep, in soil that lends itself easily to
the spade. On both sides, for a mile above and below Wolveskraal
Drift, the edges of the banks were trenched, and at either end of
these trenches traverses, thrown forward at right angles, served to
strengthen against enfilading attack. North of the river, some cannon
were placed in advanced works, three-quarters of a mile from the rifle
pits, between which and the river, in the open, was the "laager" of
ammunition and other wagons. The river trenches described constituted
the nucleus and backbone of the Boer defences, but in his first
dispositions Cronje occupied the bed of the stream down to Paardeberg,
seeking thus to push back as far as possible from his intended
crossing the force which he supposed had yet to come up from that
quarter. The Boers that surrendered numbered {p.282} 4,100 men. It
may be supposed, therefore, that there were from 4,500 to 5,000
present at the first.

South of the river is grassy plain, at its widest 3,000 yards,
shelving gently to the bank. Beyond it there is a rise of fifty feet
in the ground. Behind this plain, on the morning of Sunday, February
18, the British had in position the 6th Division and of the 9th the
19th Brigade, besides three regiments of Highlanders. The mounted
infantry, that had been pursuing the day before on the north bank, now
occupied the river-bed west of Cronje's lines. The artillery present
was three batteries--two field and one howitzer--with a single naval
gun. On the north bank at daybreak was French's cavalry brigade, which
was slightly reinforced during the day, and his horse artillery.

Soon after daybreak fighting began, the Boers opening fire at the west
end of their line upon the mounted in