boys and old
men are called upon to fight. At present every man in the Republic from
sixteen to sixty years of age is at the front. The authorities intend as
their losses increase to call out children from twelve to sixteen, and
every old man from sixty onwards who can still see to sight a rifle.
Last and most terrible thought of all, it is an undoubted fact that
wives and daughters are everywhere throughout the Republic engaged in
rifle practice! May God preserve us from having to fight against women!
At present entire families are fighting together. I know one Dutch lady
who has no less than six brothers amongst the burghers who have been
fighting round Ladysmith, and another who has already lost four sons in
the war. In one of our engagements a Boer boy of seventeen was struck
down by a bullet; the father, a man of sixty, left his cover and went
to the succour of his son, when he himself was shot, and the two lay
dead, one beside the other.

A little to the north of the kopjes which formed the scene of the
Graspan engagement lies the station of Enslin. Here one of the pluckiest
fights of the campaign took place. Two companies of the Northamptons
occupied a small house and orchard beside the line. They had thrown up a
hurried earthwork and placed rails along the top of the parapet. In this
position they were suddenly attacked by a force of apparently 500
Boers--so it was supposed--with one or two field guns. The small
garrison lined their diminutive trenches and succeeded in keeping the
enemy off for several hours; but had not some artillery reinforcements
come up the line most opportunely to their assistance it might have
fared badly with the plucky Northamptons. As it was, the Boers finally
withdrew with some loss. On December 10th we were delayed for some time
at Enslin by an accident and I had a careful look at the position held
by our men in this minor engagement. There was scarcely a twig or leaf
in the orchard which was not torn by shrapnel and Mauser bullets. The
walls of the house were chipped and pierced in every direction, and one
corner of the earthwork had been carried off by a shell. Yet in the two
companies there were only eight casualties! An almost parallel case was
furnished by Rostall's orchard at Modder River, which was held by the
Boers, and swept for hours by so fearful a fire of shrapnel that the
peach-trees were cut down in every direction and scarcely a square foot
behind the trenches unmarked