experimental shooting. The
second and third shots appeared to be effective; at any rate, as far
as we could judge, they seemed to disturb the equanimity of the
advancing troops. I saw an ammunition cart deprived of its team and
generally smashed.

The British guns appeared to be of very small calibre indeed.
Certainly they failed to reach us, and all the harm they did was to
send a shell through a Boer ambulance within the range of fire. This
shot was, I afterwards ascertained, purely accidental. When the
British found that we too, strange to say, had guns, and, what is
more, knew how to use them, they retired towards Ladysmith. But this
was merely a ruse; they had gone back to fetch more. Still, though it
was a ruse, we were cleverly deceived by it, and while we were
off-saddling and preparing the mid-day meal they were arranging a new
and more formidable attack. From the Modderspruit siding they were
pouring troops brought down by rail, and although we had a splendid
chance of shelling the newcomers from the high kopje we occupied,
General Kock, who was in supreme command of our corps, for some reason
which has never been explained, refused to permit us to fire upon
them. I went to General Kock and pleaded with him, but he was adamant.
This was a bitter disappointment to me, but I consoled myself with the
thought that the General was much older than myself, and had been
fighting since he was a baby. I therefore presumed he knew better.
Possibly if we younger commanders had had more authority in the
earlier stages of the war, and had had less to deal with arrogant and
stupid old men, we should have reached Durban and Cape Town.

I must here again confess that none of my men displayed any of the
martial determination with which they had so buoyantly proceeded from
Johannesburg. To put it bluntly, some of them were "footing" it and
the English cavalry, taking advantage of this, were rapidly
outflanking them. The British tactics were plain enough. General
French had placed his infantry in the centre with three field
batteries (fifteen pounders), while his cavalry, with Maxims,
encompassed our right and left. He was forming a crescent, with the
obvious purpose of turning our position with his right and left wing.
When charging at the close of the attack the cavalry, which consisted
mainly of lancers, were on both our flanks, and completely prevented
our retreat. It was not easy to estimate the number of our assailant's