following them from spot to spot through the Free State, in the conquered
territory along the Basuto border. At Constantia Farm they gave us a
gunnery duel, which, though incessant and continuous, did little real
damage to either side. After that, when General French joined issue with
us, the Boers shifted their ground with consummate skill. We moved on to
Dewetsdorp, and there the Third Division, under Chermside, parted company
with us. We moved onward to Thaba Nchu, Brabant keeping well away towards
the Basuto border with his flying column. At Thaba Nchu it looked day by
day as if we were in for something hot and hard, the Boers having, as
usual, taken up a position of vast natural strength. But Hamilton was the
only one to get to close quarters with the veldt warriors, when executing a
flanking movement. I have since learned that the enemy suffered very
severely on that occasion.

They can give some of the British journalists a wholesome lesson in regard
to manliness of spirit, these same rough fellows, bred in the African
wilds. Speaking to me of the charge the Gordons made, when led by Captain
Towse, they were unstinted in their praises. "It was grand, it was
terrible," they said, "to see that little handful of men rush on fearless
of death, fearless of everything." It was bravery of the highest kind, and
they admired it, as only brave men do admire courage in a foeman. The
people of Britain who read extracts taken from Boer newspapers, extracts
which ridicule British pluck and all things British, must not blame the
Boers for those statements. In nearly every case the papers published
inside Burgher territory are edited by renegade Britons, and it is these
renegades, not the fighting Boers, who defame our nation, and take every
possible opportunity of hitting below the belt.

When we left Thaba Nchu, General French left us, as did also Hamilton and
Smith-Dorien. Brabant hugged the Basuto border, and swept the land clean of