Thus repulsed by day, the enemy succeeded in scaling the heights to the
left of the Boers at Slabberts Nek by an unguarded footpath during the
night. As soon as the crimson light of a July dawn had exposed the
frost-covered ridges, the dark overcoats on the left of the Boer
positions revealed the unwelcome fact that the enemy had gained their
object of the day before, and had outflanked the Boers.

Not only at Slabberts Nek, but also at Reliefs Nek the Boers were
outflanked the same night. At the latter pass a number of Highlanders
had occupied the rocky heights during the stillness of the night, so
that when the Boer pickets discovered them the next morning they found
the enemy commanding a position higher than their own, which they
forthwith abandoned. The enemy, now in possession of two mountain
passes, forced the Boers to evacuate all the other passes, by
threatening an attack on our rear and surrounding us. So on Tuesday
morning, at about 9 A.M., the commandos quitted the mountains and fell
back on Fouriesburg.

Our situation was becoming hourly more and more embarrassing. There was
just one thing to be done, and that was to move as quickly as possible
all along the base of the mountain range, and to seize a pass called
Naauwpoort Nek farther northwards. That pass was not yet occupied by the
enemy, and there it was possible to secure a safe exit; and higher up
the mountain range, at the farm of Salmon Raads, was another pass which
could be reached in due time.

If Prinsloo had, in his heart, desired to save his commandos, he could
have done so easily. But no sooner had we left the mountains than we
noticed that strange whispers were passed from man to man; we heard it
said that a further prolongation of the war was absolutely useless;