officers and 150 men. No doubt the gallant Watson was largely to
blame. But the facts seemed to show that the enemy were in some way
apprised of his intentions. Against such a chance as this, strategy
and generalship are helpless. Certainly French would be the last man
in the world to deny any responsibility, had he been to blame for
that one mishap in a memorable campaign.

One fact was now clear beyond dispute. The enemy's right had been
strongly reinforced and was too alert to allow of much hope of
successful action against it. Nothing daunted, French therefore
directed his energies to the left. A few days later (January 11) he
accomplished the _tour de force_ of the campaign. In the plain to the
west of Colesberg there arose an isolated kopje, some six hundred feet
in height, called Coles Kop. This hill, which rises almost sheer from
the plain, taxes the wind of the unencumbered climber to the utmost.
Being higher than the surrounding kopjes, it commands both Colesberg
and the enemy's laager. The Boers had left it ungarrisoned, thinking
it useless either to themselves or to the enemy. They made a very
great mistake. For the mere hint that a thing is impossible fires
French to attempt it.

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One day Schoeman woke up to find shrapnel assailing him apparently
from nowhere. It was coming from a 15-pounder which Major E.E.A.
Butcher, R.F.A., had coaxed up to the top of Coles Kop in three and a
half hours by dint of much scientific haulage and more sinew. The
Boers themselves never equalled this extraordinary feat.

To hoist the guns on to the hilltop was the least part of the