The next day was perforce spent in camp, resting the tired troops and
awaiting the arrival of supplies. The baggage was not on the scene
until late in the afternoon, much to the discomfort of French's men.
It was midnight before Lord Kitchener and his Staff were near the
camp. One of French's aides-de-camp, Captain J. Laycock, rode out in
solitary peril, and although continually sniped at by the Boers, was
able to lead Lord Kitchener and his Staff safely into camp. All day
the Boers had been making the men's lives a burden through unexpected
sniping and feints. French is said to have admitted that had any of
their attacks been driven home, his plans might have been seriously
disconcerted. "Could the Boers learn to attack they would be a most
formidable foe," was his verdict on the situation.

[Page Heading: THE ROAD BLOCKED]

At 9.30 on February 15 the column set out on the last stage of their
journey. French, with the idea of putting the enemy off the track, led
his men towards Bloemfontein. His idea was eventually to dash straight
for Kimberley with his whole division, hemming the enemy's rear and
flank in at Magersfontein, where Methuen's force could hold him in
front. Scarcely had the advance begun, however, when a murderous fire
broke out from the river on the south-west, followed almost
instantaneously by a cross fire from a line of kopjes on the
north-west. The road to Bloemfontein was blocked; and the road to
Kimberley was exposed to a cross fire from the enemy's two positions.
This was checkmate with a vengeance. It was thought that some two
thousand Boers held the kopjes ahead of French. At once he ordered the
guns into position and boldly replied to the enemy's fire. The column
was now nearing a plain several miles in width, guarded on one side by
a ridge running from north to south, and on the other by a hill. The