hands of the enemy.

With four of my adjutants and Piet Fourie, I succeeded in driving away
quite one thousand five hundred head of cattle. The bombs fell heavily
on them also, but I got them safely away. Late that evening we arrived
at the spot where we had left President Steyn, only to find that he had
gone away. He had been obliged to retreat before the force which the
previous evening had been at Duminy Drift, and which had passed near him
during the day. The President had accordingly gone some twelve miles in
the direction of Lindley.

It was one of the coldest nights we had that winter, and our pack-horses
which were carrying the blankets were with the President. It was
impossible for us to sleep without any covering on such a night as that,
and so we were obliged to march on. We had moreover to look for
something to eat, for we had had nothing since breakfast. Our horses had
never had their saddles off from the time we went out to fight until we
arrived about midnight at the President's camp.

[Footnote 96: Stripping.]

[Footnote 97: The previous evening we had received a report of two
English camps on the Wilge River: One at Duminy Drift, the other at
Steildrift--under General Elliott. They were led by Piet de Wet and
other National Scouts.]




CHAPTER XXIX