Early the following morning we again occupied the positions we had held
on the previous evening. Although under a severe rifle fire, we then
rushed from position to position, and at last were only three hundred
paces from the enemy. And now I was forced to rest content with the
ground we had gained, for with only three hundred and fifty men I dare
not risk a further advance, owing to the strength of the enemy's
position.

The previous day I had asked General Cronje to send me reinforcements,
and I had to delay the advance until their arrival. In a very short time
a small party of burghers made their appearance. They had two
field-pieces with them, and were under the command of Major Albrecht. We
placed the guns in position and trained them on the English.

With the second shot we had found our range, while the third found its
mark in the wall, so that it was not long before the enemy had to
abandon that shelter. To find safe cover they were forced to retreat
some hundred paces. But we gained little by this, for the new positions
of the English were quite as good as those from which we had driven
them, and, moreover, were almost out of range of our guns. And we were
unable to bring our field-pieces any nearer because our gunners would
have been exposed to the enemy's rifle fire.

Our Krupps made good practice on the four English guns which had been
stationed on the river bank to the south. Up till now these had kept up
a terrific fire on our guns, but we soon drove them across the river, to
seek protection behind the mountain. I despatched General Froneman to
hold the river bank, and the _sluit_[17] which descended to the river
from the north. While carrying out this order he was exposed to a heavy
fire from the enemy's western wing, which was located in the