The Boer post of Vryheid burghers clattered and scrambled away into the darkness, and a cheer that roused both the sleeping armies told that the surprise had been complete and the position won.
In the grey light of the breaking day the men advanced along the narrow undulating ridge, the prominent end of which they had captured.

Another trench faced them, but it was weakly held and abandoned.

Then the men, uncertain what remained beyond, halted and waited for full light to see where they were, and what the work was which lay before them--a fatal halt, as the result proved, and yet one so natural that it is hard to blame the officer who ordered it.

Indeed, he might have seemed more culpable had he pushed blindly on, and so lost the advantage which had been already gained.
About eight o'clock, with the clearing of the mist, General Woodgate saw how matters stood.

The ridge, one end of which he held, extended away, rising and falling for some miles.