Some of them, Le Gallais's mounted infantry and Davidson's guns, had come from Bloemfontein during the night, and the horses were exhausted by the long march, and by the absurd weight which the British troop-horse is asked to carry.

Tucker advanced his infantry exactly as Kelly-Kenny had done at Driefontein, and with a precisely similar result.

The eight regiments going forward in echelon of battalions imagined from the silence of the enemy that the position had been abandoned.

They were undeceived by a cruel fire which beat upon two companies of the Scottish Borderers from a range of two hundred yards.

They were driven back, but reformed in a donga.