Broadwood, a young cavalry commander who had won a name in Egypt, considered that his position was unnecessarily exposed and fell back upon Bloemfontein.

He halted on the first night near the waterworks, halfway upon his journey.
The Boers are great masters in the ambuscade.

Never has any race shown such aptitude for this form of warfare--a legacy from a long succession of contests with cunning savages.

But never also have they done anything so clever and so audacious as De Wet's dispositions in this action.

One cannot go over the ground without being amazed at the ingenuity of their attack, and also at the luck which favoured them, for the trap which they had laid for others might easily have proved an absolutely fatal one for themselves.
The position beside the Modder at which the British camped had numerous broken hills to the north and east of it.