The country was an impossible one for cavalry, and the troopers fought dismounted, with intervals of twenty or thirty paces between the men.

Exposed all day to rifle and shell fire, unable to advance and unwilling to retreat, it was only owing to their open formation that they escaped with about thirty casualties.

With Boers on his front, his flank, and even on his rear, French held grimly on, realising that a retreat upon his part would mean a greater pressure at all other points of the British advance.

At night his weary men slept upon the ground which they had held.

All Monday and all Tuesday French kept his grip at Kameelsdrift, stolidly indifferent to the attempt of the enemy to cut his line of communications.