It was not a large force with which to hold a mobile adversary at least eight thousand strong, who might attack him at any point of his extended line.
So well, however, did he select his positions that every attempt of the enemy, and there were many, ended in failure.

Badly supplied with food, he and his half-starved men held bravely to their task, and no soldiers in all that great host deserve better of their country.
At the end of May, then, the Colonial Division, Rundle's Division, and Clements's Brigade held the Boers from Ficksburg on the Basuto border to Senekal.

This prevented them from coming south.

But what was there to prevent them from coming west, and falling upon the railway line?
There was the weak point of the British position.

Lord Methuen had been brought across from Boshof, and was available with six thousand men.
Colvile was on that side also, with the Highland Brigade.