His artillery, consisting of several heavy pieces and a number of machine guns (including one of the diabolical 'pompoms'), was cleverly placed upon the further side of the stream, and was not only provided with shelter pits but had rows of reserve pits, so that the guns could be readily shifted when their range was found.

Rows of trenches, a broadish river, fresh rows of trenches, fortified houses, and a good artillery well worked and well placed, it was a serious task which lay in front of the gallant little army.

The whole position covered between four and five miles.
An obvious question must here occur to the mind of every non-military reader--Why should this position be attacked at all?
Why should we not cross higher up where there were no such formidable obstacles ?' The answer, so far as one can answer it, must be that so little was known of the dispositions of our enemy that we were hopelessly involved in the action before we knew of it, and that then it was more dangerous to extricate the army than to push the attack.

A retirement over that open plain at a range of under a thousand yards would have been a dangerous and disastrous movement.

Having once got there, it was wisest and best to see it through.
The dark Cronje still waited reflective in the hotel garden.