Even then one did not realize what was burning, and someone said: "What a big grass fire! It must have commenced yesterday." At the same moment faint cries, unmistakable for Kaffir ejaculations, were borne to us by the breeze, along with the smell of burning thatch and wood, and the dread sentence with which I commenced this chapter seemed to grow in volume, till to one's excited fancy it became a sort of chant, to which the yells of the blacks, the unceasing rattle of musketry, formed an unholy accompaniment.

"Hark, what is that ?" was a universal exclamation from the few folk, mostly women, standing in front of Mr.Weil's house, as a curious hoarse cheer arose--not in the stadt, half a mile away, but nearer, close by, only the other side of the station, where was situated the B.S.A.P.

fort, the headquarters of the officer commanding the Protectorate Regiment.

This so-called fort was in reality an obsolete old work of the time of Sir Charles Warren's 1884 expedition, and was but slightly fortified.
The Boers, after setting fire to the stadt, had rushed it, surprising the occupants; and the horrible noise of their cheering arose again and again.

Then a terrific fusillade broke out from this new direction, rendering the roadway a place of the greatest danger.