About fifty of the most valiant of them galloped straight at the enemy.

The rest fled.
After a short but fierce engagement we were forced to retire, as six of our men had been hit.

Fortunately, their wounds were but slight, the most severe being that of my son Isaac, who had been shot through the leg below the knee.
We rode away a short distance, and saw looming through the darkness a company of horsemen approaching us from Reitz.

I thought at first that they were some of my own burghers--the ones who had taken to their heels--but it turned out to be General Wessel Wessels, who was nearer than I knew with his staff, in all some twenty men.

I, however, could muster seventy, and we decided to cut off the retreat of the enemy.