It lay now calm and innocent, with its open windows looking out upon a smiling garden; but death lurked at the windows and death in the garden, and the little dark man who stood by the door, peering through his glass at the approaching column, was the minister of death, the dangerous Cronje.

In consultation with him was one who was to prove even more formidable, and for a longer time.
Semitic in face, high-nosed, bushy-bearded, and eagle-eyed, with skin burned brown by a life of the veld--it was De la Rey, one of the trio of fighting chiefs whose name will always be associated with the gallant resistance of the Boers.

He was there as adviser, but Cronje was in supreme command.
His dispositions had been both masterly and original.

Contrary to the usual military practice in the defence of rivers, he had concealed his men upon both banks, placing, as it is stated, those in whose staunchness he had least confidence upon the British side of the river, so that they could only retreat under the rifles of their inexorable companions.

The trenches had been so dug with such a regard for the slopes of the ground that in some places a triple line of fire was secured.