If my men had only been able to think for themselves, they would have thrown the rifles on the bank as they came into their hands, and so would have disarmed far more of the English than they succeeded in doing.

But, as it was, the burghers kept on asking: "Where shall I put this rifle, General?
What have I to do with this horse ?" That the work should be delayed by this sort of thing sorely tried my hasty temper.
Very soon the enemy in the rear discovered that there was something wrong in the drift, for one of their officers suddenly gave orders that the troops should fall back.

But in the meantime, as I have already stated, we had disarmed two hundred men; while, about a hundred paces from us on the banks of the spruit stood five of their guns, and more than a hundred of their waggons, in one confused mass.

A little further off--two or three hundred paces, perhaps--two more of the enemy's guns had halted.
The English fell back some thirteen hundred yards, to the station on the Dewetsdorp-Bloemfontein railway.

I need scarcely say that we opened a terrific fire on them as they retreated.