This was exactly what I had feared would happen.
Immediately afterwards the men in the centre position, and therefore the nearest to me, followed their comrades' example.

I watched them loosening their horses, which had been tethered behind a little hill; they were wild to get away from the guns of the English and from the advance of this mighty force.
It was impossible for me now to go and tell the burghers on the Honingkopjes that the time had come when they too must retreat.

My only course was to order the men near me not to effect their escape along the well protected banks of the river, but to the south, right across the stream, by a route which would be visible to burghers on the Honingkopjes.

They obeyed my orders, and rode out under a heavy gun and rifle fire, without, however, losing a single man.

The men on the Honingkopjes saw them in flight, and were thus able to leave their position before the enemy had a chance of driving them into the river or of cutting them off from the drift.
Unfortunately, seven burghers from Heilbron were at a short distance from the others, having taken up their position in a _kliphok_.[53] Fighting hard as they were, under a deafening gun-fire from the enemy, who had approached to within a few paces of them, they did not observe that their comrades had left their positions.