order to take counsel with the Government about our affairs generally,
and especially to see what would be the most suitable positions to
occupy for the defence of the capital. Judge Hertzog and I went out
together to inspect the ground; we placed a hundred men in the forts,
with Kaffirs to dig trenches and throw up earthworks.

I was back at Abraham's Kraal by nine o'clock on the morning of March
the 18th. I found that our forces had been placed in position by
Generals De la Rey, Andreas Cronje, Philip Botha, Froneman and Piet de
Wet, the last-named having arrived with his commandos from Colesberg a
few days before the rout at Poplar Grove.

We had not long to wait before fighting began, fighting confined for the
most part to the artillery. The English shells were at first directed
against Abraham's Kraal, which was subjected to a terrific bombardment;
later on they turned their guns upon Rietfontein, where the Transvaalers
and a part of the Free State commandos, under General De la Rey, were
posted. The attack upon these positions was fierce and determined; but
De la Rey's burghers, though they lost heavily, repulsed it with
splendid courage. I will not say more of this. It is understood that
General De la Rey will himself describe what he and his men succeeded in
accomplishing on that occasion.

From ten in the morning until sunset the fight continued, and still the
burghers held their positions. They had offered a magnificent
resistance. Their conduct had been beyond all praise, and it was hard to
believe that these were the same men who had fled panic-stricken from
Poplar Grove. But with the setting of the sun a change came over them.
Once more panic seized them; leaving their positions, they retreated in
all haste towards Bloemfontein. And now they were only a disorderly