The enemy made a desperate effort on the 23rd to prevent General Buller from reaching Belfast. They endeavoured to lay a trap for the cavalry, opening on them at fairly short range with a long-range 15-pounder and pom-poms. A section of the 21st Battery, under Lieutenant Rainsford, promptly set to work to silence them, and the ruse failed. But at night, when the turmoil of the day was thought to be over, through an accident, two companies of the Liverpools, who had advanced into a hollow out of sight of the main body, were surrounded and suffered severely. The casualties, morning and evening, made a long total. South African Light Horse: wounded, Captain A. Savory (since dead) and two men. Royal Artillery: killed, one man; wounded, Lieutenant F. Rainsford-Hannay and two men. Army Veterinary Department: wounded, Lieutenant J. Steele. 1st Liverpool Regiment: killed, ten men; wounded, Captain Plomer, who was taken prisoner, and forty-five men; missing, thirty-two. Leicester Regiment: killed, one man; wounded, six; missing, one. 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers: wounded, one man. On the following day some more fighting took place, prior to the General's arrival at Belfast, Lieutenant Tarbet, 1st Yorkshire Mounted Infantry, and thirteen men being wounded. On the 25th, General Buller reached his destination, and met Lord Roberts in order to discuss at a council of war the operations which made the closing act of the drama. FOOTNOTES: [12] See Map, p. 33. CHAPTER VII THE LYDENBURG CAMPAIGN Lord Roberts moved, _viâ_ Wonderfontein, to Belfast, which had been previously occupied by General Pole-Carew. The Chief arrived on the 25th of August, and immediately proceeded to order a reconnaissance of the Boer position between Belfast and Dalmanutha, south-west of which place, about six miles off, were the forces of Generals Buller and French. The Boers were ensconced in a perfect chain of ridges--a frowning rampart of menace, thirty miles in extent--some 8000 yards east of the station, where they evidently intended to dispute possession of every inch of the ground to Machadodorp, and whence it was the intention of the Commander-in-Chief to sweep them. The Field-Marshal called together his generals--Sir Redvers Buller, and Generals French and Pole-Carew--and their several rôles in the forthcoming operations were discussed. General Buller was to advance on the right flank, General Pole-Carew as usual to maintain a central position, while General French's Cavalry Brigades would fly well to left, scouring again the terrible country towards Machadodorp and beyond it.