Oh, how thankful we were to be in our camp and in our tents again! What a tub we had! what a breakfast! and what a sleep we look forward to when night comes! While waiting for the preparation of a serious meal, we set to work to grill a few chops. They have scarcely been on the embers more than two minutes, when we hear Pom! pom! pom! There is no time for breakfast. To horse! We swallow our raw cutlets, and gallop off. Four men stay behind to strike the camp, and we take up a position to the south-east of Brandfort, on the kopjes that command the plain. In the distance, about eight kilometres off, we see the English convoys already making for Brandfort. They are pretty confident. To the right, a battery, of which we can distinguish the escort, silences the cannon nearest us by killing the gunners. Then a second battery advances at a trot on the left in the plain, and crosses the fire of the first. The Boers watch this manoeuvre with great interest, discussing it and giving their opinions on it. Then, as the battery halts and takes up a position, slowly but surely, they all make for their horses. Scarcely are the first shells fired before they are in their saddles, decamping at full speed. Our two 75-millimetre guns come up, and throw a few shells from a distance, with no result. It is always the same. They watch the enemy’s operations without interfering, and when they want to act, it is too late. It is two o’clock. Our waggons went off long ago, but the road is encumbered with a long string of vehicles. The roads to Smaldeel and Winburg are cut off. There is an indescribable throng on the Veldt; each person is going in his own direction. The confusion is complete. C---- and I go off to try and find our baggage, for since the 1st we have had no news of the trolley, which is with Michel and a few comrades. The rest of the carts may very well have been captured, like so many others, either near Winburg or near Smaldeel. My friend, always full of foresight, had taken the precaution of putting a pot of peach jam in his pocket when we started in the morning. On this we dined without a scrap of biscuit. Late in the evening we arrived at a farm, from whence we were shown the English outposts on a kopje opposite. During the night the owners of the farm went off in a cart. Kaffirs kept watch to warn us should any attempt be made on our refuge. We slipped away at daybreak, and arrived at Smaldeel towards noon on the 5th.