Two days later another party approached. They attacked a kopje held by the Yorkshires but failed to capture it, and then tried to carry another hill held by the Buffs and were again defeated. In all eighty were taken prisoners. Every night Boers crept out from their laager and gave themselves up as prisoners, and by the end of the week we had six hundred captives. All this time the guns had thundered almost without cessation. From a balloon overhead signals were made as to the point at which the fire should be directed. Nothing could withstand this hail of iron. Scores of waggons were smashed up, oxen and horses killed by the hundred, but few Boers were visible. Holes and tunnels had been driven into the side of the numerous dongas that intersected the laager. Here the women and children were sheltered, and here the men crouched in readiness to sally out and defend the laager if again attacked, and whenever our outposts were pushed forward, the fire from their trenches was as heavy as ever. At the extremity of the base of the semicircle Smith-Dorrien and Chermside's men had been steadily pushing forward trenches. On the night of Monday, February 26th, it was determined that the former should make an advance. The Canadians were to lead it, the Gordons to be in support, and the Shropshires to move to the left to protect the force from any attempt of the Boers to take them in flank. Two companies of the Canadians led the advance. The moon had not yet risen, and to keep their position each man grasped the sleeve of the man next to him. The rear rank carried spades and had their rifles slung behind them. The 7th Company of the Royal Engineers followed them carrying sacks full of earth. The distance to be traversed was eight hundred yards. Never did men undertake more nervous work, for at any moment they might be swept by a storm of bullets such as had smitten the Highlanders at Magersfontein. Not a sound was heard until they were within fifty yards of the Boer trenches, and then the front rank struck against a wire on which empty meat-cans were stretched. A rifle-shot was fired as the clang rose, and the Canadians at once threw themselves on their faces. Scarcely had they done so when a roar of fire from a line six hundred yards long broke out. To move forward was impossible; the moon was on the point of rising, and its light would enable the Boers to pick them off unerringly. Accordingly the companies out on the plain were ordered to fall back in very open order, and this was effected with a comparatively small number of casualties. [Illustration: CRONJE RIDES OUT TO SURRENDER.]