What rendered the battle so severe an ordeal to the nerves was the new conditions under which it was fought. Tempests of bullets suddenly descended--no one could say from what quarter. Throughout, the enemy was invisible even to the best field glasses, and this more than anything filled the soldiery with despair of coming to hand-grips--the one kind of battle for which they had been taught to prepare. The new weapons, especially the 1-pounder Maxim, created a terrible impression. In short, the British troops were tried upon this eventful day in the rudest manner. Unhappily, the battle produced a feeling of deep depression in Lord Methuen's army, where the soldiers did not realise how much they had achieved. If a rapid advance on the 29th had been possible, it is certain that Cronje and his army would have been driven back helter-skelter. But the mischief of undertaking a difficult campaign with inadequate forces now manifested itself. No large body of reinforcements was available to carry Lord Methuen's division forward with a rush. There was no cavalry brigade, no horse artillery battery to turn the enemy's entrenchments. Moreover the batteries with the column had not sufficient ammunition for another action, and a halt was imperatively needed to replenish limbers and waggons from the none-too-extensive supplies at the base. In the days of delay which followed the battle, all the results of the victory were lost. [Illustration: "SLIGHTLY WOUNDED:" PHOTOGRAPHED AT MODDER RIVER.] An examination of the Boer trenches revealed the terrible effectiveness of the British artillery fire. The walls and roofs of the houses in the village were wrecked; iron outbuildings were so perforated with rifle and shrapnel bullets that they resembled gigantic colanders; the enemy's trenches were ploughed up by the shells and bullets. About fifty dead Boers were found on the field, either lying where they had fallen or hastily buried. Their trenches were full of all kinds of débris; amidst thousands and thousands of expended cartridges were rifles, bandoliers, bottles of Bass, mackintoshes, and odds and ends of equipment. Hundreds of riderless horses galloped over the field. They were captured by privates and sold for a few shillings or a handful of cigarettes. [Sidenote: The Boers fire on the Red Cross.] There were many abuses of the customs of war. The Boers fired upon stretcher bearers and trained their "Pom-Pom" upon the ambulances. They employed expanding bullets, and are said, though the story wants corroboration, to have placed one of their guns in a place where it was sheltered by the red cross flag, flying over a neighbouring hospital, and to have removed a Maxim in an ambulance. [Sidenote: Conduct of the Free Staters impugned.]