The rest of the British forces engaged lost but lightly. They had 17 killed, 105 wounded, and 10 missing. The total list of casualties, as officially issued, is not in entire agreement with Mr. Ralph's figures, but places the loss at 171 killed, 692 wounded, and 107 missing, a total of 970, or not far from one tenth of the force engaged. As to the Boer losses there was really no information. Stories went round the camp to the effect that the slaughter wrought by the lyddite shells and shrapnel had been awful, whole commandos being "wiped out." But as the Boer trenches were in sandy soil where the lyddite shells would do little damage, and as the gunners had great difficulty in locating their exact whereabouts, it is most improbable that the enemy suffered heavily. Three or four hundred killed, wounded, and prisoners would be a fair approximation to their casualties. [Illustration: _H. M. Paget._] FOES IN THE FIELD BECOME FRIENDS IN HOSPITAL. Many incidents such as that here depicted, in which a British soldier is lighting the pipe of a wounded and helpless Boer, have occurred in the hospitals, and not a few on the field of battle itself. A nurse relates how two men, a Briton and a Boer, both fresh from the operating-table, lay side by side eyeing each other; how Tommy pulled a couple of cigarettes, which had been given him, from under his pillow and handed one to his wounded enemy, and how both men, under the stress of pain and mutual commiseration, burst into tears. On another occasion a wounded Boer, lying on the hot hillside, offered his water-bottle to a wounded Englishman, who in return shared his ration of bread with the Boer.] [Sidenote: Cronje's account.] Cronje's official account of the battle rendered full justice to the bravery and determination of the British troops. It was as follows, and it will be seen that it was comparatively accurate, though it just doubled the British losses:-- [Sidenote: DEC. 12, 1899.] _Cronje's Account of the Battle._]