"But I shall never forgive myself, nor would you if you had seen the poor British mowed down at Magersfontein," wrote an English traitor present with the Free State forces, to his father. "But not a man did I fire at. That I made up my mind not to do.... You should see our entrenchments, for we burrow under the ground, and never get hit. Millions of pounds must have been shot away by the English gunners, and you, father, will have to pay for all the waste. It made me laugh to see the firing hour after hour and not one of our men hit. The English all start their engagements like that. They fire two days, and as they always follow the same childish plan we know they will not attack until after a day or two's bombardment. Then we come out of our burrows and simply shoot them down like deer. But I have not stained myself with English blood, and don't mean to.... It makes me proud of my fellow countrymen, and the good-class Boers regret having to kill such plucky fellows as they come along to their death. Like the Battle of Balaclava, it is not war, but it is magnificent. Poor chaps; I am sure they can never see us. One whole day of hard fighting we never showed ourselves, and I see by the papers that hundreds of English were killed, and especially the Scotsmen. Our loss was trifling. You cannot hit men with rocks protecting them all round, and who are underground when the cannons fire." [Illustration: MANNING A FORT AT MODDER RIVER. One of the many defensive works thrown up by Lord Methuen after the battle of Modder River.] "Nothing," says Lord Methuen, in his official despatch, "could exceed the conduct of the troops from the time of the failure of the attack at daybreak. There was not the slightest confusion, though the fight was carried on under as hard conditions as one could imagine, for the men had been on the move from midnight and were suffering terribly from thirst.... The attack failed; the inclement weather was against success; the men in the Highland Brigade were ready enough to rally, but the paucity of officers and non-commissioned officers rendered this no easy matter. I attach no blame to this splendid Brigade." [Sidenote: Criticism of Lord Methuen's tactics.] [Sidenote: DEC. 12, 1899.] _Lord Methuen addresses the Highlanders._]