On the morning of the 15th the general advance of the Seventh and Ninth Divisions had been resumed. The 15th (Wavell's) Brigade of the Seventh Division was directed upon Jacobsdal; the other brigade and the Ninth Division began their march to join the Sixth Division at Klip Drift. Jacobsdal was not seized without a brush with the enemy. On the 14th it had been visited by our patrols and found unoccupied, but with the hospitals full of British and Boer wounded. On their way back the patrols were attacked by the Boers, and nineteen men wounded or captured. They had come into contact with a small detachment sent by Cronje to hold the village. Early in the afternoon of the 15th, the 15th Brigade approached the place. It was a small, peaceful-looking village of white houses, bowered in green trees, pleasant of aspect amid the arid brown expanse of the treeless veldt. But it soon began to wear another and far less peaceful aspect. The British advance was covered by a cloud of scouts drawn from the City Imperial Mounted Infantry Volunteers. They were within 800 yards of the village, when suddenly a terrific fire was opened from gardens on the outskirts. The sergeant-major in charge of the party and two privates were wounded. The men behaved with great steadiness and bravery upon this historic occasion--the first time that a Volunteer Force had been under fire. But the Boer resistance could not be maintained in the face of a British brigade 4,000 strong. The 75th Field Battery was brought up, the town was shelled, and the enemy hastily retired towards Magersfontein and Cronje's entrenchments. Lord Roberts arrived, and at the head of his troops made his entry. There was no looting or plundering. The British Army, always famous for its rigid discipline in war, filed in in perfect order, and paid for everything which it took. Military police patrolled the streets; sentries stood in front of every store. The hungry and thirsty khaki-clad men bought up all the bread and milk that they could get, and the Boers began almost to bless a war which had brought them such customers. They had expected merciless treatment, for the Boer Governments, to stiffen their people's resistance, had studiously spread the report that where the British came they ravished, plundered, and destroyed. The wives of the burghers, however, avenged the invasion of the Free State by the exorbitance of their prices, and thus turned the tables upon the conquerors. One of Lord Roberts' first acts was to visit the large German hospital which was established in the village. In it he found 37 British wounded; all the arrangements were admirable in the extreme. Indeed, if more than one British officer can be believed, in comfort and attention to the suffering it far outdistanced the British field hospitals. [Illustration: _F. J. Waugh._ THE LOSS OF THE CONVOY AT WATERVAL DRIFT.] [Sidenote: FEB. 15-17, 1900.] _Loss of a Convoy._] [Sidenote: Convoy attacked by De Wet.]