The burghers were not informed of the imminence of a battle; but they
required no such announcement from their generals. The atmosphere seemed
to be surcharged with premonitions of an engagement, and men rubbed sleep
out of their eyes and sat erect upon their horses. The blacks even ceased
to crack their whips so sharply, and urged the mules forward in whispers
instead of shrieks. Burghers took their rifles from their backs, tested
the workings of the mechanism and filled the magazine with cartridges.
Artillerymen leaped from their horses and led them while they sat on the
cannon and poured oil into the bearings. Young men speculated on the
number of prisoners they would take; old men wrote their names on their
hats by the light of the moon. The lights of Bloemfontein appeared in the
distance, and grey-beards looked longingly at them and sighed. But the
cavalcade passed on, grimly, silently, and defiantly, into the haunts of
the enemy.
After four hours of trekking over veld, kopje, sluit, and donga, the two
columns halted, the burghers dismounted, and, weary from the long journey
and the lack of sleep, lay down on the earth beside their horses.
Commandants, field-cornets and corporals, bustling about among the
burghers, horses and waggons, gave orders in undertones; generals summoned
their scouts and asked for detailed information concerning the whereabouts
of the enemy; patrols were scurrying hither and thither to secure accurate
ideas of the topography of the territory in front of them; all who were in
authority were busy, while the burghers, who carried the strength of
battle in their bodies, lay sleeping and resting.
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