To This Message Colonel Kincaid, R.E., Now In
Command Of The Remains Of The Assaulting Party, Replied That His
Men Would Be Well Entrenched By Daylight.
The little party had been
distributed for digging as well as the darkness and their ignorance
of their exact position to the Boers would permit.
Twice the sound
of the picks brought angry volleys from the darkness, but the work
was never stopped, and in the early dawn the workers found not only
that they were secure themselves, but that they were in a position
to enfilade over half a mile of Boer trenches. Before daybreak the
British crouched low in their shelter, so that with the morning
light the Boers did not realise the change which the night had
wrought. It was only when a burgher was shot as he filled his
pannikin at the river that they understood how their position was
overlooked. For half an hour a brisk fire was maintained, at the
end of which time a white flag went up from the trench. Kincaid
stood up on his parapet, and a single haggard figure emerged from
the Boer warren. 'The burghers have had enough; what are they to
do?' said he. As he spoke his comrades scrambled out behind him and
came walking and running over to the British lines. It was not a
moment likely to be forgotten by the parched and grimy warriors who
stood up and cheered until the cry came crashing back to them again
from the distant British camps.
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