The Boers Were In Full Retreat, But Now, As Always, They Were
Dangerous.
One cannot take them for granted, for the very moment of
defeat is that at which they are capable of some surprising effort.
Rundle, following them up from Senekal, found them in strong
possession of the kopjes at Biddulphsberg, and received a check in
his endeavour to drive them off.
It was an action fought amid great
grass fires, where the possible fate of the wounded was horrible to
contemplate. The 2nd Grenadiers, the Scots Guards, the East
Yorkshires, and the West Kents were all engaged, with the 2nd and
79th Field Batteries and a force of Yeomanry. Our losses incurred
in the open from unseen rifles were thirty killed and 130 wounded,
including Colonel Lloyd of the Grenadiers. Two days later Rundle,
from Senekal, joined hands with Brabant from Ficksburg, and a
defensive line was formed between those two places, which was held
unbroken for two months, when the operations ended in the capture
of the greater part of the force opposed to him. Clements's
Brigade, consisting of the 1st Royal Irish, the 2nd Bedfords, the
2nd Worcesters, and the 2nd Wiltshires, had come to strengthen
Rundle, and altogether he may have had as many as twelve thousand
men under his orders. It was not a large force with which to hold a
mobile adversary at least eight thousand strong, who might attack
him at any point of his extended line. So well, however, did he
select his positions that every attempt of the enemy, and there
were many, ended in failure.
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