Some Weakness Of His Sight Compels The Use Of
Tinted Spectacles, And He Had Now Turned These, With A Pair Of
Particularly Observant Eyes Behind Them, Upon The Scattered British
Forces And The Long Exposed Line Of Railway.
De Wet's force was an offshoot from the army of Freestaters under
De Villiers, Olivier, and Prinsloo, which lay in the mountainous
north-east of the State.
To him were committed five guns, fifteen
hundred men, and the best of the horses. Well armed, well mounted,
and operating in a country which consisted of rolling plains with
occasional fortress kopjes, his little force had everything in its
favour. There were so many tempting objects of attack lying before
him that he must have had some difficulty in knowing where to
begin. The tinted spectacles were turned first upon the isolated
town of Lindley.
Colvile with the Highland Brigade had come up from Ventersburg with
instructions to move onward to Heilbron, pacifying the country as
he passed. The country, however, refused to be pacified, and his
march from Ventersburg to Lindley was harassed by snipers every
mile of the way. Finding that De Wet and his men were close upon
him, he did not linger at Lindley, but passed on to his
destination, his entire march of 126 miles costing him sixty-three
casualties, of which nine were fatal. It was a difficult and
dangerous march, especially for the handful of Eastern Province
Horse, upon whom fell all the mounted work. By evil fortune a force
of five hundred Yeomanry, the 18th battalion, including the Duke of
Cambridge's Own and the Irish companies, had been sent from
Kroonstad to join Colvile at Lindley.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 526 of 842
Words from 140633 to 140912
of 225456
