By this time we all know his
merits, and there is immense demand from every mounted corps for the
Boer ponies. The Major is up to his eyes in work, as officers and
orderlies come galloping up with requisitions from the various
regiments. He has the born horse lover's dislike for parting with a
really good horse except to a man he knows something about. Loud and
uproarious is the chaff and protestations (now dropping to confidential
mutterings) as the herds of horses are broken up and the various lots
assigned. As I say, it looks from the hilltop exactly like a west
country fair on an enlarged scale, and the great lonely Basuto
mountains, too, might seem a larger edition of the Exmoor hills around
Winsford. The Boer prisoners, poor fellows, have no eye for the
picturesque. They congregate together and grumble and watch the
distribution of their horses with a very sour expression.
From this point we sent our prisoners in, _via_ Winberg, to the railway,
the Major and most of the corps going with them as part of the escort;
while I with twenty men, consisting partly of Guides and partly of
Lovat's Scouts, was detached to continue as bodyguard to Hunter. He,
with the main column (we reunited at Bethlehem), marched to Lindley and
then here to Heilbron.
It was ten miles south of this that we came in contact with Olivier.
Olivier and De Wet had both broken through our cordon at different times
and escaped from the hills.
Pages:
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193