A PRISONER
It was a dreary time in camp during the two days when the operation
of collecting and burying the dead was going on. The stillness which
prevailed was in strong contrast with the activity and cheerfulness
which reigned before the battle. Then the men had joked and laughed in
anticipation of the success they confidently expected, now they moved
about silently. Not only were they grieving over the heavy losses, and
sympathizing deeply with the Highland regiments, which had suffered
so terribly, but all felt that the attempt could not be renewed,
and that they were doomed to a long period of inaction until large
reinforcements could arrive.
General Gatacre had suffered a very heavy reverse at Stormberg on the
day before Magersfontein was fought. He had made a long night march in
hopes of surprising the Boers, but by the treachery or ignorance of his
guides, and the fact that the Boers had been apprised of his intention
by rebel sympathizers, he had himself fallen into an ambush. Everything
had, indeed, from the first, gone wrong. The intention of the general
had been allowed to leak out two days previously, and thus the large
portion of the population who were disloyal had ample time to warn the
Boers at Stormberg. The trucks in which the troops were to be conveyed
as far as Molteno were not assembled at the time named, and two hours
were therefore lost. A portion of the column missed their way in the
dark, and were miles distant from the main force when the fight began.
Lastly, instead of the troops being allowed perfect rest during the
day before starting on an expedition which demanded all their strength
and vigour, they had been up early, and spent hours under arms, going
through the fatigue of a field day; and so worn-out were they when the
time for action arrived; that many fell asleep while the battle was
raging.
Thus, as the Boers were posted in an inaccessible position, the action
was a massacre rather than a fight, and had it not been for the
splendid bravery of the artillerymen, the whole force would have been
killed or forced to surrender. The loss in killed and wounded was not
great, the casualties being under one hundred, but six hundred men of
the Irish Rifles and the Northumberlands were taken prisoners, and two
guns lost. The large number of captives was due to two causes. First,
in their attempt to get at the enemy, some of the troops had climbed
the rock to a point where further advance was impossible, and retreat,
under the tremendous fire maintained upon them, meant certain death.
Secondly, many were overpowered by fatigue and want of sleep, staggered
out of the ranks during the retreat, and, dropping on the ground, slept
until they woke to find themselves prisoners.
There was yet further bad news to come, for, four days after
Magersfontein, Buller was defeated in his attempt to force the Boer
lines, guns were lost, and there was a heavy death-roll. It was no
consolation to the men who had fought at Magersfontein to know that
they were not alone in misfortune, and that similar reverses had been
encountered in Natal and Cape Colony.
The question that each asked the other was, what would they say in
England? Would the same craven policy that had prevailed after Majuba
be adopted, and another surrender be made to the Boers? or would the
nation show the energy that had in old times been evinced when danger
was greatest, and rise to the occasion? Even in that case, many weeks
must elapse before sufficient reinforcements could arrive from England
to enable them to take the offensive again; for that another advance
against the Boer position was impossible even the most sanguine had to
admit.
The whole force were now gathered on the Modder, and they had no fear
that the Boers would be able to drive them from it. But this was but
a poor consolation. All were burning to retrieve the last defeat, and
it was gall and wormwood to know that they would be forced to remain
inactive. In the camp of the Scottish regiments the feeling was bitter
in the extreme. Now that the long agony of the conflict, which had
broken down the nerve of the strongest, was over, they felt that they
had to some extent tarnished the reputation of regiments which had
hitherto been without a blemish, and the blame was thrown by them,
not on the general whom they so loved, but upon Lord Methuen. The
imputation was an unfounded one. The task before Lord Methuen was one
of enormous difficulty. The point he had selected for attack was the
best that could have been chosen. The only fault committed by him was,
that he did not risk the lives of a few mounted men, by sending small
parties out to reconnoitre the veldt to the foot of the kopjes, in
order to discover the exact position of the Boer trenches.
His instructions had been clear. The force was to advance to within
attacking position of the kopjes, and there to halt until daybreak.
The arrangements for the advance of the brigade were, as always, left
to the discretion of the brigadier. It was for him to send the advance
guards to feel the way, and for him to order the heavy column to deploy
into open order. These precautions were not taken by General Wauchope.
A trap had been set, and he fell into that trap without taking any of
the usual precautions, and he atoned for the mistake with his life.
To the gallant regiments themselves no blame can be attributable for
their failure. It is true that they broke down under the strain, but it
may be doubted whether any soldiers in the world could have withstood
it better. The surprise had been complete, and nearly five hundred men
had fallen in a few minutes under that terrible fire, to which they
could make no effective reply. They had maintained themselves all day
under a blazing sun, with the ground round them torn up by bullets,
and the slightest movement entailing certain death. Their consequent
depression of spirits was increased by the exhaustion due to want of
food and water. A great proportion of their officers had fallen, and
there was no one to give them orders. It was not wonderful, then, that
their nerves failed them, and that, when at the end of that awful day
they gathered, the bursting of a shell near should have scattered like
sheep soldiers who, in other circumstances, would have marched up to a
cannon's mouth without flinching. It must be remembered, too, that the
conduct of the Gordons, and the splendid bravery they showed, went far
in itself to retrieve the high reputation of the Highland regiments.
Three days after Magersfontein, General Pole-Carew said to Yorke: "An
officer with a patrol is going down the line to Graspan to see that
the rails are clear for the train of wounded that will start later.
I shall be obliged if you will go with them, and carry a despatch
from Lord Methuen, giving particulars of the wounded who will come in
by the train, and ordering medical comforts and fatigue parties to
be in readiness; also a second despatch, with orders to the officer
commanding there. After the attack they made on Belmont a few days ago,
it is highly necessary to take every precaution against an attack at
Graspan by the Boers from Jacobsdal. They are sure to be more active
after their success here."
"Very well, sir. When does the party start?"
"In half an hour's time. The despatches will be ready for you in ten
minutes. When you have received the reply, you need not wait for the
party to return, but ride straight back."
"Very good, sir; I will return here in a quarter of an hour."
"Hans, I want my horse saddled at once," Yorke said, as he joined his
follower.
"Yes, Master Yorke. Am I to saddle my own too?"
"No. I am only riding to Graspan with a despatch, and am joining a
party who are going there to see that the line is in good order. I
shall be back to dinner."
In a quarter of an hour Yorke, having received his despatches, rode off
to the camp of the Lancers. The party was already prepared for a start.
It consisted of an officer and twelve men. The former was already known
to Yorke.
"I heard that you were going with us, Harberton," he said, as Yorke
rode up. "I shall be glad of your company. It is dull work riding
alone, especially when you have nothing to do but see that the rails
have not been torn up in the night."
"I don't suppose there is much fear of that," Yorke replied, "for
if the Boers had been there, they would have been sure to cut the
telegraph wire, and they have not done so. I know that messages have
been exchanged this morning."
"If they can communicate," the officer said, "I don't see why you
should have been sent with a despatch."
"The lines and wires are so fully occupied by messages to De Aar and to
the Cape, and backwards and forwards between the general and the home
authorities, that they cannot be spared for details to Graspan; and
personally, I would much rather be cantering over there and back than
be idle in camp."
"That is just my feeling," the other said. "I am afraid that it will
be a long time before we have much to do here. However, there is one
comfort, we shall have a chance to get supplies from the base. They
would not let us telegraph, so we have sent a man down to Cape Town
with a long list of orders. Whether or not we shall get them through, I
don't know. Now, if you are ready, I will start."
The order was given, and the party rode off at a trot.
"One feels quite glad to get out of camp," the officer said. "Everyone
is so completely in the dumps that it is downright misery to remain
there. However, I don't expect it will last very long. We shall cheer
up a bit if we hear that the people at home are not disheartened, and
are going to send out a big lot of troops and carry the thing through,
whatever it costs."
"I have no doubt they will," Yorke said. "It is not often we back down
because we have had a heavy blow. Look how we buckled to at the time of
the Mutiny."
"I sincerely hope so," the officer said; "but one can never feel sure
after the way we surrendered to the Boers before. It makes one sick to
think of it even now. Still, three such blows as they have had in the
course of a week are pretty hard to bear. However, let us hope that the
whole country will harden their hearts and determine that the thing
must be carried through."
So talking, they rode along until they came to a spot where the foot
of one of the hills extended almost up to the line. Then there was a
sudden shout. Some fifty Boers rose from behind the rocks, and a heavy
volley was poured into the little party. The officer in command and
seven of the troopers fell. Yorke's horse went down suddenly, shot
through the head, and the other five troopers galloped on at full
speed, the Boers keeping up an incessant fire upon them. Three fell,
and but two rode on to Graspan. Yorke's leg was pinned under his fallen
horse, and he made no effort to rise, for he knew that any motion would
draw a dozen rifle-shots on him. When the firing had ceased the Boers
came down.
"I surrender," Yorke said, as the first came up to him.
"Are you wounded?"
"No, except that my leg feels crushed under my horse. I would rather
have been wounded myself than have lost him."
"You will have no occasion for him at present," the Boer said; and,
calling two or three others to him, they raised the horse sufficiently
to be able to drag Yorke out.
"The others are all dead," one of the Boers said. "Some of them got
half a dozen bullets through them. This is an officer, isn't it?"
"Yes," Yorke replied, "I am a subaltern in the 9th Lancers, you can see
the number on my shoulder-strap; and I carry a field-glass and revolver
as well as a rifle."
"What is your name?"
"Yorke Harberton."
"Can you walk?"
"I don't think I can at present," Yorke said, "but I may be able to do
so presently."
"That won't do," the man said. "We shall be having some of the cavalry
from Graspan on us, as the two men who have got away will ride there
with the news. However, we have got spare ponies behind the hill here.
Two of you take this youngster, and carry him. I suppose you were not
in command here?" he went on, as two men lifted Yorke from the ground
and carried him off.
"No, that officer was in command."
"I see he is older than you. I suppose he was taking some message to
Graspan?"
"He did not tell me," Yorke answered truthfully, "and it was not my
business to ask him; but of course he must have had some orders. More
troops are coming along--three or four hundred, I believe."
"Then, there is no time to lose. Hurry on, men! I will see if the
officer has any despatches on him."
He rejoined the party just as they reached the ponies.
"Not a scrap of paper of any sort," he said. "He can only have had
verbal orders. It won't do for us to carry out the business we came
here for, for they might be upon us before we had time to pull up half
a dozen rails, and were we to try it they might catch us before we had
time to get away. At any rate, we have done a good morning's work--ten
men and an officer; we have got a prisoner, two pairs of field-glasses,
two revolvers, and ten carbines."
Three hours' riding took the party to Jacobsdal. Yorke's leg had hurt
a good deal on starting, but the pain had to a great extent gone off
before reaching the town, and now he found he could walk. He had
managed, as he rode, to tear up the despatches he had received, and
had, one by one, chewed up the pieces and swallowed them. They could,
even if discovered, have done no harm now; but had they been found
at first, the Boers would no doubt have torn up the line, and might
have caused an accident that would have been fatal to many of the
wounded. Had he been asked the question, he must have produced them;
but regarding him only as a young subaltern, they had not thought for
a moment that, going with a senior officer, he would be trusted with
despatches. He was, however, glad when he got rid of the last fragment,
and still more so when, on being placed in the guard-room, he was
searched from head to foot. He was supplied with food and treated with
some consideration by the Boers, who were in high spirits at the three
great successes they had gained.
"Why don't your soldiers give it up?" one of them asked him. "They must
see by this time that they are no good against us. We would allow them
to go down to the coast and embark on board ship without molesting
them."
"There is an old saying with us," Yorke replied, "that a British
soldier never knows when he is beaten; and though certainly we have
been unfortunate lately, I can assure you that the idea that we are
beaten for good has not occurred to any of us. We are angry at our
defeats, but in no way disheartened. We consider that the war has only
just begun yet, and have no doubt that twice as many men as are in
South Africa now, will be sent out as soon as the ships can be got
ready for them."
"Poor fellows!" the Boer said. "We hear that they have to be made
drunk to get them on board ship, and those that won't drink have to be
ironed."
"I am afraid," Yorke said, "that you hear a great many lies, and you
may be quite sure that that is one of them. I can tell you the last
news we had was that the Militia regiments, which are only raised
for home service, and some even of the Volunteers, have sent in
applications asking to be allowed to come out on service."
"Ah! they don't know what is before them, poor lads! Either death, or,
if they escape that, imprisonment till the war is over and we allow
them to go away. I do not say that your soldiers are not brave. They
astonished us at Belmont and Graspan. But those were mere skirmishes."
"But we crossed the Modder in your teeth."
"Yes," the Boer admitted reluctantly, "it looked like it; but we did
not want to stop you altogether there, only to encourage you to march
against our real position at Spytfontein. We knew you had no chance
there, and intended to annihilate you."
"Yes, but you did not do it," Yorke said with a smile. "We suffered
heavily from blundering up against your trenches, of whose existence
we knew nothing; but there was no annihilation about it. It is the
opinion of many that if we had pushed forward all along the line in the
afternoon, we should have won the position; at any rate, your men were
very careful not to make a counter attack."
"We are only waiting for Ladysmith and Kimberley to fall," the Boer
said; "then we shall all advance into Cape Colony, break up the
railways, and, joined by the whole of the Dutch people, sweep all
before us to Cape Town."
"It is a good programme," Yorke agreed; "but neither Ladysmith nor
Kimberley have fallen yet."
"They cannot hold out much longer," the man replied. "When the people
of Kimberley learn that help has failed to come to them, they will not
be fools enough to starve any longer. As for Ladysmith, it is as good
as taken; the garrison cannot hold out many days longer. Then Joubert
will advance with his whole army, and drive Buller down to the ships at
Durban."
"Well, we shall see," Yorke said. "We are not likely to convince each
other. Where do you send your prisoners to?"
"To Pretoria. A good many of them are already there--seven or eight
hundred from Natal, six hundred from Stormberg--and this is only the
beginning. We have a few others we picked up here; I expect you will
all be sent off in a day or two. I don't think you will be badly off
at first; but when we get Buller's men and the men here, safely stowed
away, you will hardly be as well off, for I should say that there will
be a difficulty in getting provisions for twenty thousand men or so.
But perhaps there won't be so many, for I hear that we have killed over
twenty thousand, and we have only lost twenty or thirty men."
"But I should think that at least you here cannot believe the last
item," Yorke said. "Something like a hundred bodies have been fished
out of the Modder, and there is no doubt that a still greater number
were carried off the field. I don't say that you lost as heavily as we
did; but when I say that you had two hundred killed, without counting
Magersfontein, I feel sure that I am under the mark."
"Oh! there may be some mistake about the thirty," the Boer said with a
grim smile. "Still, you have certainly lost a great many more than we
have; even at Belmont and Graspan, though you did turn us out of our
kopjes, you lost at least five to our one."
"That may be true enough. But a force attacking across the open must
always lose more than men who shoot them down from behind rocks, and
who have their horses close by on which they can gallop away as soon as
they find that they are getting the worst of it. If we ever get you in
the open I fancy that your losses will be as heavy as ours."
"We should be fools if we let you," the Boer said. "We are too slim for
that. We fight on our own ground."
"Yes; but if you invade Cape Colony, as you talk about, we shall
be fighting on ground of our choosing, and you will find out the
difference then."
Three days later Yorke started, with some fifteen other prisoners,
one of whom was an officer, for Bloemfontein. They were placed in
light carts and guarded by twenty Boers on horseback. The officer, who
had been captured a fortnight before, said to Yorke after they had
introduced themselves to each other:
"I am glad to meet someone who can give me a true account of what has
taken place since I was captured. Of course I did not believe the Boer
reports, but they were serious enough to make me feel very uneasy, for
if there were any truth in them, even allowing for exaggeration, it
certainly seemed that we must have been awfully cut up."
"The casualties have been heavy, but certainly not greater than would
be expected, considering that the Boers held very strong positions,
from which we turned them out three times. The fourth time, however,
our attack failed. I can't tell you exactly the number of casualties,
but I do not think altogether they exceeded one thousand six hundred,
and of these nearly a thousand occurred in the last fight."
He then gave a full account of each battle.
"Thank you. It is bad enough that we have been stopped, and shall not
be able to move again until reinforcements come up; still, it is not
so bad as I feared. We certainly underrated the fighting power of
the Boers; and the foreign engineer, who directs the making of their
entrenchments, must be a very clever fellow, for that plan of making
the trench well out in the plain in front of their kopjes was a capital
one, and as far as I know quite new."
"Yes, there never was a more complete surprise; and although poor
Wauchope fell into the trap, he can hardly be blamed for not taking
precautions against an entirely new plan of defence. If it hadn't been
for that I believe we should have captured the position without heavy
loss, for once among the boulders on the hillside our troops could have
fought their way up under partial shelter; and, as far as we have seen,
the Boers do not attempt to make a stand when once we get near them."
"I am afraid Kimberley must fall," the officer, whose name was D'Arcy,
said.
"I do not think that there is any fear of that. They have provisions
enough to last them, if pushed to it, for three months."
"That is good news. But are you sure?"
"Quite, for I was there myself ten days ago."
"You were there? How on earth did you manage to get out?"
"I will tell you that to-night," Yorke laughed. "I have been talking
steadily for the past two hours, and what with the heat and dust I
don't feel in form to begin again now. I suppose we shall get to
Bloemfontein the day after to-morrow; it is about eighty miles, I
think."
"Somewhere about that, I suppose. From there we shall be sent up by
train to Pretoria. It will be a pleasant change, for what with these
carts and the Boers' horses we might as well be living in the middle of
a dust-storm, except that we can keep our hats on our heads."
They were indeed heartily glad when they arrived at Bloemfontein.
They were taken direct to the railway-station where a number of the
prisoners captured at Stormberg were confined, and on the following
morning the whole party started by train to Pretoria. There were
several officers, and these were all placed in a carriage by
themselves. They had been permitted to buy tobacco at Bloemfontein.
Having now recovered to some extent from their disgust at being made
prisoners, they were disposed to view things in a more cheerful light.
As Yorke was the only one among them who had been with Methuen's
column, all were anxious to hear his account of what had happened on
that side, and he had again to repeat his story of the fights and of
his journey to Kimberley.
"You were in the action at Magersfontein?" one said. "I suppose that as
you were on the staff you did not see very much of it."
"Not much. But I was sent with a message to Lord Airlie, and when he
ordered the two squadrons of the 12th Lancers to go forward to cover
the flank of the Highland Brigade I followed them for some distance,
and remained near until the Horse Artillery came up to the support, and
the Coldstreams and Grenadiers took up the line between the Highlanders
and the river. I afterwards carried messages twice to the Highland
Brigade. Still, of course, I saw nothing of the early fighting, if it
can be called fighting, for the Scotchmen were all lying down, and but
few shots were returned on their part to the storm of bullets which
passed over their heads, for every shot was sure to be answered by a
dozen rifles from the Boer trenches. My escape was a miracle. My horse
was grazed twice, my saddle was struck, and I had two bullet-holes
through my clothes, and one through my helmet. I did not remain long,
you may be sure. I saw that the Highlanders were showing no signs of
giving way, and that the Boers seemed equally unwilling to advance.
That was the principal object of my mission. As for finding out who
was the officer in command, it was impossible. No man knew anything of
what was passing ten yards from him. Some said they believed all the
officers were killed. This, of course, was not so; but, as I afterwards
learned, no fewer than forty-six officers fell, for the most part
in the first terrible outburst of fire. Now, will you tell me about
Stormberg?"
"There is very little to tell," the other officer said bitterly.
"The fact that we were going to make a night attack was known in the
camp the night before, and of course the Boers heard of it; and when
we arrived at daybreak--after wandering about completely worn out and
exhausted by what was really a five or six hours' march, but seemed
like a month--a tremendous fire was poured in upon us. Some of us
dashed up the hill on one side, some up the other. The place, however,
was inaccessible, and we were being shot down without any power to
retaliate. The order came to retreat. A great many of us were lying
under the shelter of a perpendicular rock, which we could not leave
without being exposed to the fire of the Boers above us and those on
the opposite side. If the men had been fresh, the effort would have
been made, but they were too worn-out and dispirited, and so we were
captured. The guns and the Irish Rifles covered the retreat of the
rest. But if the Boers had been as enterprising as they were crafty
they might have cut the whole off, and not a man would have returned to
Molteno to tell the story.
"It was a sickening business altogether; we made blunder upon blunder.
The order for the march should not have been issued until we were
paraded. The troops should have rested all day and taken food with
them. The trucks should have been ready for us to entrain when we
marched down to the railway. We ought to have had better guides. There
ought to have been an advance-guard a quarter of a mile ahead. It was
known that the Boer position was strong, and that the enemy were at
least as numerous as we were, so we should have been brought up to
fight fresh and in good condition, instead of being exhausted, fagged
out, and dispirited by a tedious night march. Altogether our business
seems to have been very much like yours at Magersfontein, where
you were surprised just as we were, and where the men were already
exhausted from want of food, a night spent in the pouring rain and a
dispiriting night march. I hope to Heaven when the next fight takes
place that there will be no more of this night marching, but that the
troops will have a chance of going into action fresh, well fed, and
in good condition. Even in a flat country, without obstacles, a night
march is always a very ticklish business, as you found at Belmont,
where, as you say, the regiments lost their bearing and attacked the
wrong hills. But in a hilly country, with bad maps and guides of
doubtful honesty, it is almost certain to lead to disaster."
After twenty-four hours of tedious travelling the train arrived at
Pretoria, and the officers were marched off to one prison and the
men to another. The building was a small one, but some huts had been
erected in the yard. The prison already contained the officers who
had been captured at Nicholson's Nek in Natal, and the first batch of
those taken at Stormberg, and hearty greetings were exchanged by their
companions in misfortune, who pressed eagerly round asking for news.
It took some time to exhaust the budget, and although the news was far
from good, they were well satisfied, for they too had heard the most
exaggerated reports of the Boer victories from their guards.
"Now," the new-comers asked, "how do you get on here?"
"We are fairly well fed, but a good deal crowded; but they are talking
of sending us to the race-course. Our great difficulty is to pass the
time. We have bought a few balls and play at fives. We play cards, but
as no one has more than a few shillings in his pocket, we don't play
for money, and that takes away a good deal of the interest. You see, we
don't want to lose what little we have got, or to win anyone else's.
If more prisoners come in, and the provisions begin to run short in
the town--which they are likely enough to do, for there is no one to
work on the fields now or to get in the crops--the money will come in
very handy. Some of us were stripped altogether of our cash, but in
most cases the Boers, although they took our gold or left us at most a
sovereign, let us keep the silver. I suppose their theory was, that in
the first place gold was better in their pockets than in ours; and in
the second, that it was safer to deprive us of the means of bribing any
of our warders. They were wise there, for, judging by their appearance,
the majority of the guards are unmitigated ruffians, the Irish and
German scum of the place--the sort of men who would do anything for a
ten-pound note."
Yorke, for the first time, regretted when he heard this, that he had
as usual left his money with the paymaster. There had been nothing
to buy since he had left De Aar, and he felt sure that, if suspected
when scouting, the fact of his having money about him would add to the
suspicion that he was not what he seemed. He therefore handed over his
money to the officer who acted as paymaster to Rimington's Scouts,
and had only two days before drawn it from him and handed it to the
paymaster at head-quarters, retaining only some five or six shillings;
as his messing account would come in only once a week, and he could
then draw sufficient to pay it. He had congratulated himself on this
when he was captured, but he now wished that he had made a point of
concealing a few pounds somewhere about him. It would not have been a
very serious loss if it had been taken from him, and if he now had it,
it would be invaluable if he could find any opportunity of making his
escape.
"Have there been any attempts at escape?" he asked.
"Yes. Winston Churchill managed it, but not from this prison. Two of
our fellows got away, but the result is that we are looked after a good
deal sharper than we were. We are all locked up in our rooms at nine
o'clock; there are four fellows always on guard in the yard night and
day; I believe there are others round the wall. Besides, you see, even
if one could get away, one's difficulties would only then begin. A
disguise would have to be got, and that cannot be bought without money.
In the next place, there is not a soul among us who can speak their
beastly language, and, as we should have to buy food, we should be
detected at once."
"I shall escape if I can," Yorke said; "for I speak Taal well enough to
pass anywhere, and once outside I could make my way across the country,
even if I had to steal a Dutchman's coat. Still, after what you say, I
see that an escape can hardly be managed without money to bribe some of
the warders."
"Go by all means, if you can," the officer said. "You won't injure us,
for our case is hopeless now, and until we hear our bugles blowing
there is not a shadow of a chance of out getting away."