"Oh, blest Red Cross, like an angel in the trail of the men who slay!"
There were about ten dead English officers on the field and nineteen wounded, of whom three or four died afterwards.
"When did you see General Botha last?" Mrs. van Warmelo inquired.
"About three weeks ago, and then he was looking well and brown. He told me of a narrow escape he had had. He was completely surrounded and barely got off with his life. His hat was left behind, also his Bible and hymn-books. Lord Kitchener, courteously, and with a touch of humour, returned the books to him with a boy's hat which had been found on the field, thinking evidently that it belonged to the General's little son, who was known to go everywhere with him; but General Botha sent the hat back to Lord Kitchener with a message to the effect that it was not his son's, but had belonged to his 'achter-ryder,' and thanking him for the books."[5]
"Tell us some of your own escapes," Hansie begged, "I am sure you have had many."
"So many that I have forgotten them nearly all," he answered, "but one I shall never forget."
He then related how he and twenty of his men had once been pursued for four hours by about one thousand English. The bullets fell like hail about them, and he was keeping the saddle he rode on, as a curiosity, because of the many bullet holes in it. Once a bullet passed between his coat and shirt along his stomach, the shock taking his breath away. He was sure he had been mortally wounded, but could not stop to find out, and the very recollection of it still caused him to experience the sensation of coming into close contact with death.