four o'clock in the morning
of Sunday the 25th
The hillside between the two trenches was strewn with dead and wounded . The sufferings of the latter had been terrible . For six-and-thirty hours they had lain where they fell , their only relief being a little water , that in the short intervals during the fighting some kindly Boers had crept down to give them . The truce began at four o'clock in the morning of Sunday the 25th , and the foes of the previous day mingled with each other in the sad work , conversing freely with each other . The Boers expressed their astonishment that such an attempt should ever have been made , and their stupefaction at the manner in which the Irish had pressed on through a fire in which it had seemed that no human being could have existed for a minute . When informed of the relief of Kimberley , and the fact that Cronje was hopelessly surrounded , they scoffed at the news as a fable , and were so honestly amused that it was evident they had been kept absolutely in the dark by their leaders . Captain Brookfield and his party had remained at the lookout until darkness set in .