about nine o'clock in the
morning
`` And what had taken place there ? '' Chris asked anxiously , `` for I know the place has not fallen or we should have heard of it . '' `` No , they beat the Boers off splendidly . However , they had hard work to do it , for the heliograph flashed a signal at about nine o'clock in the morning to say that they had so far beaten off the enemy , but were much pressed . We heard the next day that this had indeed been the case . Caesar 's Camp had been taken and retaken several times -- by our men at the point of the bayonet , by the Boers , by rushing up in overwhelming numbers . It is said that we have twelve hundred casualties , and the Boers at least fifteen hundred , of whom a large number were bayoneted .