d to
break through at some point or other that night.

Still nearer the enemy came, marching almost shoulder to shoulder.

The Commandants Van Coller and Van der Merwe did not go to Slangfontein.
They broke through the English columns near Jagersrust, and crossed the
Heilbron-Frankfort blockhouse line, where they put a few soldiers to
flight, not, however, without a loss of two burghers, who were killed.

Neither did the burghers under Veldtcornets Taljaart and Prinsloo
arrive. They preferred to go their own way--and all were captured with
the exception of twenty-eight men. But this misfortune was not due to
the blockhouses. On the contrary, they were taken prisoners when they
were attempting to hide themselves in small bodies. In this way more
than a hundred burghers fell into the hands of the English.

There were now with me Commandant Mentz, and portions of the commandos
of Commandants Bester, Cilliers, and Mears.

That afternoon we marched to a farm which was twelve miles from the
Lindley-Kroonstad line of blockhouses. When it was quite dark, we left
the farm with the intention of breaking through this line before
daybreak. There had been five or six hundred head of cattle with us,
but, without my being aware of it, they had gone astray in the darkness.

We intentionally left the path, because we thought that the English
would be most vigilant at points where paths crossed the line.

Suddenly we found ourselves at a wire fence. The darkness was so thick,
that it was only after we had cut the wire that we discovered that we
were close to a blockhouse. Although the house was not more than a
hundred paces from us, we could hear and see nothing. When we were some
four hundred paces on the other side of the line of the blockhouses, I
sent a burgher back to see if all the men and cattle had crossed
safely--for we were riding in a long trail, and amongst us were old men
and youngsters of only ten years, or even less. These boys would have
been taken away from their mothers had they stayed at home; and thus the
only way to keep them from captivity was to let them join the commandos.

The burgher soon returned, and told me that the whole commando and all
the cattle had crossed the line. Then I marched forward again.

At break of day we were close to the Valsch River. Here I made a short
halt, in order to allow the stragglers to come up. It was then that a
man came to me who had been riding far behind, and had thus no