d Cronje's unconditional
surrender.

During the siege attempts were made by General De Wet to relieve
Cronje, but none succeeded. Several of the relieving forces, including
the pick of the Winburg Commando with Commandant Theunissen, were
themselves surrounded and captured in trying to break through the lines
of the besiegers.

To intensify the gloom, Ladysmith, which was daily expected to fall, was
relieved on the day of Cronje's surrender. For certain reasons the late
Commandant-General P. Joubert had evacuated the positions round
Ladysmith and retreated to the Biggar's Range. General Louis Botha, who
was engaging Buller's relieving forces at Colenso, was then also
compelled to retreat.

After Cronje's capture the way to Bloemfontein and Pretoria lay open.
The Boers made one more stand at Abraham's Kraal, where the enemy
suffered heavily, but carried the day by their overwhelming numbers.
After the British occupied Bloemfontein the Transvaal burghers became
reluctant to offer battle in the Free State, on the ground that there
were no positions from which they could successfully check the
ever-advancing foe. Many of the Free Staters were discouraged and
hopeless; but rest renewed their strength and zeal, and they shortly
returned to the struggles.

The second disaster which befell the two Republics was the ignominious
and cowardly surrender of Prinsloo, which took place on the 1st of
August, 1900. For various reasons this surrender was more keenly felt by
the Boers than that of Cronje. The one, though he might have blundered,
nevertheless acted the part of a brave, though obstinate, man; the other
that of a coward.

Some six weeks after the occupation of Bloemfontein the British troops
resumed their northward march, and so quickly did they advance, almost
day and night, that Pretoria was soon occupied. What this rapid movement
meant, we could not quite understand. Did Lord Roberts think that the
occupation of Pretoria would terminate hostilities? The British forces
in their swift march to the Transvaal capital left Free State burghers
behind them as they advanced. These men rallied again under General De
Wet and seriously threatened the English line of communications,
capturing seven hundred of the British at Roode Wal.

Large forces under Hector MacDonald and Bruce Hamilton recrossed the
Vaal in order to crush the Free Staters. Then Prinsloo surrendered.
Having accompanied the commandos that surrendered under