ks and
ran forward, calling each other by name, embracing, shaking hands, and
punching each other in the back and shoulders. It was a sight that very
few men watched unmoved. Indeed, the whole three hours was one of the
most brutal assaults upon the feelings that it has been my lot to endure.
One felt he had been entirely lifted out of the politics of the war, and
the question of the wrongs of the Boers disappeared before a simple
propostiton of brave men saluting brave men.

Early in the campaign, when his officers had blundered, General White had
dared to write: "I alone am to blame." But in this triumphal procession
twenty-two thousand gentlemen in khaki wiped that line off the slate, and
wrote, "Well done, sir," in its place, as they passed before him through
the town he had defended and saved.

III--THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE

The Boer "front" was at Brandfort, and, as Lord Roberts was advancing
upon that place, one already saw in the head-lines, "The Battle of
Brandfort." But before our train drew out of Pretoria Station we learned
that the English had just occupied Brandfort, and that the Boer front had
been pushed back to Winburg.

We decided that Brandfort was an impossible position to hold anyway, and
that we had better leave the train at Winburg. We found some selfish
consolation for the Boer repulse, in the fact that it shortened our
railroad journey by one day. The next morning when we awoke at the Vaal
River Station the train despatcher informed us that during the night the
"Rooineks" had taken Winburg, and that the burghers were gathered at
Smaaldel.

We agreed not to go to Winburg, but to stop off at Smaaldel. We also
agreed that Winburg was an impossible position to hold. When at eleven
o'clock the train reached Kroonstad, we learned than Lord Roberts was in
Smaaldel. It was then evident that if our train kept on and the British
army kept on there would be a collision. So we stopped at Kroonstad. In
talking it over we decided that, owing to its situation, Smaaldel was an
impossible position to hold.

The Sand River, which runs about forty miles south of Kroonstad, was the
last place in the Free State at which the burghers could hope to make a
stand, and at the bridge where the railroad spans the river, and at a
drift ten miles lower down, the Boers and Free Staters had collected to
the number of four thousand. Lord Roberts and his advancing column,
which was known to contain th