On March 5th General Gatacre found that the Boers were retreating in
front of him--in response, no doubt, to messages similar to those which
had already been received at Colesberg. Moving forward he occupied the
position which had confronted him so long. Thence, having spent some
days in drawing in his scattered detachments and in mending the railway,
he pushed forward on March 12th to Burghersdorp, and thence on the 13th
to Olive Siding, to the south of the Bethulie Bridge.

There are two bridges which span the broad muddy Orange River, thick
with the washings of the Basutoland mountains. One of these is
the magnificent high railway bridge, already blown to ruins by the
retreating Boers. Dead men or shattered horses do not give a more vivid
impression of the unrelenting brutality of war than the sight of a
structure, so graceful and so essential, blown into a huge heap of
twisted girders and broken piers. Half a mile to the west is the road
bridge, broad and old-fashioned. The only hope of preserving some mode
of crossing the difficult river lay in the chance that the troops might
anticipate the Boers who were about to destroy this bridge.

In this they were singularly favoured by fortune. On the arrival of a
small party of scouts and of the Cape Police under Major Nolan-Neylan at
the end of the bridge it was found that all was ready to blow it up, the
mine sunk, the detonator fixed, and the wire laid. Only the connection
between the wire and the charge had not been made. To make sure, the
Boers had also laid several boxes of dynamite under the last span,
in case the mine should fail in its effect. The advance guard of the
Police, only six in number, with Nolan-Neylan at their head, threw
themselves into a building which commanded the approaches of the bridge,
and this handful of men opened so spirited and well-aimed a fire that
the Boers were unable to approach it. As fresh scouts and policemen came
up they were thrown into the firing line, and for a whole long day they
kept the destroyers from the bridge. Had the enemy known how weak they
were and how far from supports, they could have easily destroyed them,
but the game of bluff was admirably played, and a fire kept up which
held the enemy to their rifle pits.

The Boers were in a trench commanding the bridge, and their brisk fire
made it impossible to cross. On the other hand, our rifle fire commanded
the mine and prevented any one from exploding it. But at the ap