appeared to indicate that the great
De Wet was back in his old hunting-grounds. On the same day the line was
cut at Standerton. A few days later, however, the impunity with which
these feats had been performed was broken, for in a similar venture near
Krugersdorp the dashing Theron and several of his associates lost their
lives.

Two other small actions performed at this period of the war demand a
passing notice. One was a smart engagement near Kraai Railway Station,
in which Major Broke of the Sappers with a hundred men attacked a
superior Boer force upon a kopje and drove them off with loss--a feat
which it is safe to say he could not have accomplished six months
earlier. The other was the fine defence made by 125 of the Canadian
Mounted Rifles, who, while guarding the railway, were attacked by
a considerable Boer force with two guns. They proved once more, as
Ladybrand and Elands River had shown, that with provisions, cartridges,
and brains, the smallest force can successfully hold its own if it
confines itself to the defensive.

And now the Boer cause appeared to be visibly tottering to its fall. The
flight of the President had accelerated that process of disintegration
which had already set in. Schalk Burger had assumed the office
of Vice-President, and the notorious Ben Viljoen had become first
lieutenant of Louis Botha in maintaining the struggle. Lord Roberts had
issued an extremely judicious proclamation, in which he pointed out the
uselessness of further resistance, declared that guerilla warfare would
be ruthlessly suppressed, and informed the burghers that no fewer
than fifteen thousand of their fellow-countrymen were in his hands as
prisoners, and that none of these could be released until the last rifle
had been laid down. From all sides in the third week of September
the British forces were converging on Komatipoort, the frontier town.
Already wild figures, stained and tattered after nearly a year of
warfare, were walking the streets of Lourenco Marques, gazed at with
wonder and some distrust by the Portuguese inhabitants. The exiled
burghers moodily pacing the streets saw their exiled President seated in
his corner of the Governor's verandah, the well-known curved pipe still
dangling from his mouth, the Bible by his chair. Day by day the number
of these refugees increased. On September 17th special trains were
arriving crammed with the homeless burghers, and with the mercenaries of
many nations--French