of dawn; no 'envious
streaks' these, but the first message from the longed-for day which
ended that abominable night. When Pochefstroom finally came in sight
it was still a good five miles off, and those last five miles were as
bad as any part of the march. For though in some mysterious way the
coming of day had dispelled to a great extent the deadly sleepiness
from which most of us suffered, our aching limbs now began to make
themselves manifest, and those far-off trees never seemed to get any
nearer. However, by ten o'clock the last man was in, but very nearly
done. It had been a remarkable march--very remarkable seeing the
conditions under which some of the troops performed it.[12] For to do
from thirty-five to thirty-eight miles, most of it by night, on an
empty stomach, after a hard ten hours' work under a hot sun, in
sixteen hours, is a performance of which any troops may be justly
proud.

[Footnote 12: That minor operations such as these should
receive but scant recognition at the hands of historians is
not to be wondered at, but neither the official nor the
_Times_ histories in their accounts of this surprise of
Pochefstroom found space to mention the length of this march,
an omission which is very greatly to be wondered at.]

Nor was it altogether without result, for our mounted and
waggon-carried troops had arrived much earlier, and, fairly taking the
place by surprise, had surrounded it, killed seven, and captured some
seventy or eighty prisoners, and put a good many more to ignominious
and hasty flight.

We also obtained some draught beer. Beer! None of us had tasted it for
months. How it went down! Yet our memory of it is sad, for the
unfortunate manager of the brewery was afterwards shot by the Boers
for selling it to us. The column remained at Pochefstroom till the
12th, our stay being darkened by the melancholy death of the
signalling officer, Lieutenant Maddox, of the Somersetshire Light
Infantry, who was shot through the heart while going round his
stations.

[Illustration: A Group of Boer Prisoners taken at the Surprise of
Pochefstroom.]

On the 12th Colonel Hicks took command of a small force[13] which
moved out to occupy some kopjes overlooking two drifts over the Mooi
River. Starting at about 3 p.m., we did not reach our destination
(some five miles south of Frederickstadt) till dark. Somewhat to our
surprise, the hills were unoccupied,