We travelled till midnight, halted for an hour, and then forward again till sunrise, when we crossed the Pienaar’s River.  Here we found a fair-sized commando under a general whose name I forget, as that was the only time I ever heard it.  He was expecting an attack, the waggons were already retreating.  We halted long enough to prepare breakfast, during which time the President shot a few bush doves.  Hardly had we finished the meal when the rat-tat, rat-tat of small-arms showed that the British were approaching.  Then a Maxim rattled forth amongst the rocks, and warned us that the action had begun in earnest.

The commando kept the enemy back just long enough to give us a decent start, and then retired.  We afterwards learnt that this British force—­under Barnum-Powell, of Tarascon—­had been sent out from Pretoria expressly to intercept us.  It was a close thing—­had the enemy been a little smarter they might have had us.  As it was, we doubled away under cover of the bush, and were soon out of reach.

Now followed a week of rapid trekking, varied with a little shooting now and then at the partridges and bright-plumaged birds that abound in the bushveld, and once relieved by the sight of a magnificent bush fire, a sea of roaring flame.  I must not forget our banjoist, who of nights beguiled our careworn chief with cheery marches, quicksteps, and comic songs.  Finally we emerge upon the hoogeveld of Middelburg, to find the town in the enemy’s hands.  We make for Roossenekal.  Again the British are before us.  We turn away towards Machadodorp.  As we near the village Schalk Burger comes out to meet us.  He and Steyn speak earnestly together.  Burger is more silent, more taciturn than ever.  We push on, and reach Machadodorp, where a train is in waiting.  The station is crowded with Transvaalers, all eager to shake their gallant Free State brethren by the hand.  The President and party enter the carriage, the engine whistles, and the train speeds down to Waterval Onder, where Paul Kruger and his advisers are impatiently awaiting its arrival.

END OF THE REGULAR WAR

The battle of Machadodorp was expected to A take place at any moment, and the general feeling was that this fight should decide the campaign, the more so as the issue was confidently awaited by us.  On the second day after Steyn’s arrival at Waterval Onder the British attacked.  Never before in the history of the war had such a furious bombardment been known.  Only those who have witnessed the fierce storms of the tropics can form an idea of the awful unending roar of the lyddite guns as they belched forth one continuous shrieking mass of projectiles into the defenders’ trenches.  At Waterval Onder the two Governments listened in silent suspense as the sonorous reverberations rolled through the mountains, louder and fiercer yet, till the firm earth shook beneath the shock.