It was on May 12th that Lord Roberts occupied Kroonstad, and he halted there for eight days before he resumed his advance.  At the end of that time his railway had been repaired, and enough supplies brought up to enable him to advance again without anxiety.  The country through which he passed swarmed with herds and flocks, but, with as scrupulous a regard for the rights of property as Wellington showed in the south of France, no hungry soldier was allowed to take so much as a chicken as he passed.  The punishment for looting was prompt and stern.  It is true that farms were burned occasionally and the stock confiscated, but this was as a punishment for some particular offence and not part of a system.  The limping Tommy looked askance at the fat geese which covered the dam by the roadside, but it was as much as his life was worth to allow his fingers to close round those tempting white necks.  On foul water and bully beef he tramped through a land of plenty.

Lord Roberts’s eight days’ halt was spent in consolidating the general military situation.  We have already shown how Buller had crept upwards to the Natal Border.  On the west Methuen reached Hoopstad and Hunter Christiana, settling the country and collecting arms as they went.  Rundle in the south-east took possession of the rich grain lands, and on May 21st entered Ladybrand.  In front of him lay that difficult hilly country about Senekal, Ficksburg, and Bethlehem which was to delay him so long.  Ian Hamilton was feeling his way northwards to the right of the railway line, and for the moment cleared the district between Lindley and Heilbron, passing through both towns and causing Steyn to again change his capital, which became Vrede, in the extreme north-east of the State.  During these operations Hamilton had the two formidable De Wet brothers in front of him, and suffered nearly a hundred casualties in the continual skirmishing which accompanied his advance.  His right flank and rear were continually attacked, and these signs of forces outside our direct line of advance were full of menace for the future.

On May 22nd the main army resumed its advance, moving forward fifteen miles to Honing’s Spruit.  On the 23rd another march of twenty miles over a fine rolling prairie brought them to Rhenoster River.  The enemy had made some preparations for a stand, but Hamilton was near Heilbron upon their left and French was upon their right flank.  The river was crossed without opposition.  On the 24th the army was at Vredefort Road, and on the 26th the vanguard crossed the Vaal River at Viljoen’s Drift, the whole army following on the 27th.  Hamilton’s force had been cleverly swung across from the right to the left flank of the British, so that the Boers were massed on the wrong side.