for cavalry work, but the detour which French had to make carried him into the wild and broken district which lies to the north of the Little Crocodile River.  Here he was fiercely attacked on ground where his troops could not deploy, but with extreme coolness and judgment beat off the enemy.  To cover thirty-two miles in a day and fight a way out of an ambuscade in the evening is an ordeal for any leader and for any troops.  Two killed and seven wounded were our trivial losses in a situation which might have been a serious one.  The Boers appear to have been the escort of a strong convoy which had passed along the road some miles in front.  Next morning both convoy and opposition had disappeared.  The cavalry rode on amid a country of orange groves, the troopers standing up in their stirrups to pluck the golden fruit.  There was no further fighting, and on June 4th French had established himself upon the north of the town, where he learned that all resistance had ceased.

Whilst the cavalry had performed this enveloping movement the main army had moved swiftly upon its objective, leaving one brigade behind to secure Johannesburg.  Ian Hamilton advanced upon the left, while Lord Roberts’s column kept the line of the railway, Colonel Henry’s mounted infantry scouting in front.  As the army topped the low curves of the veld they saw in front of them two well-marked hills, each crowned by a low squat building.  They were the famous southern forts of Pretoria.  Between the hills was a narrow neck, and beyond the Boer capital.

For a time it appeared that the entry was to be an absolutely bloodless one, but the booming of cannon and the crash of Mauser fire soon showed that the enemy was in force upon the ridge.  Botha had left a strong rearguard to hold off the British while his own stores and valuables were being withdrawn from the town.  The silence of the forts showed that the guns had been removed and that no prolonged resistance was intended; but in the meanwhile fringes of determined riflemen, supported by cannon, held the approaches, and must be driven off before an entry could be effected.  Each fresh corps as it came up reinforced the firing line.  Henry’s mounted infantrymen supported by the horse-guns of J battery and the guns of Tucker’s division began the action.  So hot was the answer, both from cannon and from rifle, that it seemed for a time as if a real battle were at last about to take place.  The Guards’ Brigade, Stephenson’s Brigade, and Maxwell’s Brigade streamed up and waited until Hamilton, who was on the enemy’s right flank, should be able to make his presence felt.  The heavy guns had also arrived, and a huge cloud of debris rising from the Pretorian forts told the accuracy of their fire.