On the 28th Clements was still advancing, and contracting still further the space which was occupied by our stubborn foe.  He found himself faced by the stiff position of Slaapkrantz, and a hot little action was needed before the Boers could be dislodged.  The fighting fell upon Brabant’s Horse, the Royal Irish, and the Wiltshires.  Three companies of the latter seized a farm upon the enemy’s left, but lost ten men in doing so, while their gallant colonel, Carter, was severely wounded in two places.  The Wiltshires, who were excellently handled by Captain Bolton, held on to the farm and were reinforced there by a handful of the Scots Guards.  In the night the position was abandoned by the Boers, and the advance swept onwards.  On all sides the pressure was becoming unendurable.  The burghers in the valley below could see all day the twinkle of British heliographs from every hill, while at night the constant flash of signals told of the sleepless vigilance which hemmed them in.  Upon July 29th, Prinsloo sent in a request for an armistice, which was refused.  Later in the day he despatched a messenger with the white flag to Hunter, with an announcement of his unconditional surrender.

On July 30th the motley army which had held the British off so long emerged from among the mountains.  But it soon became evident that in speaking for all Prinsloo had gone beyond his powers.  Discipline was low and individualism high in the Boer army.  Every man might repudiate the decision of his commandant, as every man might repudiate the white flag of his comrade.  On the first day no more than eleven hundred men of the Ficksburg and Ladybrand commandos, with fifteen hundred horses and two guns, were surrendered. next day seven hundred and fifty more men came in with eight hundred horses, and by August 6th the total of the prisoners had mounted to four thousand one hundred and fifty with three guns, two of which were our own.  But Olivier, with fifteen hundred men and several guns, broke away from the captured force and escaped through the hills.  Of this incident General Hunter, an honourable soldier, remarks in his official report:  ’I regard it as a dishonourable breach of faith upon the part of General Olivier, for which I hold him personally responsible.  He admitted that he knew that General Prinsloo had included him in the unconditional surrender.’  It is strange that, on Olivier’s capture shortly afterwards, he was not court-martialled for this breach of the rules of war, but that good-natured giant, the Empire, is quick—­too quick, perhaps—­to let byegones be byegones.  On August 4th Harrismith surrendered to Macdonald, and thus was secured the opening of the Van Reenen’s Pass and the end of the Natal system of railways.  This was of the very first importance, as the utmost difficulty had been found in supplying so large a body of troops so far from the Cape base.  In a day the base was shifted to Durban, and the distance shortened by two-thirds, while the army came to be on the railway instead of a hundred miles from it.  This great success assured Lord Roberts’s communications from serious attack, and was of the utmost importance in enabling him to consolidate his position at Pretoria.