faith than for his hare-brained scheme that Cordua died.  At the same time it is impossible not to feel sorrow for this idealist of twenty-three who died for a cause which was not his own.  He was shot in the garden of Pretoria Gaol upon August 24th.  A fresh and more stringent proclamation from Lord Roberts showed that the British Commander was losing his patience in the face of the wholesale return of paroled men to the field, and announced that such perfidy would in future be severely punished.  It was notorious that the same men had been taken and released more than once.  One man killed in action was found to have nine signed passes in his pocket.  It was against such abuses that the extra severity of the British was aimed.

CHAPTER 29.

The advance to Komatipoort.

The time had now come for the great combined movement which was to sweep the main Boer army off the line of the Delagoa railway, cut its source of supplies, and follow it into that remote and mountainous Lydenburg district which had always been proclaimed as the last refuge of the burghers.  Before entering upon this most difficult of all his advances Lord Roberts waited until the cavalry and mounted infantry were well mounted again.  Then, when all was ready, the first step in this last stage of the regular campaign was taken by General Buller, who moved his army of Natal veterans off the railway line and advanced to a position from which he could threaten the flank and rear of Botha if he held his ground against Lord Roberts.  Buller’s cavalry had been reinforced by the arrival of Strathcona’s Horse, a fine body of Canadian troopers, whose services had been presented to the nation by the public-spirited nobleman whose name they bore.  They were distinguished by their fine physique, and by the lassoes, cowboy stirrups, and large spurs of the North-Western plains.

It was in the first week of July that Clery joined hands with the Heidelberg garrison, while Coke with the 10th Brigade cleared the right flank of the railway by an expedition as far as Amersfoort.  On July 6th the Natal communications were restored, and on the 7th Buller was able to come through to Pretoria and confer with the Commander-in-Chief.  A Boer force with heavy guns still hung about the line, and several small skirmishes were fought between Vlakfontein and Greylingstad in order to drive it away.  By the middle of July the immediate vicinity of the railway was clear save for some small marauding parties who endeavoured to tamper with the rails and the bridges.  Up to the end of the month the whole of the Natal army remained strung along the line of communications from Heidelberg to Standerton, waiting for the collection of forage and transport to enable them to march north against Botha’s position.