Everywhere there were signs of the passage of the enemy.  A litter of crippled or dying horses marked their track, and a Krupp gun was found abandoned by the drift.  The Dewetsdorp prisoners, too, had been set loose, and began to stumble and stagger back to their countrymen, their boots worn off, and their putties wrapped round their bleeding feet.  It is painful to add that they had been treated with a personal violence and a brutality in marked contrast to the elaborate hospitality shown by the British Government to its involuntary guests.

On December 6th De Wet had at last reached the Orange River a clear day in front of his pursuers.  But it was only to find that his labours had been in vain.  At Odendaal, where he had hoped to cross, the river was in spate, the British flag waved from a post upon the further side, and a strong force of expectant Guardsmen eagerly awaited him there.  Instantly recognising that the game was up, the Boer leader doubled back for the north and safety.  At Rouxville he hesitated as to whether he should snap up the small garrison, but the commandant, Rundle, showed a bold face, and De Wet passed on to the Coomassie Bridge over the Caledon.  The small post there refused to be bluffed into a surrender, and the Boers, still dropping their horses fast, passed on, and got over the drift at Amsterdam, their rearguard being hardly across before Knox had also reached the river.

On the 10th the British were in touch again near Helvetia, where there was a rearguard skirmish.  On the 11th both parties rode through Reddersberg, a few hours separating them.  The Boers in their cross-country trekking go, as one of their prisoners observed, ‘slap-bang at everything,’ and as they are past-masters in the art of ox and mule driving, and have such a knowledge of the country that they can trek as well by night as by day, it says much for the energy of Knox and his men that he was able for a fortnight to keep in close touch with them.

It became evident now that there was not much chance of overtaking the main body of the burghers, and an attempt was therefore made to interpose a fresh force who might head them off.  A line of posts existed between Thabanchu and Ladybrand, and Colonel Thorneycroft was stationed there with a movable column.  It was Knox’s plan therefore to prevent the Boers from breaking to the west and to head them towards the Basuto border.  A small column under Parsons had been sent by Hunter from Bloemfontein, and pushed in upon the flank of De Wet, who had on the 12th got back to Dewetsdorp.  Again the pursuit became warm, but De Wet’s time was not yet come.  He headed for Springhaan Nek, about fifteen miles east of Thabanchu.  This pass is about four miles broad, with a British fort upon either side of it.  There was only one way to safety, for Knox’s mounted infantrymen and lancers were already dotting the southern skyline.  Without hesitation the whole Boer force, now some 2500 strong, galloped at full speed in open order through the Nek, braving the long range fire of riflemen and guns.  The tactics were those of French in his ride to Kimberley, and the success was as complete.  De Wet’s force passed through the last barrier which had been held against him, and vanished into the mountainous country round Ficksburg, where it could safely rest and refit.