ing at Roodepoort, and
that in the meantime they must hold their position.

I rode off, and discovered that the English were already so close to our
troops at Roodepoort that fighting with small arms had begun. I had just
reached an eminence between Roodepoort and the Honingkopjes when I saw
that the burghers in the position furthest towards the north-west were
beginning to flee. This was exactly what I had feared would happen.
Immediately afterwards the men in the centre position, and therefore the
nearest to me, followed their comrades' example. I watched them
loosening their horses, which had been tethered behind a little hill;
they were wild to get away from the guns of the English and from the
advance of this mighty force.

It was impossible for me now to go and tell the burghers on the
Honingkopjes that the time had come when they too must retreat. My only
course was to order the men near me not to effect their escape along the
well protected banks of the river, but to the south, right across the
stream, by a route which would be visible to burghers on the
Honingkopjes. They obeyed my orders, and rode out under a heavy gun and
rifle fire, without, however, losing a single man. The men on the
Honingkopjes saw them in flight, and were thus able to leave their
position before the enemy had a chance of driving them into the river or
of cutting them off from the drift.

Unfortunately, seven burghers from Heilbron were at a short distance
from the others, having taken up their position in a _kliphok_.[53]
Fighting hard as they were, under a deafening gun-fire from the enemy,
who had approached to within a few paces of them, they did not observe
that their comrades had left their positions. Shortly afterwards,
despairing of holding the _kliphok_ any longer, they ran down to the
foot of the hill for their horses, and saw that the rest of the burghers
were already fleeing some eight or nine hundred paces in front of them,
and that their own horses had joined in the flight. There was now only
one course open to them--to surrender to the English.[54]

I ordered the burghers to retreat in the direction of Kroonstad, for by
now they had all fled from Roodepoort and Honingkopjes--a name which,
since that day, has never sounded very _sweet_ to me.[55]

During the morning I received a report informing me that there were
large stores at Kroonstad belonging to the English Commissariat, and
that there was only a handful of troo