the disobedience of our burghers for the fact that they were not all
starved to death in Pretoria.

I arranged with General Froneman that he should cross the line at the
point I had already selected, that is to say, north of Rhenoster River
bridge, and that in the morning he should attack, from the eastern side,
the English who were posted at Leeuwspruit Bridge. I, in the meanwhile,
would make my way with a Krupp to the west side of the line, and having
found a place of concealment near Roodepoort, would be ready to fall
upon the English as soon as I heard that the other party had opened fire
on them from the east.

But my plan was to come to nothing. For when, during the night, Froneman
reached the line, a skirmish took place then and there with the English
outposts at Leeuwspruit railway bridge. At the same time a train arrived
from the south, on which the burghers opened such a fierce fire that it
was speedily brought to a standstill. General Froneman at once gave
orders to storm the train, but his men did not carry out his orders.

_Had they done so, Lord Kitchener would have fallen into our hands!_

Nobody knew that he was in the train, and it was only later that we
heard how, when the train stopped, he got a horse out of one of the
waggons, mounted it, and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Shortly afterwards the train moved on again, and our great opportunity
was gone!

General Froneman succeeded in overpowering the garrison at the railway
bridge, and took fifty-eight prisoners. He then set fire to the bridge,
which was a temporary wooden structure, having been built to replace
another similar one, which had been blown up with gunpowder.

Three hundred Kaffirs were also made prisoners on this occasion. They
protested that they had no arms, and had only been employed in work upon
the railway line. This absence of rifles was their saving. Possibly they
had really been in possession of arms, and had thrown them away under
cover of the darkness; but the burghers could not know this, and
therefore acted upon the principle that it is better to let ten culprits
escape than to condemn an innocent man to death.

General Froneman went on towards the east of Doorndraai. He was very
well satisfied with his bridge-burning and his capture of prisoners, and
in his satisfaction he never gave thought to me.

I waited in my hiding-place, expecting that, as we had agreed, the
firing would begin from the east, but