ish newspapers--at
Springhaansnek. They would be sure to think that after reconnoitring
their positions at Dewetsdorp we had gone on to Bloemfontein. Indeed, I
heard afterwards that they had sent a patrol, to pursue us to the hills
on the farm of Glengarry, and that this patrol had seen us march away in
the direction of Bloemfontein. In fact the enemy seemed to have a fixed
impression that I was going there. I was told that they had said: "De
Wet was either too wise or too frightened to attack Dewetsdorp; and if
he did, he would only be running his head against a wall." And again,
when they had received the telegram which informed them that I had gone
through Springhaansnek, they said: "If De Wet comes here to attack us,
it will be the last attack he will ever make."

We came to the farm of Roodewal, and remained there, well out of sight,
the whole of the 20th of November. Meanwhile our friends (?) at
Dewetsdorp were saying: "The Boers are ever so far away."

But on the evening of the same day I marched, very quietly, back to
Dewetsdorp, and crept up as close as I dared to the positions held by
the enemy's garrison. My early days had been spent in the vicinity of
this town, which had been named after my father by the Volksraad; and
later on I had bought from him the farm[74] where I lived as a boy.

By day or by night, I had been accustomed to ride freely in and out of
the old town; never before had I been forced to approach it, as I was
now, _like a thief_! Was nothing on this earth then solid or lasting? To
think that I must not enter Dewetsdorp unless I were prepared to
surrender to the English!

I was _not_ prepared to surrender to the English. Sooner than do that I
would break my way in by force of arms.

At dawn, on the 21st of November, we took possession of three positions
round the town.

General Botha, who had with him Jan and Arnoldus Du Plessis as guides,
went from Boesmansbank to a _tafelkop_,[75] to the south-east of the
town. On this mountain the English had thrown up splendid _schanzes_,
and had also built gun forts there, which would have been very
advantageous to us, if we had only had more ammunition. The English had
undoubtedly built these forts with the intention of placing guns there,
and thus protecting the town on every side should danger threaten. But
they did not know how to guard their own forts, for when General Botha
arrived there he found only three sentries--and they were fast sleep!