orders to proceed in a direction
parallel to the advance of the English, who now were nearing
Paardenberg's Drift, and to keep a keen eye on their movements. It was a
large force that Lubbe had to watch. It consisted chiefly of mounted
troops; but there were also nine or ten batteries and a convoy of light
mule waggons.

I thought that as General Cronje was opposing them in front, my duty was
to keep myself in hiding and to reconnoitre.

I wished to communicate with General Cronje before the English troops
came up to him, and with this object I sent out a despatch rider. The
man I chose for the mission was Commandant G.J. Scheepers--whose name
later in the war was on every man's lips for his exploits in Cape
Colony, but who then was only the head of our heliograph corps. I
informed General Cronje in my message that the English, who had been
stationed at Blauwbank, had made a move in the direction of
Paardenberg's Drift; and I advised him to get out of their road as
quickly as he could, for they numbered, according to my computation,
forty or fifty thousand men.

I thought it wise to give Cronje this advice, on account of the women
and children in our camps, who might easily prove the cause of disaster.
When Scheepers returned he told me what reply General Cronje had made.
It is from no lack of respect for the General, whom I hold in the
highest honour as a hero incapable of fear, that I set down what he
said. It is rather from a wish to give a proof of his undaunted courage
that I quote his words.

"Are you afraid of things like that?" he asked, when Scheepers had given
my message. "Just you go and shoot them down, and catch them when they
run."

At Paardenberg's Drift there were some Free-Staters' camps that stood
apart from the others. In these camps there were a class of burghers who
were not much use in actual fighting. These men, called by us "water
draggers," correspond to the English "non-combatants." I ordered these
burghers to withdraw to a spot two hours' trek from there, where there
was more grass. But before all had obeyed this order, a small camp,
consisting of twenty or thirty waggons, was surprised and taken.

In the meantime, keeping my little commando entirely concealed, I spied
out the enemy's movements.

On the 16th of February, I thought I saw a chance of dealing an
effective blow at Lord Roberts. Some provision waggons, escorted by a
large convoy, were passing by, following in the wake of