They Arrived There On
Thursday With Their Horses Dead Beat.
They were afoot at three
o'clock on Friday morning, and two brigades out of three were hard
at work
All day in an endeavour to capture the Dronfield position.
Yet when on the same evening an order came that French should start
again instantly from Kimberley and endeavour to head Cronje's army
off, he did not plead inability, as many a commander might, but
taking every man whose horse was still fit to carry him (something
under two thousand out of a column which had been at least five
thousand strong), he started within a few hours and pushed on
through the whole night. Horses died under their riders, but still
the column marched over the shadowy veld under the brilliant stars.
By happy chance or splendid calculation they were heading straight
for the one drift which was still open to Cronje. It was a close
thing. At midday on Saturday the Boer advance guard was already
near to the kopjes which command it. But French's men, still full
of fight after their march of thirty miles, threw themselves in
front and seized the position before their very eyes. The last of
the drifts was closed. If Cronje was to get across now, he must
crawl out of his trench and fight under Roberts's conditions, or he
might remain under his own conditions until Roberts's forces closed
round him. With him lay the alternative. In the meantime, still
ignorant of the forces about him, but finding himself headed off by
French, he made his way down to the river and occupied a long
stretch of it between Paardeberg Drift and Wolveskraal Drift,
hoping to force his way across. This was the situation on the night
of Saturday, February 17th.
In the course of that night the British brigades, staggering with
fatigue but indomitably resolute to crush their evasive enemy, were
converging upon Paardeberg. The Highland Brigade, exhausted by a
heavy march over soft sand from Jacobsdal to Klip Drift, were
nerved to fresh exertions by the word 'Magersfontein,' which flew
from lip to lip along the ranks, and pushed on for another twelve
miles to Paardeberg. Close at their heels came Smith-Dorrien's 19th
Brigade, comprising the Shropshires, the Cornwalls, the Gordons,
and the Canadians, probably the very finest brigade in the whole
army. They pushed across the river and took up their position upon
the north bank. The old wolf was now fairly surrounded. On the west
the Highlanders were south of the river, and Smith-Dorrien on the
north. On the east Kelly-Kenny's Division was to the south of the
river, and French with his cavalry and mounted infantry were to the
north of it. Never was a general in a more hopeless plight. Do what
he would, there was no possible loophole for escape.
There was only one thing which apparently should not have been
done, and that was to attack him. His position was a formidable
one.
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