For Over Two Hours The Khaki Waves With Their Crests Of
Steel Went Sweeping By.
High above their heads from the summit of
the Raad-saal the broad Union Jack streamed for the first
Time.
Through months of darkness we had struggled onwards to the light.
Now at last the strange drama seemed to be drawing to its close.
The God of battles had given the long-withheld verdict. But of all
the hearts which throbbed high at that supreme moment there were
few who felt one touch of bitterness towards the brave men who had
been overborne. They had fought and died for their ideal. We had
fought and died for ours. The hope for the future of South Africa
is that they or their descendants may learn that that banner which
has come to wave above Pretoria means no racial intolerance, no
greed for gold, no paltering with injustice or corruption, but that
it means one law for all and one freedom for all, as it does in
every other continent in the whole broad earth. When that is
learned it may happen that even they will come to date a happier
life and a wider liberty from that 5th of June which saw the symbol
of their nation pass for ever from among the ensigns of the world.
CHAPTER 26.
DIAMOND HILL - RUNDLE'S OPERATIONS.
The military situation at the time of the occupation of Pretoria
was roughly as follows. Lord Roberts with some thirty thousand men
was in possession of the capital, but had left his long line of
communications very imperfectly guarded behind him. On the flank of
this line of communications, in the eastern and north-eastern
corner of the Free State, was an energetic force of unconquered
Freestaters who had rallied round President Steyn. They were some
eight or ten thousand in number, well horsed, with a fair number of
guns, under the able leadership of De Wet, Prinsloo, and Olivier.
Above all, they had a splendid position, mountainous and broken,
from which, as from a fortress, they could make excursions to the
south or west. This army included the commandos of Ficksburg,
Senekal, and Harrismith, with all the broken and desperate men from
other districts who had left their farms and fled to the mountains.
It was held in check as a united force by Rundle's Division and the
Colonial Division on the south, while Colvile, and afterwards
Methuen, endeavoured to pen them in on the west. The task was a
hard one, however, and though Rundle succeeded in holding his line
intact, it appeared to be impossible in that wide country to coop
up altogether an enemy so mobile. A strange game of hide-and-seek
ensued, in which De Wet, who led the Boer raids, was able again and
again to strike our line of rails and to get back without serious
loss. The story of these instructive and humiliating episodes will
be told in their order. The energy and skill of the guerilla chief
challenge our admiration, and the score of his successes would be
amusing were it not that the points of the game are marked by the
lives of British soldiers.
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