escape would be impossible. De Wet would at last be "cornered" and
forced to surrender--so, at least, the enemy thought. Our situation
seemed, nay was indeed, very critical.

To delay and wait for the fall of the river was out of the question. For
not only would it take at least fifteen days before the river would have
subsided to such a degree that we could hope to ford it, but De Wet's
old friend, General Knox, was at his heels. All we could do was to march
up the Caledon. That river, being much smaller than the Orange River,
would sooner fall and afford us a way of escape. Our hopes were
realised. De Wet found a ford where he and his whole commando passed
through. Once more he was a free man. We accompanied him for some
distance up the river, until we came to the farm of one Smith. Here
Captain Scheepers, Captain Fouché and myself left the main body and went
with our commando, consisting of about 300 men in all, in the direction
of Rouxville, where, on the 13th of December, we captured 150 of the 2nd
Brabants, who were sent to and _for_ us.

While in the Rouxville district we received a message from De Wet that
we should enter the Colony as soon as possible, and that he would try to
follow us up. He was, however, prevented from carrying out his
intentions. It seemed as if Providence had so ordained it that he should
not cross the Orange River, or, even crossing it, should not sojourn for
a long time in the land of the enemy. For no sooner had he passed the
Caledon, than the enemy concentrated on him and succeeded in driving him
back through Sprinkhaan Nek to the northern districts of the Orange Free
State.

This, however, afforded us a chance of slipping through on to British
soil. In the night of the 15th of December, at 2 A.M., we forded the