and, if he left that chair once, on one excuse or another, he left it
a hundred times, coming back looking more thoroughly upset and nervous
each time, until at last he never came back at all. And the painter's
only chance of sketching him was at the club during dinner!"[13]

At last the main army was ready for work again, and on May 1 the
troops moved out of the fever-stricken town. French and his cavalry
were the last to leave, but they overtook Lord Roberts and the main
body, and led the way to Kroonstad, once again the seat of the Free
State Government. Here by one of his famous turning movements, French
cleverly forced the enemy to surrender and give up the keys of the
town. Keeping ahead of Lord Roberts and his forces, he crossed the
Vaal River and was first at the gates of Johannesburg, which the
British entered on May 31.

[Page Heading: THE GUNS]

After two days in the mining city, Lord Roberts' triumphant forces
moved on their way to Pretoria. French's next task was to cut the
railway communications to the north of Pretoria. In carrying this out
he made a wide detour to the west, where his cavalry found themselves
in a treacherous country of kopjes, scrub and menacing gorges, a type
of country most dangerous to mounted men. Anxiously he pushed forward
to reach open country before nightfall (of June 2). But the Boers were
before him. A sudden hail of Mauser bullets and shells announced an
ambush. But French was undismayed. "Quietly, in complete mastery of
the situation, General French gave his orders. 'Make room for the
guns,' passed down the line; and like a fire engine to the rescue, up
dashed a section of horse artillery and a pom-pom."[14] Very quickly
the enemy was beaten off, in spite of the fatigue of a thirty-two