D. HAIG, Lt.-Col.
Chief Staff Officer to Lt.-General French.

_September 15, 1900._


The sniping stopped forthwith.

One of the first things that French did was to go and personally
rescue his old enemy, Schoeman, from the local jail. That worthy,
having surrendered, had come into bad odour with his fellow
countrymen. In consequence he had been incarcerated at Barberton. For
once the unfortunate Schoeman was glad to see the face of his old
enemy again!

French rested his forces in Barberton for three weeks, leaving the
town on October 3. The march back to Pretoria was, if anything, more
trying than the adventurous dash to Barberton had been. Apart from the
trying climb over the heights of the Kaapsche Hoop, and the eternal
sniping of the Boers, the weather now brought new sufferings. The men
were exhausted by days of heat, and soaked by nights of torrential
rain. It was a thoroughly tired and jaded force which finally reached
Pretoria on November 3.

One incident of that trying march shows how ably French dealt with
Boer bluff. The enemy had made prisoner a captain of the R.A.M.C, and
sent a message that they would shoot him unless General French pledged
his word that he would burn no Boer farms. French replied that unless
the captured medical officer were brought into the British camp next