whether he was insufficiently supported by General Botha. The burghers
who were present at the engagement accused General Botha, while he
declared that Thewnissen had been imprudent. However that may be, we had
failed in our essay. The position had not been taken, and Commandant
Thewnissen, with a hundred whom we could ill spare, were in the hands of
the enemy, And to make matters still worse, our men were already seized
with panic, arising from the now hopeless plight of General Cronje and
his large force.

I, however, was not prepared to abandon all hope as yet. Danie Theron,
that famous captain of despatch-riders, had arrived on the previous day
with reinforcements. I asked him if he would take a verbal message to
General Cronje--I dare not send a written one, lest it should fall into
the hands of the English. Proud and distinct the answer came at
once--the only answer which such a hero as Danie Theron could have
given:

"Yes, General, I will go."

The risk which I was asking him to run could not have been surpassed
throughout the whole of our sanguinary struggle.

I took him aside, and told him that he must go and tell General Cronje
that our fate depended upon the escape of himself and of the thousands
with him, and that, if he should fall into the enemy's hands, it would
be the death-blow to all our hopes. Theron was to urge Cronje to
abandon the laager, and everything contained in it, to fight his way out
by night, and to meet me at two named places, where I would protect him
from the pursuit of the English.