Such feats as the cutting of this railway or the subsequent saving of the Bethulie Bridge by Grant and Popham are of more service to the country than any degree of mere valour untempered by judgment.
Among other results the cutting of the line secured for us twenty-eight locomotives, two hundred and fifty trucks, and one thousand tons of coal, all of which were standing ready to leave Bloemfontein station.
The gallant little band were nearly cut off on their return, but fought their way through with the loss of two horses, and so got back in triumph.
The action of Driefontein was fought on the 10th.

The advance began on the morning of the 11th.

On the morning of the 13th the British were practically masters of Bloemfontein.

The distance is forty miles.

No one can say that Lord Roberts cannot follow a victory up as well as win it.
Some trenches had been dug and sangars erected to the north-west of the town; but Lord Roberts, with his usual perverseness, took the wrong turning and appeared upon the broad open plain to the south, where resistance would have been absurd.