May it wave there so long as it covers just laws, honest officials, and clean-handed administrators--so long and no longer! And now the last stage of the great journey had been reached.

Two days were spent at Johannesburg while supplies were brought up, and then a move was made upon Pretoria thirty miles to the north.

Here was the Boer capital, the seat of government, the home of Kruger, the centre of all that was anti-British, crouching amid its hills, with costly forts guarding every face of it.

Surely at last the place had been found where that great battle should be fought which should decide for all time whether it was with the Briton or with the Dutchman that the future of South Africa lay.
On the last day of May two hundred Lancers under the command of Major Hunter Weston, with Charles of the Sappers and Burnham the scout, a man who has played the part of a hero throughout the campaign, struck off from the main army and endeavoured to descend upon the Pretoria to Delagoa railway line with the intention of blowing up a bridge and cutting the Boer line of retreat.

It was a most dashing attempt; but the small party had the misfortune to come into contact with a strong Boer commando, who headed them off.