Surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge, the view from this fort was magnificent.

The Boers were in the act of making a double-wire entanglement round it, and had evidently meant to offer there a stubborn resistance, when more prudent counsels prevailed, and they had left their work half finished, and decamped, carrying off all their ammunition.

In the town itself General French and his Staff had established themselves at the Netherlands Club, from which resort the members had been politely ejected.
To outward appearances, civil as well as military business was being transacted in Pretoria with perfect smoothness, in spite of the proximity of the enemy.

The yeomanry were acting as police both there and in Johannesburg.

The gaol, of which we had a glimpse, was crowded with 240 prisoners, but was under the competent direction of the usual English under-official, who had been in the service of the Transvaal, and who had quietly stepped into the shoes of his chief, a Dutchman, when the latter bolted with Kruger.