I was told that they had said: "De Wet was either too wise or too frightened to attack Dewetsdorp; and if he did, he would only be running his head against a wall." And again, when they had received the telegram which informed them that I had gone through Springhaansnek, they said: "If De Wet comes here to attack us, it will be the last attack he will ever make." We came to the farm of Roodewal, and remained there, well out of sight, the whole of the 20th of November.

Meanwhile our friends ( ?) at Dewetsdorp were saying: "The Boers are ever so far away." But on the evening of the same day I marched, very quietly, back to Dewetsdorp, and crept up as close as I dared to the positions held by the enemy's garrison.

My early days had been spent in the vicinity of this town, which had been named after my father by the Volksraad; and later on I had bought from him the farm[74] where I lived as a boy.
By day or by night, I had been accustomed to ride freely in and out of the old town; never before had I been forced to approach it, as I was now, _like a thief_! Was nothing on this earth then solid or lasting?
To think that I must not enter Dewetsdorp unless I were prepared to surrender to the English! I was _not_ prepared to surrender to the English.

Sooner than do that I would break my way in by force of arms.
At dawn, on the 21st of November, we took possession of three positions round the town.
General Botha, who had with him Jan and Arnoldus Du Plessis as guides, went from Boesmansbank to a _tafelkop_,[75] to the south-east of the town.

On this mountain the English had thrown up splendid _schanzes_, and had also built gun forts there, which would have been very advantageous to us, if we had only had more ammunition.