This force was guided by a son of one of the Free State Members of Parliament, and, marching all night, reached Reitz just as the day began to dawn.

This was a smart piece of business; and though the guide to whom its success was due was my enemy, I fully appreciated the skill which he then displayed.
The English captured ten or twelve burghers at Reitz, whither they had perhaps gone in search of the President.
I was ten miles to the west, on the farm of Blijdschap, and did not receive reports of what had happened until towards noon.
What was I to do?
I could not call up men from Heilbron, Bethlehem, Vrede, or Harrismith: it would have been at least twenty-four hours before they could have arrived.

All I could do was to summon Veldtcornet Vlok with some of the Parijs commandos and Veldtcornet Louwrens, and Matthijs De Beer, and the men.

With these and my staff we would not number more than sixty or seventy all told.
I at once gave orders to these veldtcornets to meet me at a certain place, and they were there by the appointed hour.
My intention was to deliver a flank attack upon the English while they retreated during the night; for, as they only numbered five hundred men, I felt sure that they would not care to remain thirty miles away from their column, but would fall back upon Bethlehem.
In the afternoon I marched to within a short distance of Reitz, in order to discover the enemy's plans; then, immediately after sunset, I sent a few burghers quite close to the town, with orders to meet me again at a certain point about two thousand paces to the south, and to inform me whither the enemy were going to march.

The scouts returned at ten o'clock that night, and reported that the enemy was on the march towards Harrismith.