His dark face was bearded and virile, but sedate and gentle in expression.

He spoke little, but what he said was to the point, and he had the gift of those fire-words which brace and strengthen weaker men.

In hunting expeditions and in native wars he had first won the admiration of his countrymen by his courage and his fertility of resource.

In the war of 1880 he had led the Boers who besieged Potchefstroom, and he had pushed the attack with a relentless vigour which was not hampered by the chivalrous usages of war.

Eventually he compelled the surrender of the place by concealing from the garrison that a general armistice had been signed, an act which was afterwards disowned by his own government.