I myself, with Commandant Nel and some of his adjutants, followed them when the sun had set.

We rode the whole of that night, and reached the township on the following morning.

We immediately arranged that the Government should withdraw from Kroonstad, and that very day it was removed to Heilbron.

President Steyn, however, did not go to Heilbron, but paid a visit to General Philip Botha, whose commando had held back the English outposts some six miles from Kroonstad.
The President, before leaving the town, had stationed police on the banks of the Valsch River with orders to prevent burghers from entering the dorp[39]; he had only just crossed the drift before my arrival.

I came upon some burghers who, as they had been ordered, had off-saddled at the south side of the river, and I asked them if they had seen the President.