CHAPTER VIII {p.266}.
THE RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY AND OF LADYSMITH, AND THE SURRENDER OF CRONJE The month of February, 1900, which opened with the reverse at Vaal Krantz, proved to be the culminating period of the war.

During its course, the tide, which had been running strongly against the British, turned decisively in their favour.

Before it closed, Kimberley and Ladysmith had been relieved and Cronje forced to surrender.
After the affair at Magersfontein, December 11, Methuen and Cronje remained confronting one another.

The British strengthened themselves upon the line of the Modder, by the railroad; the Boers, from the kopjes of Spytfontein, some three miles to the northward, gradually extended their works {p.267} east and west until in both directions their flanks rested upon the river.

Shelling by guns of long range was carried on intermittingly by both parties, and there were small affairs from time to time, but nothing on a large scale occurred.
After his arrival on January 10, Lord Roberts spent three weeks in Cape Town arranging for his campaign.