306 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
poor
old tired soldier, wrapped up in clean sheets and blankets, was lying
on the ground, sleeping as only a weary soldier can sleep. He had found
the house too stuffy after sleeping so long on the veld.
General
French moved at daybreak the morning after his arrival, taking with him
about half of his column and four batteries of field guns. He gave
battle to the Boers north of Kimberley, and cleared them out of their
late haunts. The Boers left one gun behind, an old Armstrong gun, the
limber of which was captured November 25th. On Saturday morning
at
daybreak General French left for Paardeberg, taking those of his troops
who had rested on Friday, and the others followed the next day.
It
has often been asserted that Rhodes interfered with the military. He
did suggest to Lord Methuen that there were more ways into Kimberley
than the one over the Magersfontein and Spyt-fontein kopjes, and
mentioned the route over which General French came when he relieved
Kimberley. He proposed that small forts be built, ;very three or four
miles, advancing from Modder River and keeping up the base of supplies
at that place. His plan was substantially the blockhouse system, which
the army later idopted, only that forts, instead of houses, would have
been lecessary, as the Boers then had cannon. The only reply to :his
suggestion was an order to the officers commanding Kim-serley to have
no communication whatever with Mr. Rhodes an military subjects.
Fortunately for the defence of Kimberley, Rhodes's energies
