Of the terribly hard work done by the 21st Brigade it has been impossible to take due note. Since the 28th of April they had covered on foot some 1200 miles, and had done more fighting and marching than any brigade at the front. They could count as many as forty-three engagements to their credit, and as one of the Sussex men said, "We have been in several tight corners, but have always come out on top." The Irish, Scottish, and Colonial Corps had all received their meed of praise, but certain English regiments, notably the Sussex, the Wiltshire, and the Liverpool Regiments, owing to the fact of their not being prominently engaged in the "historic" battles, got less than their share of appreciation, though no better and braver and more enduring regiments could be found in the British army. [Illustration: POSITION OF TROOPS ROUND THE BRANDWATER BASIN BEFORE THE SURRENDER OF PRINSLOO.] Operations were now carried forward with additional vigour, for it was known that Boers, some 6000 of them, led by Roux and Prinsloo, who had not bolted with De Wet, must still be in the neighbourhood of the Caledon Valley, the river behind them, the only passes available among the snow-capped mountains, Commando Nek below Fouriesburg, Stabbert's and Retief's Neks near Bethlehem, and Golden Gate, leading out of the valley. But these, it must be remembered, were fairly far apart, and loopholes of necessity were many. At all these points the British, lynx-eyed, furious at being given the slip by De Wet, crouched. General Hunter himself observed Retief's Nek, while General Bruce Hamilton barred Golden Gate, and Generals Paget and Rundle took up positions watching Stabbert's and Commando Neks respectively. To appreciate the nicety of the movement a glance at the map is necessary. The geographical nature of the situation in which the Boers found themselves after the battle of Bethlehem was thus concisely sketched by Mr. Spenser Wilkinson:-- "The Boers were holding a great mountain horse-shoe, of which the curved end is at the north, and the open end or back is on the Caledon River, the inside of the shoe being the basin of the Brandwater. On the right-hand limb of the shoe at the second nail from the end is Fouriesburg, and Retief's Nek is at the top right-hand nail, the road from Ficksburg to Bethlehem going up the Brandwater valley and over Retief's Nek. "Outside the horse-shoe to the right, the east, the road from Fouriesburg to Harrismith goes by the Little Caledon River, which is separated by a long east and west range of hills from the hilly plain of Bethlehem. North of this range is Naauwpoort, and from the Caledon Valley to Naauwpoort the road crosses over Naauwpoort's Nek and goes on to Harrismith on the north side of the range."