with all its guns moving towards them. Whether
this was done of set purpose or whether the Boers imagined that the
British had turned and were intending to pursue them cannot now be
determined, but whatever the cause it is certain that for almost the
first time in the campaign a considerable force of each side found
themselves in the open and face to face.

It was a glorious moment. Setting spurs to their horses, officers
and men with a yell dashed forward at the enemy. One of the Boer guns
unlimbered and attempted to open fire, but was overwhelmed by the wave
of horsemen. The Boer riders broke and fled, leaving their artillery to
escape as best it might. The guns dashed over the veld in a mad gallop,
but wilder still was the rush of the fiery cavalry behind them. For once
the brave and cool-headed Dutchmen were fairly panic-stricken. Hardly a
shot was fired at the pursuers, and the riflemen seem to have been only
too happy to save their own skins. Two field guns, one pom-pom, six
maxims, fifty-six wagons and 140 prisoners were the fruits of that one
magnificent charge, while fifty-four stricken Boers were picked up after
the action. The pursuit was reluctantly abandoned when the spent horses
could go no farther.

While the vanguard had thus scattered the main body of the enemy a
detachment of riflemen had ridden round to attack the British rear and
convoy. A few volleys from the escort drove them off, however, with some
loss. Altogether, what with the loss of nine guns and of at least 200
men, the rout of Haartebeestefontein was a severe blow to the Boer
cause. A week or two later Sir H. Rawlinson's column, acting with
Babington, rushed Smuts's laager at daylight and effected a further
capture of two guns and thirty prisoners. Taken in conjunction with
French's successes in the east and Plumer's in the north, these
successive blows might have seemed fatal to the Boer cause, but the
weary struggle was still destined to go on until it seemed that it must
be annihilation rather than incorporation which would at last bring a
tragic peace to those unhappy lands.

All over the country small British columns had been operating during
these months--operations which were destined to increase in scope and
energy as the cold weather drew in. The weekly tale of prisoners and
captures, though small for any one column, gave the aggregate result of
a considerable victory. In these scattered and obscure actions there was
much good