from Von Donop's convoy had free play now that the
British guns were out of action, and they were brought to bear with
crushing effect upon both the kraal and the wagons. Further resistance
meant a useless slaughter, and orders were given for a surrender.
Convoy, ammunition, guns, horses--nothing was saved except the honour
of the infantry and the gunners. The losses, 68 killed and 121 wounded,
fell chiefly upon these two branches of the service. There were 205
unwounded prisoners.

This, the last Boer victory in the war, reflected equal credit upon
their valour and humanity, qualities which had not always gone hand in
hand in our experience of them. Courtesy and attention were extended to
the British wounded, and Lord Methuen was sent under charge of his chief
medical officer, Colonel Townsend (the doctor as severely wounded as the
patient), into Klerksdorp. In De la Rey we have always found an opponent
who was as chivalrous as he was formidable. The remainder of the force
reached the Kimberley to Mafeking railway line in the direction of
Kraaipan, the spot where the first bloodshed of the war had occurred
some twenty-nine months before.

On Lord Methuen himself no blame can rest for this unsuccessful action.
If the workman's tool snaps in his hand he cannot be held responsible
for the failure of his task. The troops who misbehaved were none of his
training. 'If you hear anyone slang him,' says one of his men, 'you are
to tell them that he is the finest General and the truest gentleman that
ever fought in this war.' Such was the tone of his own troopers, and
such also that of the spokesmen of the nation when they commented upon
the disaster in the Houses of Parliament. It was a fine example of
British justice and sense of fair play, even in that bitter moment, that
to hear his eulogy one would have thought that the occasion had been one
when thanks were being returned for a victory. It is a generous public
with fine instincts, and Paul Methuen, wounded and broken, still
remained in their eyes the heroic soldier and the chivalrous man of
honour.

The De Wet country had been pretty well cleared by the series of drives
which have already been described, and Louis Botha's force in the
Eastern Transvaal had been much diminished by the tactics of Bruce
Hamilton and Wools-Sampson. Lord Kitchener was able, therefore, to
concentrate his troops and his attention upon that wide-spread western
area in which General De la Rey ha