The regiment staggered, came on, staggered again, was overtaken by supporting companies of the Dublins and the Connaughts, came on, staggered once more, and finally dissolved into shreds, who ran swiftly back for cover, threading their way among their stricken comrades.

Never on this earth was there a retreat of which the survivors had less reason to be ashamed.

They had held on to the utmost capacity of human endurance.
Their Colonel, ten officers, and more than half the regiment were lying on the fatal hill.

Honour to them, and honour also to the gallant Dutchmen who, rooted in the trenches, had faced the rush and fury of such an onslaught! Today to them, tomorrow to us--but it is for a soldier to thank the God of battles for worthy foes.
It is one thing, however, to repulse the British soldier and it is another to rout him.

Within a few hundred yards of their horrible ordeal at Magersfontein the Highlanders reformed into a military body.