This was carried by the enemy, who sent an exultant message along the telephone to Baden-Powell to tell him that they had got it.

Two other positions within the lines, one a stone kraal and the other a hill, were held by the Boers, but their supports were slow in coming on, and the movements of the defenders were so prompt and energetic that all three found themselves isolated and cut off from their own lines.

They had penetrated the town, but they were as far as ever from having taken it.
All day the British forces drew their cordon closer and closer round the Boer positions, making no attempt to rush them, but ringing them round in such a way that there could be no escape for them.

A few burghers slipped away in twos and threes, but the main body found that they had rushed into a prison from which the only egress was swept with rifle fire.

At seven o'clock in the evening they recognised that their position was hopeless, and Eloff with 117 men laid down their arms.
Their losses had been ten killed and nineteen wounded.