A litter of crippled or dying horses marked their track, and a Krupp gun was found abandoned by the drift.

The Dewetsdorp prisoners, too, had been set loose, and began to stumble and stagger back to their countrymen, their boots worn off, and their putties wrapped round their bleeding feet.

It is painful to add that they had been treated with a personal violence and a brutality in marked contrast to the elaborate hospitality shown by the British Government to its involuntary guests.
On December 6th De Wet had at last reached the Orange River a clear day in front of his pursuers.

But it was only to find that his labours had been in vain.

At Odendaal, where he had hoped to cross, the river was in spate, the British flag waved from a post upon the further side, and a strong force of expectant Guardsmen eagerly awaited him there.