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.