On Wednesday morning the British batteries again poured their shells on the miserable and exhausted Boers.  Shortly before midday there was a lull in the storm, and the beleaguered burghers could hear the reports of the battle between the relieving force and the British troops.  The sounds of the fight grew fainter and fainter, then subsided altogether.  The bombardment of the laager was renewed, and the burghers realised that Froneman had been beaten back by the enemy.  The disappointment was so great that one hundred and fifty Boers bade farewell to their general, and laid down their arms to their enemy.  The following day was merely the repetition of the routine of former days, with the exception that the condition of the men and the laager was hourly becoming more miserable.  The wounded clamouring for relief was in itself a misery to those who were compelled to hear it, but to allow such appeals to go unanswered was heartrending.  To have the dead unburied seemed cruel enough, but to have the corpses before one’s eyes day after day was torture.  To know that the enemy was in ten times greater strength was disheartening, but to realise that there was no relief at hand was enough to dim the brightest courage.  Yet Cronje was undaunted.

Friday and Saturday brought nothing but a message from Froneman, again encouraging them to resist until reinforcements could be brought from Bloemfontein.  On Saturday evening Jan Theron, of Krugersdorp, succeeded in breaking through the British lines with despatches from General De Wet and Commandants Cronje and Froneman, urging General Cronje to fight a way through the lines whilst they would engage the enemy from their side.  Cronje and his officers decided to make an attempt to escape, and on Sunday morning the burghers commenced the construction of a chain-bridge across the Modder to facilitate the crossing of the swollen river.  Fortunately for the Boers the British batteries fired only one shot into the camp that day, and the burghers were able to complete the bridge before night by means of the ropes and chains from their ox-waggons.  On Monday morning the British guns made a target of the bridge, and shelled it so unremittingly that no one was able to approach it, much less make an attempt to cross the river by means of it.  The bombardment seemed to grow in intensity as the day progressed, and when two shells fell into a group of nine burghers, and left nothing but an arm and a leg to be found, the Krijgsraad decided to hoist a white flag on Tuesday morning.  General Cronje and Commandant Schutte were the only officers who voted against surrendering.  They begged the other officers to reconsider their decision, and to make an attempt to fight a way out, but the confidence of two men was too weak to change the opinions of the others.