The casualties are in themselves enough to show how creditable was the resistance of the Yeomanry.  Out of a force of under four hundred men they had six officers and fifty-one men killed, eight officers and eighty men wounded.  There have been very few surrenders during the war in which there has been such evidence as this of a determined stand.  Nor was it a bloodless victory upon the part of the Boers, for there was evidence that their losses, though less than those of the British, were still severe.

The prisoners, over two hundred in number, were hurried away by the Boers, who seemed under the immediate eye of De Wet to have behaved with exemplary humanity to the wounded.  The captives were taken by forced marches to the Basuto border, where they were turned adrift, half clad and without food.  By devious ways and after many adventures, they all made their way back again to the British lines.  It was well for De Wet that he had shown such promptness in getting away, for within three hours of the end of the action the two regiments of Imperial Horse appeared upon the scene, having travelled seventeen miles in the time.  Already, however, the rearguard of the Boers was disappearing into the fastness of the Langberg, where all pursuit was vain.

Such was the short but vigorous campaign of De Wet in the last part of December of the year 1901.  It had been a brilliant one, but none the less his bolt was shot, and Tweefontein was the last encounter in which British troops should feel his heavy hand.  His operations, bold as they had been, had not delayed by a day the building of that iron cage which was gradually enclosing him.  Already it was nearly completed, and in a few more weeks he was destined to find himself and his commando struggling against bars.

CHAPTER 37.

The campaign of January to April, 1902.

At the opening of the year 1902 it was evident to every observer that the Boer resistance, spirited as it was, must be nearing its close.  By a long succession of captures their forces were much reduced in numbers.  They were isolated from the world, and had no means save precarious smuggling of renewing their supplies of ammunition.  It was known also that their mobility, which had been their great strength, was decreasing, and that in spite of their admirable horsemastership their supply of remounts was becoming exhausted.  An increasing number of the burghers were volunteering for service against their own people, and it was found that all fears as to this delicate experiment were misplaced, and that in the whole army there were no keener and more loyal soldiers.