A month later, when some inkling of the terms reached the Boers, a
solemn protest and warning was issued, and when the Royal Commission
actually sat, the British representatives were informed that any
such curtailment of the territories would be followed by a
resumption of hostilities. Needless to say the proposals were
abandoned and the Boers got their way. So ended the war.

Ingogo has been called a drawn battle. Bronkhorst Spruit was--such as
it was. At Laing's Nek and Majuba the Boers beat us, as Mr. Carter
fairly puts it, 'when they were on the top of the hill and we were at
the bottom, and when we were on the top of the hill and they were at
the bottom.' The narrative of these events is about as humiliating a
one as an Englishman can read. Here and there it is redeemed by the
heroic conduct of individuals in the midst of general disaster. In
the smaller affairs, such as the particularly gallant defences of
Standerton, Potchefstroom, and Rustenberg, where little garrisons
held their own with conspicuous ability and courage, there is
something to cheer the disheartened reader. The defence of
Potchefstroom by Colonel Winslow should be read in full for several
reasons. The siege of Standerton witnessed several acts of valour,
but, above all, that of Hall the volunteer, who single handed
deliberately engaged a force of over 300 Boers, drawing their fire on
himself in order to warn his comrades of the danger of being cut off
and to give them a chance of escape--a noble act in which the gallant
fellow achieved his object but lost his life. It was in Rustenberg
where Captain Auchinleck, with about seventy men armed only with
rifles, held his laager against hundreds of the enemy, fighting day
and night for weeks; and eventually drove off the Boers who were
trenching towards his position by charging at night with from nine to
fourteen of his men and clearing the enemy out of the trenches with