About a quarter of a mile from town the guns unlimbered, and we could
not help feeling satisfaction at watching the shells exploding in the
laager--that laager we had watched for so many months, and had never
been able to touch. The Boers had evidently never expected the column to
be in the town, or they would have cleared off. We had a last glimpse of
the tarpaulined waggons, and then the dust hid further developments from
sight. After about thirty minutes the artillery ceased firing, and as
the atmosphere cleared we saw the laager was a desert. Waggons, horses,
and cattle, all had vanished.
After their exertions of the past fortnight, Colonel Mahon did not
consider it wise to pursue the retreating Boers; but later in the
afternoon I went out with others in a cart to where the laager had
been--the first time since December that I had driven beyond our lines.
I had the new experience of seeing a "loot" in progress. First we met
two soldiers driving a cow; then some more with bulged-out pockets full
of live fowls; natives were staggering under huge loads of food-stuffs,
and eating even as they walked. I was also interested in going into the
very room where General Snyman had treated me so scurvily, and where
everything was in terrible confusion: the floor was littered with
rifles, ammunition, food-stuffs of all sorts, clothes, and letters.
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