The steady fire told on them.

By-and-by, with a little halt, for the first time they wavered.

All our men now mounted the waggons, and began to fire on them in regular volleys as they came up.
The evil effects of the surprise were gone by this time; we were acting with coolness and obeying orders.

But several of our people dropped close beside me, pierced through with assegais.
All at once, as if a panic had burst over them, the Matabele, with one mind, stopped dead short in their advance and ceased fighting.

Till that moment, no number of deaths seemed to make any difference to them.