m
innumerable points of vantage. Their progress was necessarily slow, for
sometimes they had to hide in cornfields, to crouch among boulders, and
occasionally to fall prone to earth when shells came screaming and
bursting along their line of route. Afterwards they would rise again,
still holding their life in their hands, and plod on in the expectation
that every step would be their last. For eight long miles this exciting
form of torture was experienced, numbers of the poor fellows dropping
all along the road from wounds, exhaustion, and from the effects of the
now fiercely blazing sun. Terrible was their plight both during the
attack and after it, for the Boers, as usual, paid no heed to the sacred
demand of the wounded or of the white flag, and no sooner saw a party of
stretcher-bearers approach to pick up a man than they made the event the
signal for a volley. All, therefore, that could be done for those
stricken down was to wait patiently till they could crawl a short
distance out of the line of fire and swoop down on them and bear them
hastily away. The unfortunates who were too severely wounded to so
crawl, and those who were killed, had to be left where they fell. Nor
did those who were successfully removed in the ambulance waggon fare
much better, for this was fired on continually, but luckily, owing to
the shells not bursting, caused more horror than harm.

They reached Molteno at last in safety, but with numbers woefully
thinned. When they formed up for the roll-call, the ominous silence that
followed the call of name after name was more than tragic. Dismay
blanched every face. Where were the 366 splendid fellows of the
Northumberland Regiment who had started out in rude health only the
night before? They were missing, perhaps dead! Where, too, were the
roistering, cheery boys of the Royal Irish Rifles--some 294 of
them--none of whom, when his name was spoken, was there to give back the
word? They too were missing, perhaps dead! In this hour of mute regret
those who were left could only thank God that they had come safely
through the terrible ordeal, and think with awe on the strange workings
of fate that had caused some to be taken and others left.

Naturally enough after a disaster so great, all had something to say of
the mistakes which brought it about. Reuter's correspondent declared
that "the primary and greatest mistake made on the 10th inst. was that
what was to have been at the utmost a four hours'