as usual, magnificent. Of the two little bullet-pelted
groups of men around the guns there was not one who did not stand to
his duty without flinching. Corporal Atkin was shot down with all his
comrades, but still endeavoured with his failing strength to twist the
breech-block out of the gun. Another bullet passed through his upraised
hands as he did it. Sergeant Hayes, badly wounded, and the last survivor
of the crew, seized the lanyard, crawled up the trail, and fired a last
round before he fainted. Sergeant Mathews, with three bullets through
him, kept steadily to his duty. Five drivers tried to bring up a limber
and remove the gun, but all of them, with all the horses, were hit.
There have been incidents in this war which have not increased our
military reputation, but you might search the classical records of
valour and fail to find anything finer than the consistent conduct of
the British artillery.

Colonel Benson was hit in the knee and again in the stomach, but wounded
as he was he despatched a message back to Wools-Sampson, asking him to
burst shrapnel over the ridge so as to prevent the Boers from carrying
off the guns. The burghers had ridden in among the litter of dead and
wounded men which marked the British position, and some of the baser
of them, much against the will of their commanders, handled the injured
soldiers with great brutality. The shell-fire drove them back, however,
and the two guns were left standing alone, with no one near them save
their prostrate gunners and escort.

There has been some misunderstanding as to the part played by the Buffs
in this action, and words have been used which seem to imply that they
had in some way failed their mounted companions. It is due to the honour
of one of the finest regiments in the British army to clear this up. As
a matter of fact, the greater part of the regiment under Major Dauglish
was engaged in defending the camp. Near the guns there were four
separate small bodies of Buffs, none of which appears to have been
detailed as an escort. One of these parties, consisting of thirty men
under Lieutenant Greatwood, was ridden over by the horsemen, and the
same fate befell a party of twenty who were far out upon the flank.
Another small body under Lieutenant Lynch was over taken by the same
charge, and was practically destroyed, losing nineteen killed and
wounded out of thirty. In the rear of the guns was a larger body of
Buffs, 130 in number, under Major