of five, nineteen men, and twenty-two horses. The infantry
could not advance and would not retire. The Guards on the right were
prevented from opening out on the flank and getting round the enemy's
line, by the presence of the Riet River, which joins the Modder almost
at a right angle. All day they lay under a blistering sun, the sleet
of bullets whizzing over their heads. 'It came in solid streaks like
telegraph wires,' said a graphic correspondent. The men gossiped,
smoked, and many of them slept. They lay on the barrels of their rifles
to keep them cool enough for use. Now and again there came the dull thud
of a bullet which had found its mark, and a man gasped, or drummed with
his feet; but the casualties at this point were not numerous, for there
was some little cover, and the piping bullets passed for the most part
overhead.

But in the meantime there had been a development upon the left which was
to turn the action into a British victory. At this side there was ample
room to extend, and the 9th Brigade spread out, feeling its way down the
enemy's line, until it came to a point where the fire was less murderous
and the approach to the river more in favour of the attack. Here
the Yorkshires, a party of whom under Lieutenant Fox had stormed a
farmhouse, obtained the command of a drift, over which a mixed force of
Highlanders and Fusiliers forced their way, led by their Brigadier in
person. This body of infantry, which does not appear to have exceeded
five hundred in number, were assailed both by the Boer riflemen and by
the guns of both parties, our own gunners being unaware that the Modder
had been successfully crossed. A small hamlet called Rosmead formed,
however, a point d'appui, and to this the infantry clung tenaciously,
while reinforcements dribbled across to them from the farther side.
'Now, boys, who's for otter hunting?' cried Major Coleridge, of the
North Lancashires, as he sprang into the water. How gladly on that
baking, scorching day did the men jump into the river and splash over,
to climb the opposite bank with their wet khaki clinging to their
figures! Some blundered into holes and were rescued by grasping the
unwound putties of their comrades. And so between three and four o'clock
a strong party of the British had established their position upon the
right flank of the Boers, and were holding on like grim death with an
intelligent appreciation that the fortunes of the day depended upon
their retain