kept the battle going,
and the huge naval gun from behind was joining with its deep bark in the
deafening uproar. But the Boers had already learned--and it is one
of their most valuable military qualities that they assimilate their
experience so quickly--that shell fire is less dangerous in a trench
than among rocks. These trenches, very elaborate in character, had been
dug some hundreds of yards from the foot of the hills, so that there was
hardly any guide to our artillery fire. Yet it is to the artillery fire
that all the losses of the Boers that day were due. The cleverness of
Cronje's disposition of his trenches some hundred yards ahead of the
kopjes is accentuated by the fascination which any rising object has for
a gunner. Prince Kraft tells the story of how at Sadowa he unlimbered
his guns two hundred yards in front of the church of Chlum, and how the
Austrian reply fire almost invariably pitched upon the steeple. So our
own gunners, even at a two thousand-yard mark, found it difficult to
avoid overshooting the invisible line, and hitting the obvious mark
behind.

As the day wore on reinforcements of infantry came up from the force
which had been left to guard the camp. The Gordons arrived with the
first and second battalions of the Coldstream Guards, and all the
artillery was moved nearer to the enemy's position. At the same time,
as there were some indications of an attack upon our right flank, the
Grenadier Guards with five companies of the Yorkshire Light Infantry
were moved up in that direction, while the three remaining companies of
Barter's Yorkshiremen secured a drift over which the enemy might cross
the Modder. This threatening movement upon our right flank, which would
have put the Highlanders into an impossible position had it succeeded,
was most gallantly held back all morning, before the arrival of the
Guards and the Yorkshires, by the mounted infantry and the 12th Lancers,
skirmishing on foot. It was in this long and successful struggle to
cover the flank of the 3rd Brigade that Major Milton, Major Ray, and
many another brave man met his end. The Coldstreams and Grenadiers
relieved the pressure upon this side, and the Lancers retired to their
horses, having shown, not for the first time, that the cavalryman with
a modern carbine can at a pinch very quickly turn himself into a useful
infantry soldier. Lord Airlie deserves all praise for his unconventional
use of his men, and for the gallantry with w