s account there
were but eight Boers present, but assertion or contradiction equally
valueless in the darkness of such a night, and there are some obvious
discrepancies in his statement. 'We fired among them,' says Reitz.
'They stopped and all cried out "Rifle Brigade." Then one of them said
"Charge!" One officer, Captain Paley, advanced, though he had two bullet
wounds already. Joubert gave him another shot and he fell on the top of
us. Four Englishmen got hold of Jan Luttig and struck him on the head
with their rifles and stabbed him in the stomach with a bayonet. He
seized two of them by the throat and shouted "Help, boys!" His two
nearest comrades shot two of them, and the other two bolted. Then the
English came up in numbers, about eight hundred, along the footpath'
(there were two hundred on the hill, but the exaggeration is pardonable
in the darkness), 'and we lay as quiet as mice along the bank. Farther
on the English killed three of our men with bayonets and wounded two.
In the morning we found Captain Paley and twenty-two of them killed and
wounded.' It seems evident that Reitz means that his own little
party were eight men, and not that that represented the force which
intercepted the retiring riflemen. Within his own knowledge five of his
countrymen were killed in the scuffle, so the total loss was probably
considerable. Our own casualties were eleven dead, forty-three wounded,
and six prisoners, but the price was not excessive for the howitzer and
for the morale which arises from such exploits. Had it not been for that
unfortunate fuse, the second success might have been as bloodless as the
first. 'I am sorry,' said a sympathetic correspondent to the stricken
Paley. 'But we got the gun,' Paley whispered, and he spoke for the
Brigade.

Amid the shell-fire, the scanty rations, the enteric and the dysentery,
one ray of comfort had always brightened the garrison. Buller was only
twelve miles away--they could hear his guns--and when his advance came
in earnest their sufferings would be at an end. But now in an instant
this single light was shut off and the true nature of their situation
was revealed to them. Buller had indeed moved...but backwards. He had
been defeated at Colenso, and the siege was not ending but beginning.
With heavier hearts but undiminished resolution the army and the
townsfolk settled down to the long, dour struggle. The exultant enemy
replaced their shattered guns and drew their lines close