as drunkards.
Some lay in an overpowering drowsiness. The most were doggedly patient
and long-suffering, with a mighty longing for water obliterating every
other emotion.

Before evening fell a most gallant and successful attempt had been
made by the third battalion of the King's Royal Rifles from Lyttelton's
Brigade to relieve the pressure upon their comrades on Spion Kop. In
order to draw part of the Boer fire away they ascended from the northern
side and carried the hills which formed a continuation of the same
ridge. The movement was meant to be no more than a strong demonstration,
but the riflemen pushed it until, breathless but victorious, they stood
upon the very crest of the position, leaving nearly a hundred dead or
dying to show the path which they had taken. Their advance being much
further than was desired, they were recalled, and it was at the moment
that Buchanan Riddell, their brave Colonel, stood up to read Lyttelton's
note that he fell with a Boer bullet through his brain, making one more
of those gallant leaders who died as they had lived, at the head of
their regiments. Chisholm, Dick-Cunyngham, Downman, Wilford, Gunning,
Sherston, Thackeray, Sitwell, MacCarthy O'Leary, Airlie--they have led
their men up to and through the gates of death. It was a fine exploit
of the 3rd Rifles. 'A finer bit of skirmishing, a finer bit of climbing,
and a finer bit of fighting, I have never seen,' said their Brigadier.
It is certain that if Lyttelton had not thrown his two regiments into
the fight the pressure upon the hill-top might have become unendurable;
and it seems also certain that if he had only held on to the position
which the Rifles had gained, the Boers would never have reoccupied Spion
Kop.

And now, under the shadow of night, but with the shells bursting thickly
over the plateau, the much-tried Thorneycroft had to make up his mind
whether he should hold on for another such day as he had endured, or
whether now, in the friendly darkness, he should remove his shattered
force. Could he have seen the discouragement of the Boers and the
preparations which they had made for retirement, he would have held his
ground. But this was hidden from him, while the horror of his own losses
was but too apparent. Forty per cent of his men were down. Thirteen
hundred dead and dying are a grim sight upon a wide-spread battle-field,
but when this number is heaped upon a confined space, where from a
single high rock the who