-qui-peut. Serjeant-Major
Martin of U, with a single driver on a wheeler, got away the last gun
of his battery. The four guns which were extricated of Q, under Major
Phipps-Hornby, whirled across the plain, pulled up, unlimbered, and
opened a brisk fire of shrapnel from about a thousand yards upon the
donga. Had the battery gone on for double the distance, its action would
have been more effective, for it would have been under a less deadly
rifle fire, but in any case its sudden change from flight to discipline
and order steadied the whole force. Roberts's men sprang from their
horses, and with the Burmese and New Zealanders flung themselves down
in a skirmish line. The cavalry moved to the left to find some drift by
which the donga could be passed, and out of chaos there came in a few
minutes calm and a settled purpose.

It was for Q battery to cover the retreat of the force, and most nobly
it did it. A fortnight later a pile of horses, visible many hundreds of
yards off across the plain, showed where the guns had stood. It was the
Colenso of the horse gunners. In a devilish sleet of lead they stood to
their work, loading and firing while a man was left. Some of the guns
were left with two men to work them, one was loaded and fired by a
single officer. When at last the order for retirement came, only ten
men, several of them wounded, were left upon their feet. With scratch
teams from the limbers, driven by single gunners, the twelve-pounders
staggered out of action, and the skirmish line of mounted infantry
sprang to their feet amid the hail of bullets to cheer them as they
passed.

It was no slight task to extricate that sorely stricken force from the
close contact of an exultant enemy, and to lead it across that terrible
donga. Yet, thanks to the coolness of Broadwood and the steadiness of
his rearguard, the thing was done. A practicable passage had been found
two miles to the south by Captain Chester-Master of Rimington's. This
corps, with Roberts's, the New Zealanders, and the 3rd Mounted Infantry,
covered the withdrawal in turn. It was one of those actions in which the
horseman who is trained to fight upon foot did very much better than the
regular cavalry. In two hours' time the drift had been passed and the
survivors of the force found themselves in safety.

The losses in this disastrous but not dishonourable engagement were
severe. About thirty officers and five hundred men were killed, wounded,
or missing.