g one beyond it. But the resistance was
weakening. Even this fine position could not be held against the rush of
the three regiments, the Devons, the Royal Irish, and the Royal
Scots, who were let loose upon it. The artillery supported the attack
admirably. 'They did nobly,' said one who led the advance. 'It is
impossible to overrate the value of their support. They ceased also
exactly at the right moment. One more shell would have hit us.' Mountain
mists saved the defeated burghers from a close pursuit, but the hills
were carried. The British losses on this day, September 8th, were
thirteen killed and twenty-five wounded; but of these thirty-eight no
less than half were accounted for by one of those strange malignant
freaks which can neither be foreseen nor prevented. A shrapnel shell,
fired at an incredible distance, burst right over the Volunteer Company
of the Gordons who were marching in column. Nineteen men fell, but it is
worth recording that, smitten so suddenly and so terribly, the gallant
Volunteers continued to advance as steadily as before this misfortune
befell them. On the 9th Buller was still pushing forward to Spitzkop,
his guns and the 1st Rifles overpowering a weak rearguard resistance of
the Boers. On the 10th he had reached Klipgat, which is halfway between
the Mauchberg and Spitzkop. So close was the pursuit that the Boers,
as they streamed through the passes, flung thirteen of their ammunition
wagons over the cliffs to prevent them from falling into the hands of
the British horsemen. At one period it looked as if the gallant Boer
guns had waited too long in covering the retreat of the burghers.
Strathcona's Horse pressed closely upon them. The situation was saved by
the extreme coolness and audacity of the Boer gunners. 'When the cavalry
were barely half a mile behind the rear gun' says an eye-witness 'and
we regarded its capture as certain, the LEADING Long Tom deliberately
turned to bay and opened with case shot at the pursuers streaming down
the hill in single file over the head of his brother gun. It was a
magnificent coup, and perfectly successful. The cavalry had to retire,
leaving a few men wounded, and by the time our heavy guns had arrived
both Long Toms had got clean away.' But the Boer riflemen would no
longer stand. Demoralised after their magnificent struggle of eleven
months the burghers were now a beaten and disorderly rabble flying
wildly to the eastward, and only held together by the