l plan of campaign, during the waiting period
of inferiority, while their reinforcements were still on the sea, that
the British should risk much to demoralise and daunt an enemy who,
whatever their advantages otherwise, had not that military training
and cohesion which facilitates rapid recovery from a reverse. Whatever
the first mistake of advancing their position so far, it is impossible
to withhold admiration from the rapidity and energy of the measures
taken in the first fortnight of the campaign.

It was a dull, drizzling morning when the line of hungry British
soldiers leaped from the donga {p.044} and rushed for the wood; their
batteries to the right and left sending a rapid continuous iron fire
over their heads upon the hill-top, whence the Boers rained down lead
upon their advance. Few dropped here; but in the wood, where for quite
a while they halted, concealed rather than covered, many were struck
down, and here it was that death found General Symons, who had
galloped up to tell the men the hill _must_ be taken. He had asked
much of his men, but he spared not himself. He fell honoured and
beloved; man cannot die better.

It was about 10 that Symons received his wound. Obedient to his last
commands, the troops broke cover and worked their way from the wood to
the wall, step by step; a few feet onward, rushed and down; again a
rush and again down. Below the terrace they stopped, protected by the
wall but unable to advance; for did man show head or hand, down swept
the deadly fire from above. Men, however, are not of iron; eyes and
hands weary; the brain and the nerves feel strain; and it is of the
essence of defence that it exhausts quicker than does offence.
{p.045} It lacks intrinsically the moral tension that sustains; when
the forward impulse is removed, the evil spirit of backwardness finds
room to enter. As hours pass, this difference in moral conditions
affects those which are external--saps physical endurance.

Whatever the reason, toward noon the Boer fire slackened; possibly the
necessity of husbanding ammunition was felt. The British scaled the
wall, crossed rapidly the terrace, and gained the foot of the last
steep climb which lay between them and the enemy's position. Their
artillery also moved forward, to sustain the final perilous attempt by
keeping down the enemy's fire; but, despite all it could do, the loss
here was great and fell especially heavily upon the officers, who
exposed themselve