s freely. Out of seventeen of the latter that went
into action with one battalion, five were killed and seven wounded;
and the other regiments suffered in like manner, if not to the same
degree. As the assailants got near the top, the batteries had to cease
firing, unable longer to assure their aim between friend and foe. The
last rush was then made with the bayonet, but, as is usual, {p.046}
the defendants did not await the shock of immediate contact. They
broke and fled as the British advance crowned the summit, leaving
there some thirty dead and wounded, besides seventy wounded in a field
hospital on the reverse side of the hill. The artillery of the attack
continued to move forward to Smith's Nek, whence the enemy's force was
visible in full retreat. It was at 1.30 P.M. that the position, which
General Yule, Symons's successor, styled "almost inaccessible," was
finally carried.

The precise numbers engaged can as yet be only a matter of estimate,
but there is little doubt that the assailants were inferior in number
to the defenders. The former were about 2,000; the latter were by
General Yule thought to be about 4,000, many of whom, doubtless, were
not on the hill itself. The satisfaction of the victors, in what was
certainly a splendid feat of arms, was somewhat marred by the
disappearance of a body of cavalry, which at the opening of the day
had been sent to work round the enemy's right--northern--flank. They
had been taken prisoners, apparently by the co-operating Boer {p.047}
force which had failed to come up in time for the fighting.

The following afternoon--Saturday, the 21st--a demonstration was made
by this force; but it was not pushed home, being confined to a
bombardment by two heavy guns--40-pounders--at a range of 6,000 yards.
In prevision of such an attempt, Yule had already shifted some of his
equipage, and now, finding that the hostile guns outranged his own, he
removed the camp two miles to the southward, on high ground. On the
22nd, news being received of the enemy's defeat at Elandslaagte the
day before, he endeavoured to cut off the fugitives at Glencoe, but
the nearness of the northern Boers compelled him to desist, and
finally to resume his last position. Realising from all the conditions
that Dundee could not be held, unless reinforced, and that
reinforcement was improbable, he decided now to retreat upon
Ladysmith.

At 9 P.M. that night the British marched out, taking their transport
trai