ever, as foes
fell, fresh ones sprang into their places, and so, fighting furiously,
those few gallant men were thrust back, alas! leaving some helpless
comrades to die by fire and the spear.

It would be of little use to follow step by step all the events of that
night. All night long the firing went on, varied from time to time by
desperate assaults. All night long the little band of defenders held
back the foe. All were weary, some of them were dead and more wounded,
but they fought on by the light of the burning hospital, wasting no
single shot. To and fro went the bearded clergyman with prayers and
consolations upon his lips, and a bag of cartridges in his hands, and to
and fro also went Chard and Bromhead, directing all things. By degrees
the Englishmen were driven back, the hospital and its approaches were in
the hands of the foe, and now they must retire to the inner wall of the
cattle kraal. But they collected sacks of mealies and built two
redoubts, which gave them a second line of fire, and let the Zulus do
what they would, storm the place they could not, nor could they serve it
as they had served the hospital and destroy it by fire.

At length the attacks slackened, the firing dwindled and died, and the
dawn broke, that same dawn which showed to General Lord Chelmsford and
those with him all the horror of Isandhlwana's field. Here also at
Rorke's Drift it revealed death and to spare, but for the most part the
corpses were those of the foe, some four hundred of whom lay lost in
their last sleep around the burning hospital, in the bush, and beneath
the walls of corn-sacks; four hundred killed by one hundred and
thirty-nine white men all told, of whom thirty-five were sick when the
defence began. The little band had suffered, indeed, for fifteen of
them were dead, and twelve wounded, some mortally, but seeing what had
been done the loss was small. Had the Zulus once won an entrance over
the last entrenchment of biscuit boxes not a man would have remained
alive. Surely biscuits were never put to a nobler or a stranger use.

The daylight had come and the enemy vanished with the night, retreating
over a hill to the south-west. But, as the defenders of Rorke's Drift
guessed, he had no intention of abandoning his attack. Therefore they
knew that this was no time to be idle. Sallying out of their defences
they collected the arms of the dead Zulus, then returned, and began to
strip the roof of the store of its that