ne of
hills, and was besides shaped so like a blunted redan, that its front
face was secure from flanking fire. In fact there was plenty of dead
ground in its approaches, and, moreover, dongas--which are the same as
nullahs in India or gullies in Australia--ran agreeably to our wishes
towards the hill in all directions. When first we had seen the hill
three days before we had selected it as a weak point in the Dutch line.
It afterwards proved that the Boers had no illusions as to its strength
and had made their arrangements accordingly.

So soon as the dismounted squadrons had begun their advance, Colonel
Byng led the two who were to cover it forward. The wood we were to reach
and find shelter in was about a thousand yards distant, and had been
reported unoccupied by the Boers, who indeed confined themselves
strictly to the hills after their rough handling on the 18th by the
cavalry. We moved off at a walk, spreading into a wide open order, as
wise colonial cavalry always do. And it was fortunate that our formation
was a dispersed one, for no sooner had we moved into the open ground
than there was the flash of a gun faraway among the hills to the
westward. I had had some experience of artillery fire in the armoured
train episode, but there the guns were firing at such close quarters
that the report of the discharge and the explosion of the shell were
almost simultaneous. Nor had I ever heard the menacing hissing roar
which heralds the approach of a long-range projectile. It came swiftly,
passed overhead with a sound like the rending of thin sheets of iron,
and burst with a rather dull explosion in the ground a hundred yards
behind the squadrons, throwing up smoke and clods of earth. We broke
into a gallop, and moved in curving course towards the wood. I suppose
we were a target a hundred yards broad by a hundred and fifty deep. The
range was not less than seven thousand yards, and we were at the gallop.
Think of this, Inspector-General of Artillery: the Boer gunners fired
ten or eleven shells, every one of which fell among or within a hundred
yards of our ranks. Between us and the wood ran a deep donga with a
river only fordable in places flowing through it. Some confusion
occurred in crossing this, but at last the whole regiment was across,
and found shelter from the terrible gun--perhaps there were two--on the
further bank. Thanks to our dispersed formation only two horses had been
killed, and it was possible to admir