, heard shortly after midnight that
about two thousand of the enemy were bivouacked within five miles of the
camp, but that they had no immediate intention of attacking. An old
soldier like the Commander of the Guides, however, takes nothing for
granted, and orders were at once issued for the Guides' infantry to
stand to their arms an hour before daylight, while the Guides' cavalry
sent out patrols to feel for the enemy at crack of dawn. And well was it
that these timely precautions were taken, for as day broke the enemy's
masses were seen advancing to the attack. To give elbow-room, and also
as a preparation for all eventualities, Jenkins struck his camp, and
ordered the baggage to be stacked behind a convenient mound; then
sending back word of how matters stood to Sir Frederick Roberts, he with
his little force prepared to face the onslaught.

[22] Afterwards Field-Marshal Sir George White, V.C., G.C.B., &c., &c.

Seizing such knolls and points of vantage as existed, his battle-line
took the form of a semicircle, with one company of the 92nd Highlanders
and two companies of the Guides in reserve. The enemy, now increased to
three thousand warriors, steadily advanced, and with great bravery
planted their standards in some places within one hundred yards of the
British line; but that last one hundred yards they could not, by all the
eloquence of their leaders or the promises of Paradise from their
priests, be induced to cross. Nor was it only the Afghans who felt the
tightening strain; it was an anxious moment for the British, too, for
given one slight slip, one weakhearted corner, and the whole thin line
might have been swept away by the onslaught of those fierce masses.

It was then that Jenkins used a curious and expensive, but, as it
proved, effective expedient. He ordered the Guides' cavalry to mount,
and, exposed at close range to the enemy's fire, to patrol quietly from
one end of the line to the other, as a sort of moving reserve; a
demonstration, in fact, that even if the enemy managed to break through
the thin line of the infantry at any point, it would only be to fall on
the dreaded swords of the cavalry. The behaviour of the men during this
trying ordeal was above all praise; and indeed it requires high
qualities of nerve and courage to walk one's horse up and down for a
couple of hours under a hail of bullets, without being able to return
the compliment in any way.

The enemy's numbers had increased to