is, I thought, must be what is called being "taken in _reverse_,"
and it was.

By the time I had gathered what was happening, about a dozen more men
had been bowled over. I then ordered the whole lot to take cover in
the trench, and only pop up to take a shot to the front or rear. But
no more could be done by us towards the rear than to the front. The
conditions were the same--no Boers to be seen. At this moment two of
the guard from Waschout Hill started to run in to our trench, and a
terrific fusillade was opened on to them, the bullets kicking up the
dust all round them as they ran. One poor fellow was dropped, but the
other managed to reach our trench and fall into it. He too was badly
hit, but just had the strength to gasp out that except himself and the
man who had started with him, all the guard on Waschout Hill had been
killed or wounded, and that the Boers were gradually working their way
up to the top. This was indeed cheering.

So hot was the fire now that no one could raise his head above ground
without being shot, and by crouching down altogether and not
attempting to aim, but merely firing our rifles over the edge of the
trench, we remained for a short time without casualties. This respite,
however, was short, for the men in the right half of the trench began
to drop unaccountably whilst they were sitting well under cover, and
not exposing themselves at all. I gradually discovered the cause of
this. Some snipers must have reached the top of Waschout Hill, and
were shooting straight down our right half trench. As the bullets
snicked in thicker and thicker, it was plain the number of snipers was
being increased.

This, I thought, must be being "_enfiladed_ from a flank." It was so.

Without any order, we had all instinctively vacated the right half of
our trench and crowded into the left half, which by great good luck
could not be enfiladed from any point on the south side of the river,
nor indeed by rifle-fire from anywhere, as, owing to the ground, its
prolongation on the right was up above ground into the open air, and
to the left did not touch ground for some 3,000 yards away on the
veldt on the north bank.

Though we were huddled together quite helpless like rats in a trap,
still it was in a small degree comforting to think that, short of
charging the enemy could do nothing. For that we fixed bayonets and
grimly waited. If they did make an assault, we had bayonets, and they
had not, and we could s