, but I
was warmed by a warning to be ready to move my own guns to the front.

[Illustration: Colt Gun at Hlangwane firing at Boers.]

_Tuesday, 27th February._--A wire was handed to me in the night to
join the 10th Brigade with the Yorks and Lancasters, and off we went
at 6 a.m. in good spirits but in a thick drizzle of rain, passing
along the eastern slope of Hlangwane and winding up a fearful road to
the front. The Yorks and Lancasters at this point suddenly turned off,
and feeling that something was going wrong I halted my guns and rode
on to the Headquarters Staff, about half a mile on, finding the
Infantry attack just about to commence, the men all looking very
weary, and no wonder. I spoke to Ogilvy, who was there with his guns,
and afterwards to General Buller, who was standing quite close
surveying the general attack of our Infantry on the centre and right
3,000 yards ahead of us. The guns were giving the Boers lyddite and
shrapnel, and the fighting line were cheering as kopje after kopje
was taken. It was evident to my unpractised eye that we had the Boers
on the run at last. I told the Commander-in-Chief that my guns had
arrived, when he replied, "Why, you should be in Colenso," and turned
to his Staff, saying that some mistake had been made. I therefore
showed my written orders, and after reading them, the General said,
"It is not your fault, but march to Colenso as quickly as possible";
and he detached Lord Tullibardine to show us the way; I had seen a
good deal of him at Springfield. "The Pontoon bridge is up," he added;
"you must use the Boer pont and so ferry across the Tugela." So off we
went, and got to Colenso at 2 p.m. after a very hot march.

The ground at the railway crossing which we had to cross was being
heavily and accurately shelled, so leaving my gun train for a time in
a spot safe from the bursting shrapnel I rode on to prepare the pont
for our crossing the river. We got the first gun over to the Colenso
side of the river after hard work, the rotten bank giving way and the
gun being half submerged in the water; then the somewhat unhandy
soldiers in charge of the pont capsized a team of gun oxen when
half-way across the river by rocking the pont, and, nearly drowning
the poor oxen, swam ashore themselves and left them to their fate. It
was now 5 p.m. and as there were no men to do anything it was an
impossible position, with the pont sunk in the middle of the flooded
river; so that at dusk