ad by the ear. He was
carried away, but died before he got off the field. A young officer was
struck soon afterwards, and then the bearers began to be busy. There
were far too few of them, and no one could find the ambulance carts. As
a matter of fact they had not left Ladysmith--twelve miles at least
away. Most of the wounded tried to creep back out of fire. Some lay
quite still. I heard only two or three call out for help. Meantime the
rest were keeping up a steady fire, not by volleys, but as each could
sight a Boer among the rocks, and my own belief is that very few Boers
were hit that way.

Climbing up a heap of loose stones a little to the right of the Devons,
I could now see the Boers at the top of their position in the centre,
moving about rapidly, taking cover, resting their rifles on the stones,
and firing both at us and at the men who were pushing up the slope
threatening their flank. Meantime the artillery pumped iron and lead
upon them without mercy. Their own guns were quite silenced about this
time, being unable to stand the combined shell and rifle fire. But the
ordinary Boers--the armed and mounted peasants--still clung to their
rocks as though nothing could drive them out.

One big man in black I watched for what seemed a very long time. He was
standing right against the sky line, sometimes waving his arm,
apparently to give directions. Shells burst over his head, and bullets
must have been thick round him. Once or twice he fell, as though
slipping on the rocks, for the rain had begun again. But he always
reappeared, till at last shrapnel exploded right in his face, and he
sank together like a dropped rag. Just after that the Manchesters and
Gordons began to force their way along the top of the ridge on the
Boers' left. They had the dismounted Imperial Light Horse with them, and
it was there that the loss was most terrible. Sometimes the advance
hardly seemed to move, sometimes it rushed forward, and then appeared to
swing back again. It was six o'clock, rain was falling in torrents, and
it was getting dark. Perhaps the Gordons suffered most. Fourteen
officers were killed and wounded there, and next day the killed men lay
thick among the rocks. The Boer prisoners say the Gordon kilts made them
easy marks. But the Light Horse lost, too--lost their Colonel, Scott
Chisholme, who had been so eager for their success. Still the Boers kept
up their terrible fire, and the attack crept forward, rock by rock. A