t
the same time the Devons were called on to advance, and, getting up from
the ant-hills without a moment's pause, they strode forward to the foot
of the hill, keeping up an incessant fire as they went. Then we heard
the bugler sounding the charge high up on our right, and we could just
see the flank attack rushing forward and cheering. The Boers were
galloping away or running from the top. The Devons also sounded the
charge and rushed up the front of the position, but from that isolated
hill on our left they met so obstinate a fire that the order for
magazine firing was given, and for a few minutes the rifles rattled
without a second's pause, in a long roar of fire. Then, with a wild
cheer, the Devons cleared the position. It is due to them to say that
they were first at the guns. Meantime, the "Cease Fire!" had sounded
several times on the summit, but the firing did not cease. I don't know
why it was. Perhaps the Boers were still resisting in parts. Certainly
many of our men were drunk with excitement. "Wipe out Majuba!" was a
constant cry. But the Boers had gone.

The remnants of them were struggling to get away in the twilight over a
bit of rocky plain on our left. There the Dragoon Guards got them, and
three times went through. A Dragoon Guards corporal who was there tells
me the Boers fell off their horses and rolled among the rocks, hiding
their heads in their arms and calling for mercy--calling to be shot,
anything to escape the stab of those terrible lances. But not many
escaped. "We just gave them a good dig as they lay," were the corporal's
words. Next day most of the lances were bloody.

The victory was ours. We had gained a stony and muddy little hill
strewn with the bodies of dead and wounded peasants, clerks, lawyers,
and other kinds of men. Most were from Johannesburg. Nearly all spoke
English like their native language. In one corner on the slope of the
hill towards their little camp and waggons I counted fourteen dead
together. In one of the tents were three dead men, all killed by the
same shell, apparently whilst asleep. Yet I do not think there were more
than thirty actually killed among the rocks in all. It is true that
darkness fell rapidly, and the rain was blinding; but I was nearly two
hours on the ground moving about. The wounded lay very thick, groaning
and appealing for help. In coming down I nearly trod on the upturned
white face of an old white-bearded man. He was lying quite silent, with