in rushes, seizing the shelters, pouring in volleys, and
driving the Boers before them and to right and left, in spite of their
determined resistance to hold that which they had surprised by rising,
as it were, as Sergeant James afterwards said, right out of the earth.

The holders of the village under the major numbered pretty well half of
the total force remaining to the colonel, and, led by the major himself,
two companies went at the strong force of the enemy drawn across their
way, like a wedge, in spite of the concentrated fire delivered by the
desperate men, who had to give way. The second body was under Captain
Edwards, and Roby and Lennox and Dickenson had the dangerous post of
bringing on the single company that formed the rear-guard.

The start was made without a man down. Three or four had slight wounds,
but in the rear-guard not a man had been hit, while for some distance
after quitting the redoubt they were still exempt. But the leading
company was beginning to suffer badly: men kept on falling or staggering
out to seek shelter in trench, rifle-pit, or behind boulder, and for a
while the battle raged fiercely and but little progress was made, a
crowd of the enemy pressing up from either side to take the places of
those who fell or were beaten back, till the order was given in a lull
to fix bayonets.

Then for a few brief moments the firing near at hand almost ceased, so
that the metallic rattle of the little daggers being affixed to the
rifle muzzles was plainly heard, to be followed by a hearty British
cheer given by every throat from van to rear, the men's voices sounding
full of exultation as, with the bugle ringing out, they dashed forward.

There was no working forward by inch or by foot now; the Boers gave way
at once, and the broad column dashed on, dealing death and destruction
to all who, in a half-hearted way, opposed their progress. It was quick
work, for there was less than a couple of hundred yards to cover to be
through the Boer line and reach the shelter of the rough stone walls and
huge boulders which formed on that side the first defences of the kopje.

In the wild excitement of those minutes Lennox was conscious of cheering
his men on, as with bayonets at the ready they dashed on toward the main
body, driving back the Boers who were trying to close in again after
being beaten back by the first rushes. Men were trampled under foot in
the half-darkness, friends and foes alike, for i