e this column was advancing, the Boers
were also advancing in a parallel line to the Nek. The following
day, 25th, the British column reached the high ground overlooking
the Ingogo River, where they encamped (here the engagement of the
8th of February took place). At dawn on the 26th the column again
laboriously mounted the terrible steeps leading to Mount Prospect,
and fixed their camp about four miles from the Nek. Owing to the
abominable state of the weather the nearing of the Nek was not
attempted, and attack was postponed till the following day. The
night was passed at Mount Prospect, and a laager made.

[Illustration]

At six o'clock on the morning of the 28th the advance was sounded,
and at 9.55 A.M. the guns began shelling the Nek. The Boers were not
yet ready. Some took shelter behind the walls of Laing's Farmhouse,
while others kept on the heights above, covered by the ridge from
shells. Those in Laing's kraals had a warm time when the Naval
Brigade began to play on them with their guns, and they soon
evacuated the place.

Those on the Nek, after being for twenty minutes under a hot fire,
were beginning to think they had had enough of it, when our lines
ceased firing, and the mounted squadron advanced to take a
hillock--the most advanced spur of the Boer left flank position. The
58th also prepared to charge. The officers commanding the mounted
squadron were Major Brownlow and Captain Hornby, while Colonel
Deane, Major Essex (an officer with a charmed life, who survived
Isandlwana and the engagement at the Ingogo heights), Major Poole,
Lieutenant Elwes, and Lieutenant Inman were in front of the 58th.
The leading companies of the 58th having got half-way up the rise--a
heavy business considering the slipperiness of the slopes--the first
troop of the mounted squadron charged the kopje, going to right and
left of the lines taken by the 58th. No sooner were they within
sight of the Boers than they were greeted by a heavy fire that
emptied half their saddles. Still, those who were left mounted,
reformed in a pouring shower of bullets, and again charged.

But gallantry was of no avail, for there was no reserve to back up
the charge of mounted troops. Seventeen men were killed and wounded,
and thirty-two horses killed.

The repulse of this charge took place just as the 58th gained sight
of the foe, who, flushed with triumph, could now turn their
attention from the mounted troops to the right flank of the 58th.