_
correspondent gives 800 yards for the rifle fire.]

News of this mishap reached Buller as he was returning from witnessing
Hart's discomfiture. Hildyard was directed to move two regiments of
his advancing brigade to the right to save the pieces; but, though the
order was steadily executed, it was found impossible to keep the
troops out of cover under the fire of Wylie, which had been
momentarily silenced by Long's impetuous attack, but had now opened
again. The batteries had failed by preceding, and so losing, infantry
support; the infantry in turn failed because the guns were powerless.
A sudden and desperate rush with harnessed teams succeeded in
withdrawing two of the twelve abandoned pieces, in performing which
service the son of Lord Roberts lost his life. But a second attempt
found the enemy on guard again, and out of 22 horses that started 13
were killed before half-way to the spot.

The naval 12-pounder accompanying Long having been rendered immobile
for the day, and the two batteries sacrificed, Sir Redvers Buller
decided that without their support it would {p.231} be impossible to
force the passage. He therefore directed a general withdrawal to the
camp. The abandoned batteries were left in the open, where, together
with the wounded men and some of the supports sent in by Hildyard,
they were taken by the Boers. The British loss in missing and
prisoners was 21 officers and 207 men. There were killed 135, and
wounded 762. The enemy remained unshaken in his positions.

This mortifying reverse, following sharply upon the heels of
Magersfontein and Stormberg, thoroughly aroused the British people,
who neither at home nor on the field were prepared for it. The day
after the receipt of the news, Saturday, December 16th, a Cabinet
meeting was held, and the next evening it was announced that, as the
campaign in Natal was likely to require the undivided attention of Sir
Redvers Buller, Lord Roberts would be sent to South Africa as
Commander-in-Chief, and would be accompanied by Lord Kitchener as
Chief of Staff. At the same time the rest of the Army Reserve was
called out, and further measures taken which carried the troops
employed in South Africa to, and beyond, {p.232} the large numbers
already quoted as despatched by the end of the following March.

Lord Roberts sailed from England December 23rd. On the 26th, at
Gibraltar, he picked up Kitchener, who had been brought there by a
swift naval c