k at them now,
Jack; they are pushing up the hill, and more of the poor fellows are
dropping! Ah! who would now dare to say that my countrymen are
disloyal? I know some of them have acted as blackguards at home, but
they are the scum of Irishmen, while these soldiers are real, brave
boys!"

By this time the three advancing regiments had commenced to climb the
hill, and the batteries had galloped up to closer range, and were now
pouring in a hail of shrapnel at the puffs of flame which told where the
Boer marksmen were. On our side, too, the men were cunningly taking
advantage of every stone and boulder, or bravely facing the hail where
no cover existed, and from their rifles a steady discharge of bullets
was kept up at the heights above.

And behind them, and right up in the firing line, with no time to think
of cover, the army surgeons and the bearers of the Army Medical Corps
were at work picking up the wounded, applying dressings, and carrying
the poor fellows away with a coolness and bravery which matched that of
the other soldiers.

But our lads were gradually creeping up the hill, and were now within
300 yards of the summit, where they lay down, and poured in murderous
volleys at the Boers, while a few feet overhead a succession of
screaming shells flew by, to plunge amongst the boulders a few moments
later, and burst with an appalling roar, scattering death-dealing
bullets on every side.

Gallantly did our brave fellows fight, and gallantly too did the Boer
marksmen prove their devotion to their country. Struck down on every
side, they still stuck to their posts, and in those last few minutes
added numbers to our list of dead and wounded.

But British pluck, whether bred in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales,
or indeed in any of our colonies, was not to be gainsaid. With a
roaring cheer and the shrill notes of the "charge" sounding along the
hill, the British fixed bayonets, sprang to their feet, and made one
rush for the summit of Talana, never pausing to fire, but trusting to
reach the enemy and apply cold steel, the most terrifying death of all.
But the Boers did not wait for them. Those that had held so stubbornly
to the crest of the hill had performed their allotted task, for they had
enabled their comrades to withdraw the guns and retreat in order; and
now, springing from behind the boulders, they darted down the other
side, a mark for the bullets of our soldiers.

Meanwhile the two hundred