n failed. But at
Istabulat it succeeded. But, had the Turk been as he was in Sannaiyat
days, two months back, we should have had a week of dreadful fighting
instead of one bloody day. Holding Istabulat heights was a force
estimated at seven thousand four hundred infantry and five hundred
sabres, with thirty-two guns. This force, in its perfect position, we
attacked with two weak brigades.

The carts had scuttled away; J.Y. and his cat had stalked off through
the dimness. We were shivering behind the wall. At 5 a.m. the
bombardment opened. From five to seven we brought every gun to bear on
the enemy. Istabulat, like the last of Sannaiyat's five battles, was an
artillery battle, in the sense that the infantry, less strongly and
splendidly supported, would have been helpless. 'I'll never say a word
against the gunners again after to-day and Sannaiyat,' said a wounded
Seaforths' officer to me in the evening. The field-guns were well up
from the start, and the 'hows' soon advanced. When the action began,
the latter were half-a-mile behind us at the wall. It was an impressive
sight, the smoke rushing out with each discharge, and then swaying back
with the gun's recoil. But the guns were rarely stationary long, and we
soon had the unwonted experience of finding ourselves well behind our
own artillery. Finally, in places our batteries were firing at almost
point-blank range; the enemy was simply blasted out of his trenches.

Fowke's dust-up drew a few shells; and the Turk strengthened his right
to meet this new threat. But presently Fritz came over, very low and
very impudent. He reported that it was only Fowke, and sheered off with
a contempt quite visible from the ground. He was so low that we fired
at him with rifles, vainly; then he went, and was swooping down on the
Seaforths' attack and machine-gunning it.

The 19th Brigade got their first objectives with very few casualties.
But then the enemy poured a murderous fire on to them from every sort
of weapon. The 21st Brigade all but accomplished their impossible task.
At a critical point a terrible misfortune occurred. The 9th
Bhopals--who were playfully and better known as the 9th
'Bo-Peeps'--crossed in front of a strong machine-gun position instead
of outflanking it. The Turks held their fire till the regiment was
close up. The latter lost two hundred men in three minutes; and a large
body of Turks, who were wavering on the edge of surrender, fell back
instead. The Bhop