! You
must put your head into the lion's mouth if the performance is to be a
success. And then I remembered the attacks on the brave and capable
General Gatacre after Stormberg, and wondered what would be said of us
if we were caught 'dismounted and scattered in a wood.'

At length we reached the foot of the hill and halted to reconnoitre the
slopes as far as was possible. After half an hour, since nothing could
be seen, the advance was resumed up the side of a precipice and through
a jungle so thick that we had to cut our road. It was eleven o'clock
before we reached the summit of the ridge and emerged on to a more or
less open plateau, diversified with patches of wood and heaps of great
boulders. Two squadrons had re-formed on the top and had deployed to
cover the others. The troopers of the remaining seven squadrons were
working their way up about four to the minute. It would take at least
two hours before the command was complete: and meanwhile! Suddenly there
was a rifle shot. Then another, then a regular splutter of musketry.
Bullets began to whizz overhead. The Boers had discovered us.

Now came the crisis. There might be a hundred Boers on the hill, in
which case all was well. On the other hand there might be a thousand, in
which case----! and retreat down the precipice was, of course, quite out
of the question. Luckily there were only about a hundred, and after a
skirmish, in which one of the Natal Carabineers was unhappily killed,
they fell back and we completed our deployment on the top of the hill.

The squadron of Imperial Light Horse and the Natal Carabineers now
advanced slowly along the ridge, clearing it of the enemy, slaying and
retrieving one field cornet and two burghers, and capturing ten horses.
Half-way along the Queen's, the right battalion of Hildyard's attack,
which, having made a smaller detour, had now rushed the top, came into
line and supported the dismounted men. The rest of the Cavalry descended
into the plain on the other side of the ridge, outflanking and even
threatening the retreat of its defenders, so that in the end the Boers,
who were very weak in numbers, were hunted off the ridge altogether, and
Cingolo was ours. Cingolo and Monte Cristo are joined together by a neck
of ground from which both heights rise steeply. On either side of Monte
Cristo and Cingolo long spurs run at right angles to the main hill.

By the operations of the 17th the Boer line had been twisted off
Cingolo