support the
attack on the Guides, while the other column continued down the Jandul,
so as to cut the regiment off from its bridge-head. Foot by foot (to the
spectators it seemed inch by inch) the different companies retired
alternatively, fiercely assailed on all hands, yet coolly firing volley
after volley, relinquishing quietly and almost imperceptibly one strong
position, only to take up another a few yards back.

At last the impatient spectators on the left bank of the Panjkora had a
chance of helping, for the enemy were now within range of the
mountain-guns, and the steady and accurate fire of these greatly
relieved the pressure. At the same time the two companies of the Guides
in the entrenchment, seeing that the enemy's left column was closing
down, moved out to check their advance, and to stretch out to the rest
of the regiment a helping hand. The whole of the 2nd Brigade also lined
their bank of the Panjkora, and prepared with flank fire to help the
Guides, when they reached the foot of the spur. Here it would have to
cross several hundred yards of level ground, on which the green barley
was standing waist-high, ford the Jandul, about three feet deep, and
then across more open fields to the friendly bridge-head. This naturally
was the most difficult part of the operation, and in executing it
Colonel Fred Battye, the fourth of the heroic brothers to be killed in
action, fell mortally wounded. He was, as might be expected from one of
his race, always at the point of danger throughout the retirement, and
as he crossed the open zone among the last, a sharp-shooter at close
range, from behind a withered tree, fired the fatal shot.

It was on this open ground that the extraordinary bravery of the enemy
was most brilliantly shown. Standard-bearers with reckless gallantry
could be seen rushing to certain destruction, falling perhaps within
ten yards of the line of the Guides; men, who had used up all their
ammunition, would rush forward with large rocks and hurl them at the
soldiers, courting instant death. Nothing could damp their ardour, or
check the fury of their assaults. Even after the Guides had crossed the
river, and the enemy were under a severe flank fire from the Gordon
Highlanders and King's Own Scottish Borderers, they dashed into the
stream, where each man stood out as clear as a bullseye on a target, and
attempted to close again. But not a man got across, so steady and well
directed was the flank fire o