ts that they saw in every wounded
man a possible foe lurking there for his chance to get a shot at them.
The same excuse, however, cannot be pleaded for one Free State burgher,
who, lying down behind a maimed trooper of the Light Horse, kept up a
fire to which our own men could not reply without fear of hitting their
unlucky comrade.

After the Rifle Brigade had got into action, Colonel Dick-Cunyngham
advanced with three companies of Gordon Highlanders from their camp in
the plain to take the Boers on Intombi spur in flank. He had scarcely
ridden two hundred yards when he fell mortally wounded by a stray
bullet, and the Gordons marched on, leaving behind them the intrepid
leader whom every man would have followed cheerfully into the thickest
fight. They gained the crest, and Captain Carnegie's company sprang
eagerly forward to charge in among the Boers who held Lieutenant
Hunt-Grubbe prisoner. Him they recovered after close conflict, in which
Captain Carnegie was wounded and Colour-Sergeant Price had three
bullet-holes in him, but not before he sent a bayonet-thrust into the
forehead of one Boer with the full force of his strong arm. But the
Gordons could do no more then than lie down among the rocks they had
gained and take part in pot-shooting at the enemy, who dared not budge.

Up to nearly four o'clock the position about Caesar's Camp did not
change, but on Waggon Hill there had been some alternations and anxious
movements, while the Boers took positions only to be driven from them
again. Then suddenly a great storm of thunder, hail, and rain swept over
the hills, shrouding them in gloom, amid which the rifle fire broke out
with greater fury than ever across Bester's Valley and the ground that
had been stubbornly fought for so long. This sounded like an attack in
force by fresh bodies of Boers who had made their way round from Bulwaan
under cover of the hospital camp at Intombi Spruit. But they never came
within a thousand yards of our position, and though their rifle fire at
that range galled sorely, it was nothing more than a demonstration made
in hope of enabling their comrades on the heights to extricate
themselves. Interest then turned again to Waggon Hill, where, when the
storm was raging most fiercely, part of our line fell back in error, but
the Brigadier and his officers, going forward until within revolver
range of the enemy, restored confidence at that point.

Then three companies of the Devon Regiment