hey could watch the open ground beyond that flank. These sent volleys
against the enemy's right upon Talana. The remainder were held in
reserve, as ordered, amongst the small dongas and depressions in the
wood. The Maxim guns of all three battalions moved to the
south-eastern angle of the wood, and opened at 1,700 yards upon
Smith's Nek and Lennox Hill to their right front and right, doing much
to alleviate the musketry which came incessantly from these flanking
and partially invisible eminences.

[Sidenote: 69th and 13th batteries change their ground.]

[Sidenote: Reduced fire.]

[Sidenote: Symons gives impulse.]

[Sidenote: He receives his mortal wound.]

Such was the situation at eight o'clock. At that hour the 69th and
13th batteries, quitting the position from which they had silenced the
Boer artillery, moved through the town, and unlimbered on rising
ground between the eastern boundary of Dundee and the Sand Spruit.
Thence they opened again, the 69th upon Talana at 2,300 yards, the
13th upon Lennox Hill at 2,500. Though they and their escort of King's
Royal Riflemen were targets for both hills, their practice was
admirable, and had it been more rapid, must speedily have smothered
the enemy's fire. But the artillery commander, fearing to run short,
and knowing his inability to replenish, was obliged continually to
check expenditure.[92] For a time the fight remained stationary. The
momentum of the attack had died away, and Yule found it impossible to
get it in motion again at once, in spite of numerous messages he
received from Sir W. Penn Symons urging immediate advance. At 9 a.m.
the infantry being still inert, the patience of the General was
exhausted. Despite the remonstrances of his staff, he, with three
staff officers and orderlies, rode into the wood, and, dismounting,
hurried into the foremost lines of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, at its
northern angle. Calling to these to "push on!" he then pressed along
inside the boundary, animating by word and gesture all the troops he
passed, and halted for a moment to face the hill a little beyond where
the afore-mentioned donga disappeared into the wood. Here Major F.
Hammersley, of his staff, was wounded, and, immediately after, the
General himself was shot in the stomach. Directing Brigadier-General
Yule to proceed with the attack, he turned and walked calmly to the
rear. Then, meeting his horse, he mounted, and not until he had passed
entirely through the troo