was soon evident that the Mausers were becoming
the masters of the carbines, and French, seeing the impossibility of
breaking through, at any rate at this period, ordered his brigade to
retire. As the men took to their horses, a gun, opening from the
enemy's left, threw shell rapidly amongst them, and made the
inequality of the combat yet more apparent. The two squadrons of the
5th Lancers, who were on the left, drew back over the plain, whilst
the 19th Hussars retraced their path under the ridges, both rejoining
General French under the lee of Lombards Kop, north of Gun Hill and of
their original point of departure. French immediately threw his
command forward again, and his two regiments, with some of the Natal
Carbineers, all dismounted, crowned the high ridges running northward
and downward from the summit of Lombards Kop, and were soon deep in
action with superior numbers all along the line. About 8 a.m.
Major-General J. F. Brocklehurst, who had only reached Ladysmith at 3
a.m., arrived at Lombards Kop with two squadrons ("B." and "D.") of
the 5th Dragoon Guards, followed by the 18th Hussars; and Downing,
withdrawing the 69th battery from the line of guns still shelling
Pepworth, despatched it with all haste in the same direction. Of
Brocklehurst's reinforcement, the two squadrons 5th Dragoon Guards
came up on the right of the 19th Hussars on the crest, and found
themselves at once under fire from the front and right flank. Of the
three weak squadrons of the 18th Hussars--all that remained after the
catastrophe of Adelaide Farm[130]--one was directed to reinforce the
19th Hussars on the eastern slope of Lombards, the other two climbed
to the right of the 5th Dragoon Guards to the south. Sharp fire from a
pom-pom and many rifles met them on the shoulder of the ridge, and it
seemed as if the British right was to be overmatched. But the 69th
battery, which had moved up the Helpmakaar road, escorted by a
squadron of the 5th Lancers, now arrived, and, boldly handled, quickly
relieved the pressure in this portion of the field by drawing the
enemy's attention to itself. Pushing on through the Nek which joins
Lombards Kop to Umbulwana this battery came into action on an
underfeature south of the road one mile beyond it, and enfiladed the
Boer left. Soon, however, it found itself the focus of an increasing
fusilade, and its commander, Major F. D. V. Wing, saw that to continue
to work the guns would entail a grave loss of men