ritish artillery was bursting shells on the threatened
crest, and a Boer gun which had come into action was for a time
silenced. The attack had lasted about half an hour, and progress up
the hill was being slowly made by the British infantry, when the five
companies of the Northumberland on the right of the line were ordered
to retire by their commanding officer. He considered that his
battalion must leave the hill. The three foremost companies, who were
nearly on to the summit, did not hear of this order, and, under the
command of Capt. W. A. Wilmott, remained with the Irish Rifles,
clinging on as they were. The fire of the enemy appeared to be
slackening, and for the moment the groups of British officers and men
were convinced that, if they were supported, they could gain the
crest. But the withdrawal of a portion of the attacking line had made
any further success impossible. Nor was that all. Seeing the five
companies of the Northumberland Fusiliers falling back to the west,
the batteries conceived that all the assailants were retreating, and
exerted themselves to the utmost to cover the movement by their fire.
The sun was now rising immediately behind the western face of the
Kissieberg, so that all the upper part presented to the British guns a
black target, on which neither friend nor foe could be distinguished.
Thus a fatal mischance came about. A shell fused for explosion just
short of the Boer defensive line burst over the foremost group of the
Irish Rifles, and struck down Lieut.-Colonel Eagar, Major H. J. Seton,
the second in command, Major H. L. Welman, Captain F. J. H. Bell, and
three men. A conference had a few moments before been held between
Lieut.-Colonel Eagar and Captain Wilmott as to the steps which should
be taken to protect the men from the shells of their own gunners. The
former officer had stated that as the situation of the infantry was
evidently unknown to the batteries, and was masking their fire, it was
necessary to fall back. Captain Wilmott, on the other hand, urged that
if the men were once ordered to withdraw it would be very difficult to
get them up the hill again. Colonel Eagar replied that there was no
help for it. Therefore a general retirement now began from the main
ridge of the Kissieberg downwards towards the rising ground a mile to
the westward. The movement was made by rushes. The enemy had been
reinforced by Swanepoel's detachment from the Nek, and coming down the
slopes of the h