again according to the once in this formation each man felt himself desperately alone and edged in towards his fellow for comfort s sake then the crack of his neighbor s rifle at his ear led him to fire as rapidly as he again for the sake of the comfort of the noise the reward was not long delayed five plunged the in smoke impenetrable to the eye and the bullets began to take ground twenty or thirty yards in front of the as the weight of the dragged down and to the right arms wearied with holding the kick of the leaping the company peered helplessly through the smoke the more nervous mechanically trying to fan it away with their high and to the left a captain till he was hoarse no good cease firing and let it drift away a bit three and four times the shrieked the order and when it was obeyed the fore and aft looked that their foe should be lying before them in of a light the drums of the and aft wind drove the smoke to and showed the y still in position and apparently unaffected a quarter of a ton of lead had been buried a in front of them as the ragged earth that was not they were waiting for the mad riot to die down and were firing quietly into the heart of the smoke a private of the fore and aft spun up his company shrieking with agony another was kicking the earth and gasping and a third through the lower by a jagged bullet was calling aloud on his comrades to put him out of his pain these were the and they were not soothing to hear or see the smoke cleared to a dull haze then the foe began to shout with a great shouting and a mass � a black mass � detached itself from the main body and rolled over the ground at horrid speed it was composed of perhaps three hundred men who would shout and fire and if the rush of their fifty comrades who were determined to die carried home the fifty were half with and wholly mad with religious when they rushed the british fire ceased and in the lull the order was given to close ranks and meet them with the any one who knew the business could have told the fore and aft that the only way of dealing with a rush is by at long because a man who means to die who desires to die who will gain heaven by dying must in nine cases out of ten kill a man who has a lingering prejudice in favor of life if he can close with the latter where they should have closed and gone forward the fore and aft opened out and and where they should have opened out and fired they closed and waited a man dragged from his blankets half awake and is never in a pleasant frame of mind nor does his happiness increase when he watches the of the eyes of three hundred six foot upon whose the foam is lying upon the drums op the fore and aft whose tongues is a roar of wrath and in whose hands are three foot knives the fore and aft heard the bringing that regiment forward at the double while the of the pipes came from the left they strove to stay where they were though the wavered down the line like the oars of a ragged boat then they felt body to body the amazing physical strength of their foes a shriek of pain ended the rush and the knives fell amid scenes not to be told the men together and smote blindly � as often as not at their own fellows their front like paper and the fifty passed on their now drunk with success fighting as madly as they then the rear ranks were to close up and the dashed into the � alone for the rear rank had heard the in front the and the of pain and had seen the dark stale blood that makes afraid they were not going to stay it was the rushing of the over again let their officers go to hell if they chose they would get away from the knives come on shrieked the and their men cursing them drew back each closing into his neighbor and round and of the last company faced their death alone in the belief that their men would follow you ve killed me you sobbed and dropped cut from the shoulder to the centre of the chest and a fresh of his men retreating always retreating trampled him under foot at they made for the pass whence they had emerged i kissed her in the kitchen and i kissed her in the ball child un child un follow me oh said the cook is he to kiss us all the drums of the fore and aft the were pouring through the left and over the heights at the double to the invitation of their step the black rocks were crowned with dark green as the gave tongue � in the morning in the morning by the bright light when blows his trumpet in the morning the rear companies tripped and over loose stones the front halted for a moment to take stock of the valley and to settle stray boot then a happy little sigh of contentment down the ranks and it was as though the land smiled for behold there below was the enemy and it was to meet them that the had doubled so hastily there was much enemy there would be amusement the little men their well to hand and at their officers as grin ere the stone is cast for them to fetch the ground downward to the valley and they enjoyed a fair view of the proceedings they sat upon the to 