The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-04

of their comrades as they fell before
 them, the men pressed on. It had
 ceased to be moment for regimental commanders. Even sections could bare
 ly keep together; it was the brute cour-
 age of the individual alone that carried
 them on. Men stopped, lay under
 stones and fired, were shot as they lay
 or rose from cover to rush another doz-
 en yards.
 Men and officers were slaughtered in
 patches at the fences. But here in
 places the rain of bullets had done the
 work of wire cutters. More than half
 way was Won and yet, though. the sum- | init of the kopje seemed one continuous | burst of shrapnel, the fire from it in no
 wise slackened It seemed that the
 men had done all that could be done. | Colonel Dick -Cunyngham was shot in
 two places, half the officers of the Cor
 don Highlanders were down. The level crest seemed strewn with countless cas-
 ualties. The critical moment had ar-
 rived. It was too be victory now or
 never; Colonel Ian Hamilton ordered
 bugler to sound the "Charge!" Out
 rang the bugle, such buglers as were
 unhurt took up the note; Drum Major
 Lawrence of the Gordon Highlanders rushed out into the open and headed the
 line, playing the Hateful call. The
 sound of the Devonshire bugles came
 up from the valley bottom, and the per-
 sstent rhythm of their firing gave heart
 to the flank attack. Waves of glitter
 ing bayonets danced forward in the
 twilight. Twenty determined men still
 held the final kopje Again the bugles
 sounded the advance" then the
 cease fire" rang out. There was a lull in the firing; men stopped and stood up clear of cover. In moment the Boers reopened and swept away doz- en brave men. But the dastardly ruse was a last and futile effort to save the day. Lieutenant Field, at the head of his company of the Devonshire regi- ment was into the. battery with bayo- net; the men who had served the guns till the steel was six feet away from them were shot or bayoneted. Devons, Manchesters, Highlanders and Light Horse men met and dashed for the laa- ger in the dip below. It was a wild three minutes; men were shouting Ma juba!" Then in honest cadence the CbdSe lire SUuIutd, lilG plpCS ol LHC Gordons skirted the regimental quick step, and we saw sight which thrilled us all the white flag fluttering from a Mauser carbine held by bearded Boer.
 The Boers were beaten and driven from a strong position of their own choosing. Some half dozen men stood in the laager on the neS holding a flag of truce to stay the fire of the despised | Rooinek. In the meantime fugitives were streaming down the reverse of the | position. Firing will never on these oc- casions stop automatically, and | musketry still took place | and continued on into the night. But | before darkness became absolute the | mass of Dutch fugitives were overtaken by the Fifth Lancers, kept in leash on the left for this purpose. Their work was simple, and the infantry success on the hilltop was rendered complete by a cavalry pursuit pushed home. But there had been a price upon the victory. It has been said that infantry would never in the face of modern arms be called upon to deliver an attack such Is was made at Elandslaagte. But having done so, the price of necessity must be heavy. We lost in the action against Commandant Rocks comman- 10 four officers and thirty-seven men killed, thirty-one officers and one hun fred and seventy-five men wounded, md ten men missing. What the ene- nys losses were it is hard to estimate, ,s early in the day they had made ar to remove their killed and wounded. But British burying party sent out from Ladysmith nterred sixty-five dead Boers found ly ng on the field alone, so that, with the fifty odd for which the Lancers were re- ponsible it will not be far wrong to es- innate their losses in killed alone at me hundred and fifty. As for their but few of those that have have escaped. Among the cad upon the field were found Leggelo, ublic prosecutor; Dr. Coster, Boden- tein, judicial magistrate, Krugersdorp; 1are Landrost, Boksburg; Captain !, 'igulus, Krugersdorp. Commandant .. Zen Viljoen is reported to have been 1, and to have died. of his :, ,ounds. Lying on the hillside were 1, Rock, Penaar and Pre- orius, Colonel Schiel, Judge Rock, De Witt Hamer, Volksraad member for arberton, and many other prominent Iollander and Dutch ficialS.-London fines.