The age-herald., 1900-04-01

passed rearward. A village of anhu1anca wagons grew up at the foot of the mount ain. The dead and injured, smashed and broken by the shells, filtered the summit till 1t was a bloody, reeking shambles Thirst tormented the soldiers, for though
 water was at hand the fight was too close and furious to give even a moments
 breathing space. But nothing could weak
 en the stubborn vigor of the defense Though the British artillery, unable to
 find or reach the enemys guns, could only tear up the ground in impotent fury;
 though the shell fire and rifle fire never ! ceased for an instant, the magnificent in- i fantry maintained the defense, and night
 closed in with the British still In possess sion of the hill.
 About 4 o'clock I rode with Captain R. Brooke, Seventh Hussars, to Spion Kop, and found out what the true situation was.
 We passed through the ambulance vil-
 lage, and, leaving our horses, climbed up the spur. Streams of wounded met us and
 obstructed our path. Men. staggered along | alone, or supported by comrades or crawl ing on hands and knees, or carried on stretchers. Corpses lay here and there. <, Many of the wounds were of a horrible ! nature. The splinters and fragments of i the shell had torn and mutIlated in the | most ghastly manner.
 | I passed about 200 while I was climbing up. There was, moreover, small but
 steady leakage of unwounded men of all corps Some of these cursed and swore. ! Others were utterly exhausted and feld on the hillside in stuper. Others again seemed drunk, though they had had no liquor. Scores were sleeping heavily. Fighting was still proceeding, and stray bullets struck all over the ground, while the Maxim shell guns scourged the Hanks of the hill and the sheltering infantry at regular intervals | of a minute.
 I had seen some service, and Captain l Brooke has been through more fighting | than any other officer of late years. We | were so profoundly impressed by the spec | tacle and situation that we resolved to l go and tell Sir Charles Farren what we | had seen. The fight had been so close l that proper reports had been sent to l the general, so he listened with great pa | tience and attention. One thing was quite | c,ear-unless good and efficient cover could | be made during the night and unless guns could be dragged to the summit of the hill to match the Boer artillery, the infantry could not-perhaps would not-endure an- other day. The human machine will not stand certain strains for long.
 Sir Charles Warren wanted to know
 Colonel Thorneycroft's views. I was sent to obtain them. The darkness in-
 tense; the track stony and uneven. It was hopelessly congested with ambulances, stragglers and wounded men.
 I soon had to leave my horse, and then toiled upward, finding everywhere streams of men winding about the almost precipi- tous sides of the mountain and desultory crackle of musketry at the top. Only one solid battalion remained-the Dorsets. All the others were intermingled.
 I found Colonel Thorneycroft at the top
 of the mountain. Every one seemed to
 know even in the confusion where he was
 He was sitting on the ground, surrounded by the remnants of the regiment he had raised who had fought for him like lions and followed him like dogs. I explained the situation as I had been told and as thought Naval guns were prepared to try; sappers and working parties were al- ready on the road with thousands of sand bags.
 What did he think? But the decision had already been taken. He had never received any message from the general, had not had time to write any. Messages had been sent to him, he had wanted to send others himself. The fight had been too hot, too close, too interlaced for him to attend to anything but 10 support this company, clear those rocks or line that trench So. having heard nothing and ex- iecting no guns, he had decided to retire. As he put it tersely: Better six good batialions safely down the hill than a mop | ,ip in the morning.