The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-18
GEN. SIR CHARLES WARREN.

about 1000 strong. under Gen. Wauchope,
should get close enough to the lines OF the
foe to make 1t possible to charge the
heights. At midnight the gallant general
moved cautiously through the darkness
towards the kopje where the Beers We're
most strongly intrenched. They were led
by a guide who was supposed to know ev-
cry inch of the country, out into the dark
ness of an African night The brigade
marched in line of quarter column each
man stepping cautiously and slowly, for
they knew that any sound meant death.
Every order was given in a hoarse whis-
per, and in whispers 1t was passed along
the ranks from man to man. Nothing was
heard, as they moved toward the gloomy.
steel-fronted heights, but the brushing of
their feet in the veldt grass and the deep
drawn breaths of the marching men.
80 onward until 3 o'clock in the morn
ing of Monday. Then out of the darkness
q rife rang, sharp and clear, q herald Of
disaster--a soldier had tripped In the dark
over the hidden wires laid by the enemy
In second, in the twinkling Of an eye,
the searchlightS of the Beers fell broad
and clear as the MONDAY sun on the ranks
of the doomed Highlapders, though it left
the enemy concealed in the shadows OF
the frowning mass of hills behind them
For one brief moment the Scots seemed
paralyzed by the suddenness of their dis
covery, for they knew that they were hud-
died together like sheep within fifty yards
of the trenches of the enemy. Then clear
above the confusion rolled the voice of
the general, Steady, men, steady! and like
an echo to the veterans out came the
crash of nearly thousand rifles not fifty
PAGES from them. The HighlandeTs reeled
before the spook-IilSe trees before them.
The best their brayest, fell in the wild
hail of lead. Gen. Wauchope was down.
riddled with bullets, vet gasping, dying.
bleeding from every vein, the Highland
chieftain raised himself on his hands and
knees and cheered his men forward.
Men and officers fell in heaps together.
The Black Watch charged and the Gordons
and the Seaforths. with a yell that stirred
the British camp below, rushed onward,
onward to death or disaster. The accursed
wires caught them round the legs until
they floundered like trapped wolves and
all the time the rifles of the foe sang the
song of death in their ears. Then they
fell back, broken and beaten, leaving mar
ly 800 dead and wounded just where the
broad breast of the grassy veldt melts into
the embrace of the rugged African hills,
and an hour later the dawn came on the
dreariest day that Scotland has known for
a generation past, OF her officers the
flower of her chivalry, the pride of her
breeding, but few remained to tell the tale
a sad tale truly, but one untainted with
QlSnonor OF SinlTcneu Win disgrace Tor up
these nights under similar circumstances
even a brigade of devils could scarce have
hoped to pass. All that mortal men could
do the Scots did; they tried, they failed
they fell and there is nothing left now but
to avenge them.
IAN that fateful day our men lay close
to the Boer lines under a blazing sun !;
over their heads the shots of friends and
foes passed without ceasing. All day
long the battle ragged. Scarcely could we
see the foe-ali that met our eyes was
the rocky heights that spoke with tongue
of flames whenever our troops drew near.
Once our guards made brilliant dash at
the trenches, and like torrent their re-
sistless valor bore all before them, and
for a few brief moments they got within
hitting distance of the foe. Well did they
avenge the slaughter of the Scots. the
bayonets, like tongues of flame, passed
swept through brisket and breast bone
Out of their trenches the guardsmen toss
ed the Beers as men in English harvest
fields toss the hay when the reapers'
scythes have whitened the corn fields, and
the human streams were plentiful where
the British guardsmen stood. Then they
fell back, for the fire from the heights
above them fell thick as the spume Of
the surf on an Australian rock-ribbed
coast, But the guards had proved to the
isners that man to man the Briton was
his master.
In vain all that day Msthusn tried ~