follow, they sent out from Ladysmith, about nine in the morning, half a
battalion apiece of the Devonshire and Manchester Regiments by train,
and the 42nd Field Battery, with a squadron of the 5th Dragoon Guards,
by road. They arrived, and there fell on us the common lot of
reconnaissances. We dismounted, loosened girths, ate tinned meat, and
wondered what we should do next. We were on a billow of veldt that
heaved across the valley: up it ran, road and rail; on the left rose
tiers of hills, in front a huge green hill blocked our view, with a
tangle of other hills crowding behind to peep over its shoulders. On the
right, across the line, were meadows; up from them rose a wall of
red-brown kopje; up over that a wall of grass-green veldt; over that was
the enemy. We ate and sat and wondered what we should do next. Presently
we saw the troopers mounting and the trains getting up steam; we
mounted; and scouts, advance-guard, flanking patrols--everybody crept
slowly, slowly, cautiously forward. Then, about half-past two, we turned
and beheld the columns coming up behind us. The 21st Field Battery, the
5th Lancers, the Natal Mounted Volunteers on the road; the other half
of the Devons and half the Gordon Highlanders on the trains--total, with
what we had, say something short of 3000 men and eighteen guns. It was
battle!

The trains drew up and vomited khaki into the meadow. The mass separated
and ordered itself. A line of little dots began to draw across it; a
thicker line of dots followed; a continuous line followed them, then
other lines, then a mass of khaki topping a dark foundation--the kilts
of the Highlanders. From our billow we could not see them move; but the
green on the side of the line grew broader, and the green between them
and the kopje grew narrower. Now the first dots were at the base--now
hardly discernible on the brown hill flanks. Presently the second line
of dots was at the base. Then the third line and the second were lost on