the Major's assistance, knelt beside him, and bent over as if to bind up
a wound. In that position he remained motionless so long that Lieutenant
Johnson, who had been firing steadily with a wounded soldier's rifle
until twice hit himself, went to see if he could give any help. He found
his brother subaltern dead in the act of binding up a wound as he knelt
over the dying field-officer's body. At that moment Lieutenant Johnson
received his third wound, and had to be carried from the field by
ambulance men.

Mounted infantry of the King's Royal Rifles and Leicestershire
Regiment, with Natal and Border Mounted Rifles, covered this retirement
until it passed beyond the new line formed by Gordons and Manchesters,
so that Colonel Grimwood's Infantry Brigade, looking rather like broken
troops in the loose irregularity of every company, was not called upon
to rally or turn to face the enemy, but marched straight back towards
the balloon, "Long Tom" opening fire upon them as they crossed a ridge,
with marvellously exact knowledge of the range. Three shells burst close
to groups of the 60th, many men being hit.

At that moment, however, the Boer gunners' attention was diverted to
another point, where, from hills just in front of the town, and facing
Rietfontein, Captain Lambton's 12-pounders opened. It was as great a
surprise for us as for the Boers. We saw the shell explode just in front
of "Long Tom's" epaulement, and heard a cheer from spectators, scores of
the townspeople having gathered on a slope by Cove Hill to watch the
scene, among them a crippled gentleman who has to be wheeled about in a
Bath-chair. Nobody who does not know what sailors will accomplish in
spite of difficulties could have believed that Captain Lambton would
bring his guns into action so soon after reaching Ladysmith, and
especially, as we heard afterwards, as one had been upset by a shell