There was
no cover to shelter them and no room for them to extend. The
pressure was most severe upon the shallow trenches in the front,
which had been abandoned by the Boers and were held by the
Lancashire Fusiliers. They were enfiladed by rifle and cannon, and
the dead and wounded outnumbered the hale. So close were the
skirmishers that on at least one occasion Boer and Briton found
themselves on each side of the same rock. Once a handful of men,
tormented beyond endurance, sprang up as a sign that they had had
enough, but Thorneycroft, a man of huge physique, rushed forward to
the advancing Boers. 'You may go to hell!' he yelled. 'I command
here, and allow no surrender. Go on with your firing.' Nothing
could exceed the gallantry of Louis Botha's men in pushing the
attack. Again and again they made their way up to the British
firing line, exposing themselves with a recklessness which, with
the exception of the grand attack upon Ladysmith, was unique in our
experience of them. About two o'clock they rushed one trench
occupied by the Fusiliers and secured the survivors of two
companies as prisoners, but were subsequently driven out again.
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