They marched as
steadily and in as perfect alignment as if on parade, eight paces apart.
Hart's Irish brigade, far away to the left, were in close order. The
cavalry could be seen proceeding at a trot towards Hlangwane, General
Barton's brigade still bearing to the east; and Colonel Long and Colonel
Hunt with their batteries, without waiting for their protection,
galloped straight forward, and, taking up a position almost facing Fort
Wylie, a few hundred yards beyond the river, opened a heavy fire; the
six naval guns, which were drawn by bullocks, being still a considerable
distance behind them.
Still the Boer guns remained silent. But at half past six their musketry
opened suddenly upon the Queen's Own, the Devons, and the guns, in one
continuous roar. It came not only from the entrenchments on the face of
the hill, but from trenches close down by the river, and from the houses
of Colenso, from some railway huts, and from the bushes that fringed the
south bank of the river, which had been believed to be wholly
unoccupied. Five minutes later their cannon joined in the roar, with
machine-guns, one-pounder Maxims, and the great Creusots and Krupps. And
yet through this storm of lead and iron our soldiers went on quietly and
steadily.
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