The guns were moved with great smartness along the ridge, and opened fire again and again, but never with great result.

Our own batteries, the 74th and 77th, with our handful of mounted men, worked hard in covering the retreat and holding back the enemy's pursuit.
It is a sad subject to discuss, but it is the one instance in a campaign containing many reverses which amounts to demoralisation among the troops engaged.

The Guards marching with the steadiness of Hyde Park off the field of Magersfontein, or the men of Nicholson's Nek chafing because they were not led in a last hopeless charge, are, even in defeat, object lessons of military virtue.

But here fatigue and sleeplessness had taken all fire and spirit out of the men.

They dropped asleep by the roadside and had to be prodded up by their exhausted officers.