Step by step John Dunn and his people were thrust back, fighting gallantly against overwhelming odds.

They were level with us, not a quarter of a mile to our left.

They were pushed past us.

They vanished among the bush behind us, and a long while passed before ever I heard what became of them, for we met no more that day.
Now, the horns having done their work and wrapped themselves round Umbelazi's army as the nippers of a wasp close about a fly (why did not Umbelazi cut off those horns, I wondered), the Usutu bull began his charge.

Twenty or thirty thousand strong, regiment after regiment, Cetewayo's men rushed up the slope, and there, near the crest of it, were met by Umbelazi's regiments springing forward to repel the onslaught and shouting their battle-cry of "Laba! Laba! Laba! Laba!" The noise of their meeting shields came to our ears like that of the roll of thunder, and the sheen of their stabbing-spears shone as shines the broad summer lightning.