As the flanking parties fell back to join the rear guard, they were so pressed that it was as much as they could do to keep them at bay.
When about three miles from camp, the baggage took a wrong road.

In trying a piece of level ground, they became helplessly mixed up in swampy rice fields.

The enemy, seeing the opportunity they had waited for, outflanked the rear guard, and began pouring a heavy fire into the baggage.

The flanking parties were weak, for the strain had been so severe that many men from the hospital escort and baggage guard had been withdrawn, to dislodge the enemy from the surrounding spurs.
The Pathans were almost among the baggage, when a panic seized the followers.

As night began to fall, the officer commanding the Gordons, with two weak companies of his regiment, two companies of the Ghoorkhas, and a company of the 2nd Punjab Infantry and some Ghoorkhas, found himself in a most serious position.