As the assailants got near the top, the batteries had to cease firing, unable longer to assure their aim between friend and foe.

The last rush was then made with the bayonet, but, as is usual, {p.046} the defendants did not await the shock of immediate contact.

They broke and fled as the British advance crowned the summit, leaving there some thirty dead and wounded, besides seventy wounded in a field hospital on the reverse side of the hill.

The artillery of the attack continued to move forward to Smith's Nek, whence the enemy's force was visible in full retreat.

It was at 1.30 P.M.that the position, which General Yule, Symons's successor, styled "almost inaccessible," was finally carried.
The precise numbers engaged can as yet be only a matter of estimate, but there is little doubt that the assailants were inferior in number to the defenders.