Had the guns been able to command the position, they would have fallen by tens and scores.

Major Atherton, in the middle of the square, had his horse shot under him before five minutes were past.

Alas! there was no lack of empty saddles to supply the loss, for before a quarter of an hour had gone by, out of a dozen officers scarcely half remained.
Still they stood, waiting for the first boom of the guns at the head of the pass, and often tempted to break away from their posts and die fighting.

For of all a soldier's duties, that of standing still under fire is the hardest.
Captain Forrester, dashing up the defile at the head of the artillery, had been prepared to find a lively skirmish in progress between his own comrades and the handful of Afghans who were luring them on.

But when, on emerging on to the plain, he found himself and the guns more than half surrounded by the enemy, and no sign anywhere of Atherton, he felt that the "brush" was likely to be a very stiff one.
The Afghans had set their hearts on those guns; that was evident by the wild triumphant yell with which they charged down on them.