Forrester had barely time to order a halt and swing the foremost gun into action when a pell-mell scrimmage was going on in the very midst of the gunners.

The first shot fired wildly did little or no execution, but it warned Atherton that his time was come, and signalled to the troops still toiling up the pass what to expect when they got through.
That fight round the guns was the most desperate of the day.

The Afghans knew that to capture them as they stood, meant the certain annihilation of the British troops as they defiled into the plain.
Forrester knew it, too.
Unlike Atherton, he had no protected sides.

The enemy was all round him.

The little troop at his command was barely able to cover one side of the square; and the gunners, obliged to fight hand to hand where they stood, were powerless to advance a step.