To attack such a strong position required the very best troops of the British army, if the assault were to be a success, and Wauchope's Highland Brigade was selected for the work. Lord Methuen conceived it to be his duty to take it at all hazards, seeing that his orders were to relieve Kimberley, and the longer he remained inactive on the Modder River, the probability was the enemy would become stronger in front. As soon therefore as the last of his reinforcements arrived from De-Aar, he resolved to attack the Magersfontein kopje. For this purpose, as we have said, the heights were bombarded from 4.50 P.M. to 6.40 P.M. on the 10th December, in the expectation that--judging from the moral effect produced by his guns in the three previous actions, and the anticipated effect of lyddite, to be used for the first time--there would not only be great destruction of life in the trenches, but a considerable demoralising effect on the enemy's nerves. {185} Whether this was so is doubtful. A longer bombardment, as the result proved, would in all probability have led to a more successful issue of the enterprise, and with less loss to our arms. [Sidenote: On the eve of battle] General Wauchope having received his orders, all were in readiness for the attack, which it was resolved should be made in the darkness of the early morning. Fireside romancers have pictured Wauchope on the evening before the battle as full of despondency and prepossessed with a sense of imminent disaster. Needless to say, these are purely imaginary fancies. He was not the man either to shirk danger or dread a deadly engagement. What afterwards happened is best described in the words of Lord Methuen's despatch. 'The night march,' he says, 'was ordered for 12.30 A.M., the bearings and distance having been ascertained at great personal risk by Major Benson, Royal Artillery, my Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General. The distance is two and a half miles, and daybreak was due at 3.25 A.M. About half an hour after the Highland Brigade marched off it came on to pour, a heavy thunderstorm accompanying the rain. The downpour lasted until daybreak. The brigade was led with perfect accuracy to the point of assault by Major Benson. The advance was slow, even for a night march. Major Benson, with a compass in each hand, having frequently to halt on account of the lightning and rifles affecting the compasses. I may remark that two rifles went off by accident before the march commenced, and it is pretty clear that flashes from a lantern gave the enemy timely notice of the march.