'Major-General Wauchope told me, when I asked him the question, on the evening of the 10th, that he quite understood his orders, and made no further remark. He died at the head of the brigade, in which his name will always remain honoured and respected. His high military reputation and attainments disarm all criticism. Every {189} soldier in my division deplores the loss of a fine soldier and a true comrade. The attack failed; the inclement weather was against success; the men in the Highland Brigade were ready enough to rally, but the paucity of officers and non-commissioned officers rendered this no easy matter. I attach no blame to this splendid brigade. From noon until dark I held my own opposite to the enemy's intrenchments. G Battery Royal Horse Artillery fired hard till dark, expending nearly two hundred rounds per gun. Nothing could exceed the conduct of the troops from the time of the failure of the attack at daybreak. There was not the slightest confusion, though the fight was carried on under as hard conditions as one can imagine, for the men had been on the move from midnight, and were suffering terribly from thirst. At 7.15 P.M. fighting ceased, the Highland Brigade formed up under cover, the Guards Brigade held my front, the Yorkshire Light Infantry secured my right flank, the cavalry and guns were drawn in behind the cavalry.' [Sidenote: An ill-fated enterprise] Many descriptions have been published of the ill-fated enterprise, differing in some respects from the despatch of the commander; and much controversy has been raised as to an alleged difference of opinion between Generals Methuen and Wauchope regarding the method of the attack on the Boer position, and as to who was responsible for its disastrous failure. Into that controversy it is not our purpose to enter, seeing so much of it is founded on mere conjecture, coloured by the imagination or the prejudice of some of the writers. Whether blunder, or miscalculation, or mere misadventure, no voice has been ever raised to cast the shadow of blame on the officer who gallantly led his brigade through that long dark night into what proved an impossible position, a position {190} which the best troops in the world could not have hoped to take. Every precaution was made that forethought could suggest. Untoward circumstances, and not want of courage, ruined all. [Sidenote: Fall of the General]