That the fall of the General largely contributed to the loss of the battle, seems all too plain. He fell after being twice hit with rifle bullets through his helmet, and even while lying on the ground, when struck in the body, he appears, from the evidence of some of his men who passed him as they still pressed on to his orders, to be able to raise himself on his hands and knees, and taking a long farewell of his comrades, he cried, 'Good-bye, men; fight for yourselves. It is man to man now.' Other words are said to have been uttered, and were freely circulated afterwards about the camp, and found their way into letters written to friends at home; but in the din and confusion of such a moment it is difficult to see how these--many of them contradictory--can be accepted as his utterances. One witness describes the scene as 'an awful sight. The bullets,' he says, 'were like a shower of hail, and the shells were bursting all around us. God knows how I got clear, for I was in the thick of it. I felt the heat of a shell on my face. I never was so near being killed in my life. There were bullets hitting all around me, and whistling over my head. I have been in a few battles, but nothing like this.... We would have beat them had our General not been killed. He was shot in three places.' That General Wauchope fought and fell as a man and as a soldier, carrying out his orders loyally to the end, has never been called in question. He died where he would have wished to die, at the head of his gallant Highlanders, with his face to the foe. {191}