Many reputations were lost, while others were gained, in this difficult campaign, but there was one person whose prestige from the first suffered no loss. That was the British soldier. In the face of a foe remarkable for “slimness” and marksmanship, Tommy Atkins once more showed himself the splendid fighter that he always has been. We have only to remember the fierce battles on the Tugela River, at Colenso, at Magersfontein, at Paardeberg, and elsewhere, to assure ourselves on this point. Under the most terrible fusillade--and how terrible it was at times can hardly be conveyed in words--our gunners and our infantry never hesitated or winced. Throughout the ranks they fought with an indomitable courage that compelled the admiration of the Boers, and in the pride we feel at their bravery and devotion we are glad to forget the incompetency displayed by many of their leaders. Of the acts of individual heroism that were performed pages and pages might be written without exhausting the subject. In the leading of forlorn hopes, and in the succouring of wounded comrades under fire, officers and privates alike were ever ready to risk their lives; and the fact that no fewer than seventy-eight Victoria Crosses were won in the war speaks for itself. How some of these rewards for valour were gained it is my purpose to relate in the present chapter. Among the first to be decorated was an Army surgeon, a worthy successor to Jee, Home, and those others of whom mention has been made. At the battle of Colenso, in December 1899, Major William Babtie, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, received word that a number of wounded artillerymen were in need of assistance. They lay in a donga, or hollow, close by the guns of their batteries (the 14th and 15th), sheltered from the Boer marksmen, but suffering considerable agony from their wounds. Without loss of time, and quite alone, Major Babtie rode out to them. He knew full well that the instant he appeared in the open he would become a target for the enemy’s rifles, and few of those who watched him go on his errand of mercy expected to see him alive again. But although his horse was struck three times, he himself by good fortune escaped being hit. Reaching the donga, he found a score of poor fellows badly needing attention, and with wonderful coolness he set about dressing their injuries. The Boers, who had no scruples about firing upon the wounded, made repeated attempts to get within range of the intrepid surgeon and his patients, but with ill-success. Babtie seemed to bear a charmed life, and he was able to save many a gunner who but for his prompt help must have died on the field. The Royal Army Medical Corps, it may be mentioned, won three more Crosses in South Africa, making the total placed to their credit seven. Lieutenants Douglas, Nickerson, and Inkson were the other heroes, the last-named being conspicuous for carrying a wounded comrade for over three hundred yards under heavy fire to a place of safety.