Early in the afternoon Buller was waiting impatiently to cross, looking, as was said of Picton, "in a heavenly humour, because some one was likely to be killed." A couple of guns were brought into position on the banks of the river, to cover Buller's crossing, and, if necessary, to assist his retreat if hard pressed on his return. A couple or three rounds of shrapnel made short work of a crowd of Zulus who had approached on the opposite height in a most impudent manner; and hardly were the echoes of these heard along the shores before Buller and Beresford, dashing into the stream with a cheer that made the rocks resound, were followed over the river by Buller's horsemen, the Mounted Infantry, and Baker's Horse. A good billiard or racquet player likes a gallery, and if the very dashing rifleman and _beau sabreur_ were at all anxious for an audience, they certainly had a large one on this occasion. In fact the whole camp--if camp you can call a bivouac without tents--turned out literally in its shirt-sleeves to see the fun. The fatigue parties stopped their wood-cutting to take a look at the two camp favourites as they raced like school-boys at a paper hunt after the Zulus, who were scuttling away like prize pedestrians to gain the shelter of a friendly kraal. Buller being in command, however, was not forgetful of his men; and, though galloping at a steeplechase pace, kept them well in hand, and raced with about a score of his fellows at the military kraal Dalwayo, on our right front. Beresford, however, being a sort of chartered libertine, and having no separate command, "went for" the Zulus entirely, as he subsequently expressed it, "on his own hook." Meanwhile, by Buller's order, Baker's men, guided by their leader, had inclined to the left front, to carry and hold a favourable hillock which commanded the best part of the ford. This piece of thoughtful strategy proved invaluable at the close of the day, when the horsemen had hard work to get back. On galloped Buller's men past Nodwengo, Lord William well to the front, now sabring a Zulu, now stopping to aid a wounded comrade; while Buller, having picked a hundred of his best-mounted men, pushed on with the intention of exploring and, if possible, firing Ulundi.