About five o'clock there was a tremendous outburst of firing, but not all in our direction; and then we saw, to our left rear, a battalion of Guards, (Coldstreamers they were) coming up towards the rocks. They went through precisely the same experience as we had, and after a while commenced company volleys at the opposite side of the ravine, where the Boers were concealed, and continued for some time to pour in consistent volley firing. Meantime the Boer fire dropped to almost nothing, but every now and then, whenever there was a longer interval than usual between the volleys of the Guards, the rattle and whizz of the Mausers developed suddenly into a furious hailstorm, and as quickly died away again, showing that the Boers had some system of control of fire. General Bruce Hamilton came up to where I was and had a look at the position, and I pointed out to him the direction from which the pom-pom fire had come; he looked at the hills through his telescope, and said he saw some of the Boers' horses collected at the base of a rock, and would send a gun up to us to have a shot at them. The gun came up shortly afterwards, but it was then too late to see any distance, and the shells fell short. All the afternoon, a most interesting artillery duel had been going on between the 82nd Battery and the enemy's gun to which I have alluded, as being in position to our left front: our battery came into action near the cleft in the hill through which the road past Botha's Farm runs, and for some hours shelled the Boer position on all sides. The Boers answered the fire pluckily, and shelled the battery consistently for some time: we had a good view of the whole action, and it seemed marvellous that our guns could be worked at all in the face of the clouds of shrapnel which were hurtling through the air, all round the battery; but although they lost heavily in men and horses, they kept their guns going until it was too dark to see any longer. Just as it was getting dusk, orders were received to withdraw from the position after dark, but to leave three companies on picket, and to send the remainder to the camp, which was being formed at Botha's Farm, behind the hill. B, C and E companies were therefore left on picket, and F company and the half of D returned to camp. The remainder of the battalion had stayed in reserve behind the hill near the farm, G company being in advance somewhat and on the left of the 82nd Battery, and the others behind the hill, near the Farm. Sad to relate, Captain Maguire was shot through the head whilst ascending the hill near the farm: he was not even in sight of the enemy, and must have been killed by a dropping bullet fired at extreme range. Poor Maguire, always so cheery and full of spirits; it was his first and only action, and he was the only man of ours killed in the two days fighting.[8] Lord Roberts wired to the War Office on the 12th of June as follows: