And now over the kopjes before the British Army broke the untimely day. The land lay silent, and, as the line pushed forward, the little "dikkopfs" rose from the veldt with their melancholy cry. All chance of surprise had gone. Dawn had come and found the British troops not close upon the enemy's position, but some distance away. That distance would have to be crossed in daylight under a murderous fire. The men advanced in open order to assault the first line of kopjes, where as yet no sign whatever of the enemy could be discovered. "A death-like silence," says Mr. Kinnear, the Central News correspondent with the column, "hung over all. Nothing was to be heard but the swish, swish, in measured cadence of the soldiery as they brushed through the low bush. An order was issued by the commanders of battalions to 'Withhold fire and attack with the bayonet.' ... And still the Boers were silent in their trenches and our artillery refrained from speaking out." Puzzling as was the silence of the Boers, the silence of the British artillery was still more curious. The soldier in his attacks likes to hear the roar of his own guns; it gives him moral courage and a sense of support. He dislikes an enemy who awaits his onset in absolute silence and withholds fire till the last moment. Upon the kopjes no enemy could be discerned; the hills seemed so many huge lifeless stone-heaps, tenanted only by scorpions and lizards. [Illustration: _F. Dadd, R.I._] [_From a Sketch by a British Officer._ THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.] The line of infantry reached the foot of the kopjes and began the ascent, each man four paces from his neighbour, without supports or reserves. At this instant the slopes burst into flame, and a strange, unearthly crackling and sputtering ran along the front of the advancing soldiers. "You could see nothing but men dropping all round you," writes a private in the Scots Guards. This fire at close ranges should have been annihilating, and yet, as a matter of hard fact, not very many men went down. The Boers seemed to be nervous and alarmed at the steady and determined approach of our infantry; after the first few rounds they shot most indifferently and failed to use their splendid opportunity. They had almost complete shelter behind great boulders and stone walls, whereas our troops had to scale on hands and knees the steep and stony slopes. In the assault the Grenadiers, who were in too close formation, suffered most. [Sidenote: British victory at Belmont.] [Sidenote: NOV. 23, 1899.] _Incidents of the Battle._]