The British troops with a roar of cheering reached the summit of the kopjes and used their bayonets upon the Boers, whom they caught amidst the boulders. Here fell Private St. John, a famous boxer, in hand-grips with the enemy. Writes a brother private of his battalion:--"At the battle of Belmont we fought hand to hand. I was just behind David St. John when he was shot. He stuck his bayonet right through a Boer and could not get it out again. He tried to throw the man over his shoulder to get him off, and then another Boer came up and shot him through the head. Then another of our men put his bayonet through that Boer's heart." But the main body of the enemy had already discreetly retired. The Boers with their agile little ponies could wait till the stormers were close upon them, and then leap upon their steeds and gallop off to their fresh position in the rear, thus baulking our soldiers of their prey at the very moment when against any other enemy the battle would have been gained. There was not cavalry or horse artillery to drive home the blow and keep the foe "on the run." And thus the fight had to be fought over and over again. Halting on the summit, to give time for the artillery, which had now been ordered to open fire on the high ground beyond the line of kopjes, to do its work, the infantry re-formed, while a heavy shrapnel fire was poured in upon the enemy's second position. The Boer guns responded vigorously, but without doing much harm. An artillery duel of an hour-and-a-half's duration followed, yet it cannot be said that any full or complete preparation for the assault was achieved by the British guns. They were too few in number, and they fired for too short a time. About 5·45 a.m. the advance was resumed. [Sidenote: Chaplain Hill's bravery.]