[Illustration: BOERS AMBUSCADED BY BRITISH AND COLONIAL TROOPS UNDER MAJOR GRAHAM OF THE NATAL CARBINEERS.] No sooner had the enemy surrendered, than the British soldiers vied with each other in striving to comfort and succour the Boer wounded. The soldiers crowded round them, "covering them up with blankets or mackintoshes, propping their heads with saddles for pillows, and giving them water and biscuits from their bottles and haversacks. In an instant anger had changed to pity. The desire to kill was gone," wrote Mr. Churchill. The British mounted troops were ordered to return after their success, as the news had been heliographed from Ladysmith that a large force of Boers was moving with guns to cut them off, and they were beyond the reach of infantry support. Thus the original intention of seizing the Boer line of communications to the Drakensberg was abandoned without further effort. [Sidenote: Desultory movements before Spion Kop.] On the 19th, in very leisurely manner, Sir Charles Warren began his infantry movement along the western foot of Spion Kop. That height was the pivot upon which the Boer centre rested; its slopes and precipices parted the two wings of the British army--the right wing under General Lyttelton at Potgieter's, watching the eastern face of the great mountain, the left wing, five miles away, watching the western face and endeavouring to work round it without delivering a frontal attack upon the works which crowned its ridges. The artillery vigorously shelled the Boer lines; the naval guns from Spearman's Hill enfiladed the eastern ridge of Spion Kop, and two brigades of British infantry in skirmishing formation pushed forward up the rocky slopes and ridges in the direction of Spion Kop, at once to guard the baggage from molestation and to occupy the enemy. [Illustration: [_Photo by Gregory._ LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR CHARLES WARREN G.C.M.G., K.C.B., R.E. A few facts concerning Sir Charles Warren's career are given below the small portrait on page 215. He was appointed by Lord Roberts (April 26, 1900) Military Governor of Griqualand West "while that part of the country is in a disturbed condition."] [Sidenote: [JAN. 19, 1900.]