And now it seemed to the Boers that once more victory was falling to them. The British attack was distinctly relaxing; battery after battery could be seen retiring in perfect order, crossing the Tugela by the pontoon bridge and moving off to the right. The enemy did not at once seize the fact that all this sound and fury veiled a mere demonstration, and that a withdrawal had been ordered from the first. The Boer guns redoubled their fire, and elicited a vigorous return from the heavy naval weapons on Zwart Kop, which were unmasked suddenly by felling trees in front of them. [Illustration: [_From photos by a British officer._ VIEW OF VAAL KRANTZ FROM BELOW ZWART KOP.] [Illustration: BRITISH ARTILLERY ON ZWART KOP FIRING AT VAAL KRANTZ. Officers and correspondents watching the effects of the fire. The smoke from bursting shells is seen on the distant hill.] [Sidenote: FEB. 5, 1900.] _A Brilliantly-managed Demonstration._] The engineers at Munger's Drift had got to work upon their bridge as the booming of the bombardment began. The Boers were not long in seeing them, and opened upon them a rifle and cannon fire which wounded eight men. In thirty minutes the task was accomplished with all the coolness and method which the Royal Engineers invariably displayed under fire. All was ready for the real attack upon Vaal Krantz, and at once General Lyttelton's Brigade crossed the river and extended, while battery by battery the guns stole off from in front of Brakfontein and deployed to support the infantry on the right. The withdrawal was effected in superb style; at intervals of ten minutes the six field batteries and the howitzers retreated, and, as they went, the shrapnel from the Boer guns rained round them. "Forward trotted the teams with the limbers for one battery, the unflinching gunners meanwhile loading and firing to the last minute," writes Mr. Burleigh. "When all was in readiness, the guns moved off in perfect alignment, the six upon one axle, as if on show parade. And yet it was deadly war, for the Boer shells were falling and tearing up the ground upon all sides.... The last three to be withdrawn were ammunition waggons. All the wounded and left material were placed very deliberately upon the two which had teams. For five minutes they waited, putting things to rights and rearranging harness, under a rainstorm of shells. Then they walked off the field, followed by shells, step by step." "Was there ever anything finer than British gunnery or so extravagantly dangerous?" was the reflection of another correspondent at this wonderful spectacle. Even the third ammunition waggon, the horses of which had been killed or wounded, was not abandoned. The gunners ran it back by hand and so saved it from capture. The ground was open and there was no cover of any kind, yet the casualties in the batteries were only about fifteen. [Illustration: _S. Paget._]