Even more graphic is the story of another man who escaped. "We were paraded about 1·30 a.m. on the 6th, under Lieutenant-Colonel Watson and ten other officers. We had orders not to fire a single shot, and if we were fired on to take no notice, but keep straight on and make no noise. We then started on the advance on Red Hill, which was about a mile and a half away from our camp. When we were about half way there, we were halted and ordered to fix bayonets and carry the hill at the point of the bayonet. Soon after starting again we heard a kind of call from a bird (but I believe it was a signal call), and we saw two lights on our right, yet no notice was taken of them. We kept on until about twenty paces from the top of the hill. All this time we were in close column. Colonel Watson called the officers round him, and they were in front of the column when a signal shot was fired by one of the Boer sentries and we lay down flat. About two or three minutes after the first shot was fired, we heard running of feet, and thought it was our own men, but all at once the top of the hill seemed in flames, and the bullets were flying all round us. Still we lay there waiting for the order to charge, but it never came. After lying under fire for about ten minutes, the Colonel gave the order to retire, and the men on the left retired. Major Graham, on the right, gave his men the order to charge--which they did, at a very serious cost. Major Graham himself was shot through the left arm, and the bullet penetrated his side and came out under his right lung. The Colonel was killed, his head being almost blown off by the explosive bullets the Boers were using. The adjutant was also killed by the Colonel's side." It does not appear to be the fact that any officer gave the order to retire, and General French's dry comment may be near the truth--that success would have been obtained, though not without loss, "had the majority of the men not been seized with panic and retired." The losses in this disastrous little affair were heavy; 28 were killed, 24 wounded, and 113 "missing," 34 of whom were wounded prisoners in the enemy's hands. The Boers acknowledged a loss of 8 killed and 12 wounded, and this was probably about the truth. General French had his whole force under arms, but would not permit any attempt to retrieve the reverse, judging wisely that it would only result in a further loss of lives, which at this juncture was specially to be avoided. [Illustration: EXPANDING BULLETS.