Messages had been sent back by General French begging that the infantry might hurry forward, and very late in the night of the 14th-15th the advance brigade of the Sixth Division, with Lord Kitchener, General Kelly-Kenny, and three field batteries, marched in. They were guided in by Captain Laycock, who rode out alone to find Lord Kitchener, and who was sniped at everywhere in the darkness. With early morning the rest of the Sixth Division arrived, hot and weary. Of the other divisions, the 15th Brigade of the Seventh Division was moving on Jacobsdal, the 14th of the same division on Wegdraai, and the Ninth Division just beginning its northward march from De Kiel's Drift. The First Division still observed Magersfontein. All along the line of march small parties of Boers were in touch with the British troops, and great caution had to be observed. That afternoon people in Kimberley watched with curious interest what looked like great columns of smoke on the plains near Jacobsdal. It was the dust raised by the British army on its march to their relief. [Illustration: _H. M. Paget._] [_From a sketch by G. D. Giles._ BRITISH BLUEJACKETS CARRYING THEIR GUN. Wheel of the carriage of a 12-pounder gun collapsed, whereupon the sailors lifted it from its carriage and hauled it to the top of a kopje, a distance of two miles.] [Sidenote: [FEB. 15, 1900.] [Sidenote: Cavalry opposed.] On the morning of the 15th Lord Kitchener and General Kelly-Kenny rode round the cavalry camps. The field batteries and two naval guns replaced and set free the Horse Artillery. One of the naval 12-pounders was stationed upon a kopje overlooking the drift, after an incident which well illustrated the resourcefulness of our bluejackets. "On moving the gun," says a correspondent, "one of the wheels collapsed; but the sailors lifted the gun from its carriage, and hauled it a distance of two miles to the top of the kopje. It was a great performance, and well deserved the thanks which Lord Kitchener conveyed to them." The tired infantry went on outpost duty instead of the cavalrymen, and after breakfast the three cavalry brigades and the seven horse batteries drew up and moved out with definite orders to reach Kimberley that night. The sight, as the endless line of cavalry rode off across the veldt, about 9 a.m., was a very fine one. On the left was Broadwood with his Hussars, Lancers, and heavy Household Cavalry; in the centre was General Porter, just arrived, with his Dragoons; on the left Gordon with the Lancers' gay pennons and the more sombre squadrons of Roberts' Horse. Scarcely had the line left the river--heading directly to the east with the object of deceiving the enemy, and leading them to suppose that the object of the ride was Bloemfontein rather than Kimberley--when a Boer gun opened fire on the British left, sending several shells among the cavalry. At once two batteries of Horse Artillery went rattling to the front, deployed, and returned the fire.