The day was advancing, and if the position was to be carried before night fell, the stormers must advance, though the British artillery preparation was still far from complete. As the hours wore on, General French sent in his infantry to the assault. A thunderstorm raged over the scene of carnage as the line went forward, adding to the grandeur of the spectacle. The British advance across the plain under a fearful fire was splendidly conducted; the Devons were as steady as on parade, firing volleys from time to time and always slowly gaining ground, till they reached the foot of the final steep ascent which led to the summit of the ridge. Men were dropping every moment; the Mauser bullets sang through the air thick as swarms of bees, while in front the crest of the ridge glowed with the perpetual rifle fire of the enemy against the inky blackness of the storm-clouds. [Sidenote: OCT. 21, 1899.] _The First British Victory of the War._] On the right, the Gordons, Manchesters, and Light Horse were also pushing forward. With a roar of cheering they gained the top of the ridge, living and dead and dying in one compact mass. The air rang with tumultuous shouts; the bugles sounded the charge, for the Gordons had yet to storm their way along the ridge under a withering stream of lead which poured from an eminence at its further end; Colonel Ian Hamilton was playing his last card. But the Gordons, after a brief check, swept on along the ridge, tearing down or cutting the barbed wire fences which in half-a-dozen places intersected it. Each fence, each stop, meant death to many gallant men. At last, however, the Boer guns were gained; the Devons too came pouring up the hill, and a torrent of British soldiery swept exultant upon the last Boer remnants. [Illustration: _J. Finnemore._] CHARGE OF THE LANCERS AFTER THE BATTLE OF ELANDSLAAGTE.] The men at the enemy's guns were bayonetted, and some volleys were poured in upon the host of fugitives tearing down the other side of the hill. A few unwounded and many wounded prisoners were taken. But as the enemy fled in the falling darkness, the Lancers and Light Horse rode at them. From the nature of things they could give no mercy. The terrible steel spears did their work amongst the yelling, panic-stricken fugitives; the Light Horse, too, had much to avenge--the murder of Edgar and innumerable shameful outrages in the past--and they avenged it. It was a complete and decisive victory, the first that had been gained in the war. [Sidenote: British and Boer losses.] [Sidenote: [OCT. 21, 1899.]