the mountain, the men fell sullenly back with 136 killed and wounded. The failure to carry Hlangwane made it practically impossible for the Army to cross the Tugela. [Illustration: [_Photo by S. Cribb._ BUGLER JOHN F. DUNNE Bugler Dunne, of the Dublin Fusiliers, a lad of only fourteen, insisted on accompanying the column in the advance on Colenso; and whilst in the firing line was severely wounded in two places during the attempt to force the passage of the Tugela. He was invalided home, and recovered his health on the voyage. When he arrived in England he was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and became the unwilling object of a public ovation. He was presented to the Queen at Osborne, and as he had lost his bugle in the Tugela, Her Majesty gave him a new one, with a suitable inscription thereon. He is a native of the Isle of Man, and his father and brother are both in the Army.] [Illustration: [_Rudall, Carte & Co._ BUGLE PRESENTED TO BUGLER DUNNE BY HER MAJESTY TO REPLACE ONE LOST AT COLENSO.] [Illustration: _F. Dadd, R.I._] [_After Photos, by S. Cribb._ THE CHAIRING OF BUGLER DUNNE AT PORTSMOUTH.] [Sidenote: Advance of Hildyard's Brigade.] [Sidenote: DEC. 15, 1899.] _Hildyard's Brigade Ordered Forward._] In the centre the battle still raged with unabated violence. Indeed, as our men fell back on the left and right the enemy's fire in this quarter grew in fury and intensity. The Boers' attention was no longer diverted, and they were able to concentrate all their strength and energy to meet Hildyard's assault. To have had any chance of success it should have been made simultaneously with Hart's onset on the left. Hart having failed, had it not been for the desperate position of Colonel Long's guns close to the river and in the very centre of the enemy's fire, a retreat would without doubt have been the wisest course. It should have been no part of the British plan to commit our men to a profitless combat in which they could only be shot down without effective reply. But though the plight of the twelve guns does not seem as yet to have been known to the commander-in-chief, he sent Hildyard forward.