TOM RECEIVES AN UNEXPECTED INVITATION--WITH THE CAPE RIFLES--MOUNTAIN
WARFARE--FORMIDABLE ODDS--THE EFFECTS OF SHELL.
Shortly before daylight on the 17th April, the trumpets of the 7th
Dragoon Guards and of the Cape Mounted Rifles, and the shrill bugles of
the infantry corps, sounding the "reveille," roused Tom Flinders from
his slumbers; and hardly had he finished a very hasty toilet, and made a
hastier breakfast (consisting of a piece of biltong, a handful of
"moss-biscuit," and a draught of icy-cold water from a neighbouring
spruit), when the clear notes of the "assembly," quickly followed by
those of "boot and saddle," rang through the still morning air.
"Now, old chap," cried Frank Jamieson, who was already in the saddle,
"look alive! Sergeant Keown is calling the roll; and--why, here comes
the governor looking very down on his luck! What's the matter, father?"
he added as Captain Jamieson cantered up.
"Matter enough," growled the old gentleman--"matter enough! We're to
remain in camp instead of marching with the column of attack. Where's
that boy Tom Flinders?"
"Here am I, sir," replied our hero from under the saddle-flap; for he
was tugging away at the girths. "Bother these buckles! they're as stiff
as--"
"Never mind the buckles, but listen to me," his chief struck in. "Your
friend B--of the Mounted Rifles has got leave for you to be attached to
his troop for to-day. Will you go with him?"
"Will a duck swi--I beg pardon, sir; I mean I'll go like a shot," cried
Tom.
"To get shot!--eh, Tom?" laughed Frank Jamieson.
"But I say, sir," continued Tom after a moment's thought, "perhaps Frank
would like to--"
"Frank's all right, my boy," interrupted Captain Jamieson; "he is to
ride `galloper' to Major Sutton. And now the sooner you're off the
better. The Rifles are parading."
And Tom, thrusting the remains of his morning meal into his haversack,
shook hands with the captain and Frank, jumped into the saddle, and
galloped off to the Rifle lines, where he found Lieutenant B--awaiting
him.
At a "council of war," held at the Burns Hill mission station on the
previous evening, Colonel Somerset and his brother-commanders had
decided to form the division into three columns of attack; and it was in
this order that the troops took the field on the morning of the 17th
April.
The right column, which was composed entirely of infantry corps,
commanded by Major Glencairn Campbell, 91st Foot, entered the Amatola
Mountains at the gorge of the Amatola Basin, with Mount McDonald on the
right and the Seven Kloof Mountain on the left.
The centre column, consisting of two squadrons of the Cape Mounted
Riflemen and Sutton's Kat River Burgher Horse, crossed the Keiskamma
River and ascended one of the ridges of the Seven Kloof Mountain to its
summit.
The left column, under Colonels Somerset and Richardson, consisting of
the 7th Dragoon Guards (the "Old Black Horse," as they loved to be
styled) and the remaining troops of the Mounted Rifles, with a
half-battery of artillery, advanced towards the Seven Kloof Mountain,
and, passing along its base, marched in the direction of Chumie Hoek.
The troop of the "C.M.R.," to which Tom Flinders was attached, was with
the centre column, which was led by Major Armstrong, with Major Sutton
as his second in command.
When at length, after a toilsome climb up a steep mountain path winding
amongst patches of bush and rocky boulders, Major Armstrong's horsemen
reached the summit of the Seven Kloof Mountain, they beheld a strong
body of Caffres drawn up in the shape of a crescent, with a dense forest
in their rear and their front protected by a tangled mass of brushwood
and swamp, apparently impracticable for cavalry.
At the same time the incessant rattle of musketry in the Amatola Basin
below told them that Campbell's infantry were hotly engaged with the
enemy.
"They seem to be having a pretty warm time of it down there," observed
Tom to his friend B--.
"You're right, Flinders," the other replied. "And I can tell you those
fellows yonder will give us a warm time of it _up here_. Hark to the
yelling savages! 'Pon my word, they're no--"
"No worse than `Santerre's sans culottes,'" Tom broke in with a sly
laugh, as he called to mind his friend's previous remarks anent the
"noble savage."
"I never meant to say that they were," retorted B--; "so none of your
chaff, my boy! But they are very fiends for all that, and Heaven help
the poor fellows who fall into their hands! For my part, I'd rather be
shot fifty times over than be taken alive by Sandilli's warriors."
"Oh, I don't know," Tom carelessly replied. "`While there's life
there's hope,' as old Brownjohn used to say."
"Old Brownjohn, whoever he may be, wouldn't have much hope left in him
if he once fell into a Caffre's clutches," was B--'s dry remark. "In a
warfare like this our motto should be that of Napoleon's old guard--`We
die, but we do not surrender!' Here comes Major Armstrong. I wonder if
he intends to attack the enemy's position?"
All this while the Caffres had been jeering at their foes, uttering loud
cries of defiance and derision, brandishing their weapons and shields,
and daring them to give battle. This insolent behaviour was very
galling to the Mounted Rifles and their Kat River comrades, and they
were naturally impatient to accept the challenge and teach the sable
warriors a sharp lesson. But Major Armstrong, after consulting with his
second in command, decided that the enemy's position was too strong for
him to attack; and so he gave the word for the column to move on towards
Chumie Hoek, in order that he might effect a junction with Colonel
Somerset.
Though both officers and men were greatly disappointed at their leader's
decision, they could not but own that he was acting wisely. It was one
of those cases when "discretion becomes the better part of valour," and
inclination has to give way to duty.
Directly the column was put in motion, the Caffres, advancing with
discordant yells (wherewith they thought to strike terror into the
hearts of their foes), made an attack on its rear, and some smart
skirmishing took place; but they never came to very close quarters, and
after a while retired, leaving the column to proceed on its way
unmolested.
Armstrong now led his troops down a steepish descent on to a low ridge
which divided the Amatola Basin from the Chumie Hoek, at the foot of the
Hog's Back Mountain. Just as he reached the ridge Campbell's infantry
made their appearance, toiling up the precipitous slope of a lofty hill
out of the valley of the Amatola, fighting desperately as they went, and
evidently hard pressed by superior numbers. They had been attacked
immediately after entering the gorge of the basin, and had been in
action ever since; their losses had been considerable, and many of the
wounded had fallen into the enemy's hands, there being no means of
carrying them off the field.
Now between Major Armstrong's column and the infantry there was a steep
rocky ledge, so that it was quite out of the question his despatching
mounted troops to their assistance. Major Campbell, however, when he
caught sight of the riflemen, ordered his well-nigh exhausted soldiers
to make for the ledge, where the ground became comparatively open;
whereupon Armstrong, seeing his opportunity, placed a couple of troops
in such a position as would enable them to charge the enemy should he
venture upon the open ground.
This some of the Caffres presently did, and then the squadron of Mounted
Rifles went at them with a will, and, driving them back, sent them
flying right and left into the valley below; at the same time Lieutenant
B--'s troop dismounted, and, advancing to the brink of the ledge, held
it until the last of Campbell's infantry had passed over in safety.
This was not accomplished without loss, for two riflemen were shot dead,
and Tom Flinders got a musket ball right through his "dopper" hat.
Shortly afterwards Colonel Somerset came up from the direction of the
Chumie Hoek to his lieutenant's support, bringing with him two
field-guns. These guns were at once unlimbered, and the Caffres were
treated to a dose of shell which very soon sent them to the right-about,
driving them out of bush and from behind rocks, and dispersing them in
all directions, until there was not one to be seen save upon the distant
hills.
"That's always the way!" angrily exclaimed a rifle officer as the enemy
rapidly dispersed. "Directly we get a really fair chance at these
beggars, they disappear like magic. And yet I'd wager a month's pay and
allowances that, if a small party of our fellows ventured only just out
of range of the guns, they would be surrounded and cut to pieces before
we could proceed to their assistance."
Colonel Somerset now ordered the columns to re-form; and the wounded
having been placed, some on the gun-limbers and others in front of their
mounted comrades, the troops moved down the slope of the hill to the
Chumie Hoek.
The afternoon was now pretty far advanced, so Colonel Somerset gave up
all idea of returning to the camp at Burns Hill, and decided to move on
to an open plain beneath the high point of the Seven Kloof Mountain,
close to the sources of a stream known as the "Geel Hout" River, and
there bivouac until morning. But before continuing his march to this
spot the colonel wrote a hasty despatch to the camp commandant at Burns
Hill, directing that officer to advance at break of day to Chumie Hoek
with all his forces, guns, ammunition waggons, and camp equipage; and
this despatch he intrusted to one of his staff to carry back to the
mission station.
A mounted party was at once detailed to escort the staff-officer on his
dangerous mission, and, acting on Lieutenant B--'s advice, Frank
Jamieson and Tom Flinders obtained leave to accompany the officer, so
that they might rejoin their own corps in time to be with it during the
morrow's march. The escort, consisting of a subaltern and twenty-five
picked troopers of the Mounted Rifles and four of Sutton's Kat River
Burghers, paraded about four o'clock; and, arms and accoutrements having
been carefully inspected, the word was given to "mount" and "away!"