Again came the shot booming from the battery, and ripping its way through the middle of the advancing column, scattering men and horses dead and dying upon the ground.
“Close on the centre—Forward!” again sounded the voice of the young leader.
And again the men filled up the gap and galloped onward.
Once more a shot came splitting its way through the middle of the column, strewing its path with the dead and the dying. Once more came the solemn voice of the leader.
“Close on the centre—Forward!”
And as before the men closed up the column and continued the march.
A fourth, a fifth, and a sixth shot was fired, each with tremendous effect.
And after each was still to be heard, like the voice of an inexorable fate, the solemn tones of the young leader, issuing his immutable order:
“Close on the centre—forward!”
And although their number was reduced by the loss of at least one third of their men, they grimly closed column over the dead and the dying, and pushed onward.