The position now became most serious. From the ravines on either side the Ghazis swarmed up, in vast numbers. The artillery thundered from the heights upon our troops. Some of their batteries were brought up to within very short distances; and great numbers of the enemy, keeping along the ravines sheltered from our fire, came up in the rear and seized the villages there.
The companies of Jacob's Rifles on the left; after resisting, for some time, the furious attacks of the Ghazis, began to waver. The enemy's cavalry swept down in heavy masses; while our cavalry--for some reason which has never been explained--remained inactive. The general has stated that he ordered them to charge, but that they would not do so; the cavalry affirm that they never received orders. Anyhow, at this critical moment the 3rd Scinde Horse and the 3rd Bombay Cavalry remained inactive.
The confusion amid Jacob's Rifles rapidly grew, in spite of the efforts of the officers to rally them. The Ghazis swept down upon them; and the Rifles broke in confusion, and rushed among the Bombay Grenadiers who--hitherto fighting steadily--also fell into confusion, as the Rifles and Ghazis burst into their ranks.
"This is hot work," Will Gale said to his captain, when the enemy's guns, on the heights on either side, began to play on the line of the 66th with their flank fire.
"It is, indeed," the officer answered, "and the fire of the enemy, from the edge of that ravine, is very trying. I wish to heaven the general would move us farther back. He has made a hideous mistake in fighting on such ground as this."
"It would be difficult to withdraw, now," Will said. "It would shake the confidence of the men. I think, myself, that we ought to advance, and drive the enemy before us, till we take up some really defensible position; but I doubt if the Afghans would wait for that. In all our history, a British charge against an Indian enemy has always been successful, no matter how great the odds."
"It is a bad lookout," the captain said, as a shell burst close by him, killing and wounding five or six men. "It is quite evident that if we stay where we are we must, in time, be annihilated. Our fellows will stand, no doubt; they are English soldiers, and well officered. But how can one expect the two Indian regiments--with only three or four white officers, each--to remain steady, under such a fire as this, and with these desperate charges of Ghazis upon them?"
Very steadily the 66th held their ground, in spite of a flanking fire of artillery and musketry. Every time the enemy gathered at the edge of the ravine, for a rush, the heavy fire of the company on the flank--which was wheeled back at a right angle to the line, so as to face them--drove them back to shelter again. The regiment had suffered very heavily. Still, the officers felt that they could endure, till nightfall.
Of victory, there was now no idea; for to conquer, men must act and, here, they were only called upon to suffer. Presently a wild tumult was heard to the left; and then the men of the scattered native regiments burst, in a tumultuous mass, into the ranks of the 66th.
"Steady, men, steady!" shouted the officers.