Again the guns spoke, and this time both horse and man dropped; but I took our leader's place, and still we went on like a company of mad furies.
I dared not look behind, I dared not even think. I could only shake my sword and cry "Forward!"
Then we were in the midst of the guns, slashing at the artillerymen, who fought us till the very end.
But we did what we had been sent to do, and cheered exultingly as we emerged on the other side.
Alas! that cheer was the death-knell of many.
Whiz! whiz! sang the bullets as a battalion of infantry, hitherto hidden by a depression in the ground, sprang to their feet and poured volley after volley into us.
Broken by our charge, disordered, panting, we waited a moment irresolutely, then tried to form up and return.
Only the maddest of madmen would have faced this fresh enemy.
But the horror was not yet at an end.
As we rode back, a mere handful of wearied men, a dense mass of heavy cavalry barred our path.