"We've got guns enough this time to pound them to bits, and men enough to eat them, but they'll make a fight of it, and a stiff one. That redoubt's an artful piece of work, and the line of rifle-pits between it and the swamp is well placed. More than the flagstaff is—for us, I mean. I believe it's ever so far in the rear to draw the fire. That's an old dodge of theirs. However, there must be a breach in the afternoon."
"I should say before that; the firing's very accurate," said Massinger. "And that Armstrong six-pounder is enfilading their left."
"After lunch, if we get any," quoth Slyde.
Whatever "stomach for the fight" the men told off for the assault had, the ration served out to the Forest Rangers, who were notified for that service, along with a hundred and fifty sailors and marines and the same number of the 43rd, was discussed with appetite. A reserve of three hundred men, under Captain Hamilton of H.M.S. Esk, formed the reserve.
"The cannon's loud-mouthed summons ceased, A rocket signal soared on high."
The assault was on.
Colonel Booth and Commander Hay led the way into the inner trench, where no enemy was to be seen. But from earth-covered pits and passages poured forth a volley, under which officers and men fell rapidly. Still the crowd of assailants pressed on, only to be shot down as they entered the fatal death-trap. The reserve joined, with headlong rush, in support of their comrades—all vainly, as it seemed. The officers of both services continued to drop, but the ranks closed up—
"Each stepping where his comrade stood, The instant that he fell."
Captain Hamilton fell in his place when leading the reserve. Colonel Booth and Commander Hay had fallen before. Captains Hamilton, Glover, Mure, Utterton, and two lieutenants, all of the 43rd, were shot dead or mortally wounded, as also Captain Glover's brother, whom he tried to carry off. The front ranks of the storming party were annihilated.
In a very few minutes every officer of the column was either dead or wounded. Among the latter were Slyde and Warwick. They had gone down along with the officers of the 43rd. When they awoke to consciousness it was dark, and their comrade Massinger was nowhere to be seen or heard.