CHAPTER VII.
FOURTH ATTACK ON THE WATERKLOOF.—DEATH OF LIEUT.-COL. FORDYCE, AND OTHER OFFICERS.
On the morning of the 4th of November the camp was left standing, guarded by the invalids and least efficient men of each regiment, and we marched, under command of Lieut.-Col. Fordyce, up the Blinkwater Pass, and bivouacked at Eastlands, the enemy being reported to be re-assembling on their former ground. The whole of the grassy plain was glowing with bright gladiolus, blue lobelia, everlasting flower, and the graceful sparaxis, of which we found a variety, peculiar to this mountain, of a deep indescribable colour, almost approaching to black.
The next day the 74th Highlanders moved to the head of the pass to cover the ascent of commissariat waggons. We lay under the shade of a spreading mimosa, a merry party, little dreaming this would be the last time we should all be together; some sketching, some sweeping the vast panorama with their glasses, and others practising long ranges with their rifles at the aloes on the opposite side of the kloof. The united contributions of our haversacs, spread on the grass, made a plentiful, but heterogeneous meal, of which, however, very shortly not a vestige remained, our voracity, with constant living in the open air, having become quite chronic.
During the day the other columns of attack were collecting from all quarters, and marching on their assigned rendezvous, in readiness for the grand simultaneous movement to be made the following morning at dawn.
Lieut.-Col. Michell's Brigade proceeded to the Blinkwater camp, to be ready to work along the foot of the Kromme and Fuller's Hoek. Lieut.-Col. Sutton, with two squadrons of the Cape Corps, and the Horse Brigade of guns, moved round the base of the Kromme Range, and past Haddon, to a point at the foot of Bush Neck, where he was to be joined by all the Fingo Levies, and detachments from Lowie and the Mancazana district. We remained in our camp of the night before. The evening passed in anticipation of the coming struggle, which it was generally thought would be decisive, if not severe. Our Colonel, who had just ridden in from Post Retief, joined us, and we remarked that he appeared more than usually interested that evening, and walked from fire to fire, conversing with each group of officers in a quiet tone of the movements of the other brigades during the day, the supposed strength of the enemy, and the prospects of the weather, which had become threatening since sunset. After our customary pipe, we wished each other an early good night, as we were to march to the attack before daylight, and withdrew to our patrol-tents.
At half-past four o'clock (November 6th), the word was given to move off in quarter-distance column of sub-divisions; not a bugle sounded, and with feelings of unusual excitement the brigade quitted its ground, and marched across the open flats towards the head of the Waterkloof Pass. The mountain was enveloped in clouds so dense that we could not see more than twenty yards before us, until about six, when a gentle breeze cleared the summit of the ridge, and left the clouds floating like a vast sea below our feet, completely shutting out the lower world, the tops of one or two of the higher hills, appearing through the motionless expanse, looked exactly like islands, some wooded, others bare and rocky, with jutting peninsulas stretching out, as it were, into the smooth water.
At seven o'clock Lieut.-Col. Sutton's force was reported to be moving up along the Waterkloof valley towards its head, and to cover its advance Colonel Fordyce immediately placed his brigade in position on the ridge, and extending four companies of our regiment, supported by two of the 12th, advanced towards the belt of bush intersecting the enemy's position, which we entered without much opposition, and occupied for the next six hours.