Guns fired; the bullets
whistled over our heads, and I thought I recognized the crack of our
lost sniders (those of Monsoor and Ferritch), that were employed against
us.
The curtain had now risen. When the actual fighting arrived, there was
some little relaxation from the intense anxiety of mind that I had
suffered for some days.
I at once ordered the men into line, and the bugles and drums sounded
the charge with the bayonet.
The gallant "Forty Thieves" led the way, with drums beating and a hearty
cheer, and dashed through the ruins of the town and straight into the
high grass on the other side, from which the cowardly enemy fled like
hares.
On our return to the station, I at once ordered Colonel Abd-el-Kader to
take eighty men and some blue lights, and to destroy every village in
the neighbourhood. The attack was made on the instant. The large
village, about 700 yards distant, which I had raked with the fire of a
few sniders, while Abd-el-Kader descended the slope to the attack, was
soon a mass of rolling flames. In an hour's time volumes of smoke were
rising in various directions.
My active and gallant colonel returned, having driven the enemy from
every position, and utterly destroyed the neighbourhood.
