The Brigade Assumed A Formation Which May Be Described As
An Echelon Of Columns Of Route, With The Lincolns, Who Were Actually The
Pivot Regiment, Leading.
By the time that the right of Lewis's brigade was
reached and the British had begun to deploy, it was evident that the
Khalifa's attack was broken and that his force was in full retreat.
In the
near foreground the Arab dead lay thick. Crowds of fugitives were trooping
off in the distance. The Black Flag alone waved defiantly over the corpses
of its defenders. In the front of the brigade the fight was over. But those
who looked away to the right saw a different spectacle. What appeared to be
an entirely new army was coming down from the Kerreri Hills. While the
soldiers looked and wondered, fresh orders arrived. A mounted officer
galloped up. There was a report that terrible events were happening in the
dust and smoke to the northward. The spearmen had closed with MacDonald's
brigade; were crumpling his line from the flank; had already broken it.
Such were the rumours. The orders were more precise. The nearest regiment -
the Lincolnshire - was to hurry to MacDonald's threatened flank to meet the
attack. The rest of the brigade was to change front half right, and remain
in support. The Lincolnshires, breathless but elated, forthwith started off
again at the double. They began to traverse the rear of MacDonald's brigade,
dimly conscious of rapid movements by its battalions, and to the sound of
tremendous independent firing, which did not, however, prevent them from
hearing the venomous hiss of bullets.
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