The first line they did
not now attempt to reach or defend; Nala pressed them too close.
But they got to the schanses or pits protected with stone walls, and
constructed to hold from a dozen to twenty men, and soon began to open
fire from them, and from isolated rocks. I turned my eyes to the gates
of the town, which were placed to the north and south. Already they were
crowded with hundreds of fugitive women and children flying to the rocks
and caves for shelter from the foe.
"As for ourselves, the appearance of Nala's impi produced a wonderful
change for the better in our position. The soldiers attacking us turned,
realizing that the town was being assailed from the rear, and clambering
down the koppie streamed off to protect their homes against this new
enemy. In five minutes there was not a man left except those who would
move no more, or were too sorely wounded to escape. I felt inclined to
ejaculate '_Saved!_' like the gentleman in the play, but did not because
the occasion was too serious. What I did do was to muster all the men
and reckon up our losses. They amounted to fifty-one killed and wounded,
sixteen men having been killed outright. Then I sent men with the
cooking-pots to the stream of water, and we drank. This done I set my
bearers, being the most useless part of the community, from a fighting
point of view, to the task of attending the injured, and turned to watch
the fray.
"By this time Nala's impi had climbed the first line of fortifications
without opposition, and was advancing in a long line upon the schanses
or pits which were scattered about between it and the second line,
singing a war chant as it came.
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