2nd Grenadiers, led by Captain Raitt, of the former regiment, moved forward to storm the height, supported by the remaining companies of the 1st regiment, and by fifty volunteers of the Poonah Horse, under Lieutenant Loch. The road up the face of the mountain, at all times difficult, had been rendered still more so by the enemy. In some places it had been altogether destroyed, in others it admitted of the advance of only one man at a time, while at other parts breastworks had been raised across, surmounted with thorn bushes. The enemy from above kept up a heavy fire, which told fearfully; but, notwithstanding, a ridge at the head of the pass was gained.
At this moment a dense mass of men rose on the crest of the mountain, and almost overwhelmed the stormers with discharges of musketry and showers of stones. Major Clibborn now deemed it necessary to recall the advance companies to the support of the guns and colours, when a large body of several hundred of the enemy rushed down the mountain, "yelling and howling," as they are described in a private account, like "beasts of the forest." A temporary confusion ensued in the British ranks, but it was soon overcome. The "troops performed their duty with their wonted steadiness and alacrity, and the enemy were repulsed with great slaughter. The loss on the part of the British was severe; several officers fell, and among them Captain Raitt, the leader of the storming-party.
A scene followed more terrible than the conflict which preceded it. The heat was intense, and the labours which the troops had undergone sufficient to subdue the physical powers of the strongest among them. The thirst produced by the combined influence of heat and fatigue, in some instances increased by loss of blood, was overpowering – but no water was to be had. The cries of the wounded and the dying for relief, which water, and that alone, could afford, were aggravated into shrieks of despair and frenzy. A guide reported that water was procurable at a nullah[1] a short distance off", and all the animals that
- ↑ A water-course.
