front to meet Steyn’s threat, and Hannay’s attack was postponed.  Stephenson was then ordered to resume his advance, but apparently still in ignorance that he was expected to act in co-operation with the mounted infantry, he so disposed his troops that he gave little support to Hannay, who early in the afternoon reported to Kitchener that he was too weak to advance with the flank attack.  A peremptory message was returned, in which he was ordered “to rush the laager at all costs,” even without Stephenson’s support.  Some of the words of the order seemed to reflect upon his determination, so he obeyed it literally and immediately.  At the head of as many men as he could bring to him on the spot, he charged towards the laager, and when his horse was killed under him he marched on foot to meet his death.

As soon as it was seen that Hannay had thrown himself away, Stephenson was ordered to renew the flank attack.  With a portion of his troops and some mounted infantry, he crossed to the right bank at Vanderberg’s Drift, and formed to the left.  A small body of Hannay’s force had won a position near the Boer entrenchments, and it is probable that Stephenson’s assault would have succeeded but for a curious accident, which could not have been foreseen, and by which he was deprived of part of his firing line when it was most needed.  The setting sun suddenly appeared from beneath a bank of clouds in the west, directly in line with the objective, and the dazzle of the light blotted out the laager, at the same time illuminating the target on which the Boers were firing.  A further advance was impracticable, and the troops, which had already fixed bayonets for the assault, were withdrawn when within 500 yards of the enemy’s position.  Thus the second attempt to get at the laager from the east failed, but Stephenson’s action was not entirely without a result, as he was able to put his men into entrenchments, where they remained during the night.

Meanwhile, Colvile was pushing upstream from the west.  On that side the Boers had an advanced position in a big donga, which runs into the right bank, about two miles below the laager, and upon which a few companies of the Highland Brigade, having waded the river, had already made a gallant but unsuccessful attack.  Colvile, under orders from Kitchener, placed himself astride the river, sending the Brigade under Smith-Dorrien across to the north bank, while the Highland Brigade acted on the left of the frontal attack; and when Gun Hill, which outflanked the donga, was occupied, Kitchener ordered an assault on the donga, to be carried out simultaneously with Hannay’s attack on the left flank.  The order, however, was not communicated to Smith-Dorrien on Gun Hill, and he was not aware of it until he saw some troops of his own Division, supported by a few companies sent across by Kitchener from the left bank, charging across the open.  In a few minutes, the gradual retardation of the rush, and then its extinction under a heavy fire, showed that the attempt had failed.  It is said that Smith-Dorrien had been so imperfectly made acquainted with Kitchener’s plan, that he was under the impression that he had been sent to the north bank to prevent the Boers breaking out of the laager, and not to attack them upstream.