BILL BERESFORD'S DEED OF DARING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1971, 14 November 1889, Page 31

BILL BERESFORD'S DEED OF DARING.

Suddenly from out of a deep, sharply cut watercourse crossing the plain, and invisible at 200 yds distance, sprang up a long line of Zulus, some two thousand strong, confronting at once and flanking the men of Buller's Horse. Simultaneously the whole plain around them flashed into vivid life. Hordes of Zulus had been lying hidden in Jong grass. Buller's alert eye had caught the impending danger, and his voice had rung out the command " Retire " ere yet the bullets of the sudden Zulu volley whistled through and over his command. Three men went down smitten by the fire. Two were killed on the spot and never stirred ; we found their bodies next day shockingly mangled. The third man's horse slipped up in the abrupt turn, and his rider for the moment lay stunned. But Beresford, riding away behind his retreating party, looked back at this latter man, and saw him move up into a sitting posture.

He who would succour in such a crisis must; not only be a brave man, but also a prompt man, quick to decide and as quick to act. The issue of life or death hangs at such a time on. the gain or waste of a moment. The Zulus, darting out from the watercourse, were perilously close to the poor fellow ; but Beresford, used on the racecourse to measur< ing distance with the eye, thought he might just do it, if he were smart and lucky. Galloping back to the wounded man, he dismounted, and ordered him to get on his pony. The wounded man, dazed as he was, even in his extremity was not less full of selfabnegation than was the man who was risking his own life in the effort to save his. He bade Beresford remount and go; why, ho said, in his simple, manly logic — why should two die when death was inevitable but to one 1 Then it was that the quaint resourceful humour of his race supplied Beresford with the weapon that prevailed over the wounded man's unselfishness. The recording angel perhaps did not record the oath that buttressed his threatening mien when he swore with clenched fist that he would punch the wounded man's head if he did not allow his life to be saved. This droll argument prevailed. Bill partly lifted, partly hustled the man into his saddle, then scrambled up somehow in front of him, and set the good little beast agoing after the other horsemen. He only just did it ; another moment's delay and both must.have been assegaied. As it was, the swift-footed Zulus chased them up the slope, and the least mistake made by the pony must have been fatal. Indeed, as Beresford was the first gratefully to admit, there was a critical moment when their escape would have been impossible, but for the cool courage of Sergeant O'Toole, who rode back to the rescue, shct down Zulu after Zulu with his revolver as they tried to close in on the lather helpless pair, and then aided Beresford in' keeping the wounded man in the saddle until the safety of the laager was attained. There was danger right up till then; for the hordes of Zulus obstinately hung on the flanks and rear ot Buller's command, and the irregulars had over and over again ' to shoot men down at clqse quarters with the revolver ; more than once the fighting was hand to hand and they had to club their rifles.

If the Zulus had kept to their own weapon, the assegai, the loss among Buller's men would have been very severe ; but the? had extensively armed themselves with rifles that had fallen into their hands at Isandlvrana, with the proper handling of which they were unfamiliar. They pursued right up to their own bank of the Umvaloosi, and blazed away at our fellows long after the river was between them and us. Of course, cumbered with a wounded and fainting, man occupying his saddle while he perched on the pommel, Beresford was unable to do anything toward self-protection, and over and over again on the return ride he and the man behind him were in desperate straits, and but for O'Toole and other comrades must have gone down. When they alighted in the laager you could not have told whether it was rescuer or rescued who was the wounded man, so smeared was Beresford with borrowed blood.

It was one pf Ireland's good days ; if at home she is the " distressful country," wherever, bold deeds are to be done and military honour to be gained no nation carries^ the head higher out of the dust. — Aeohd. Foebes, in the "English Illustrated Magazine."