COLONEL YEA'S ATTACK. 193
seen coming up; and any officer acting in com- chap.
mand of the men here engaged might well have -
felt it his duty — his bounden, his sacred duty — to m e offi eS ° n
save them from the ugly alternative of either per- cc
ishing uselessly, or lapsing into retreat without an
order to warrant it ; but who, since the fall of its
chief, was entitled to withdraw the small force ?
For want of the needed command our people But on
whom had
remained lying down under a powerful fire that the com-
J ° L mand de-
— despite the half shelter they had gained — was voived?
steadily thinning their line.
The ' Engineer officer ' happily had preserved A-court
& „ , o i Fisher;
a cool head; and as a first step towards userm.
action, he sought to learn who was entitled— or
rather perhaps who was bound under painfully ad-
verse conditions— to take up the vacant command.
He strove to see or hear of some still undisabled the course
i . „ . . , , he took.
officer with at lowest the rank of a captain, but
finding none such, whilst also remembering that
he was of higher standing than any subaltern
of the line, he reluctantly found himself driven
to a painful conclusion — one importing no less
than that he — he himself — though only a lieu-
tenant, must be the senior officer present ; and,
once forced to see this, he did not delay the
accomplishment of what, however distasteful
was still a clearly marked duty. He called out
to our men: ' Eetire into the trenches the best
' way you can.'
The troops then began to withdraw, and — all withdrawal
r ° . ofthefe-
the way under a fire that still exacted its victims mains of
J the troops.
— fell back on our most advanced trenches.VOL. IX N
