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She looked at her stepmother no longer, but began very quietly and steadily to make the tea. Lady Raffold waited a few seconds for her confidence, but she waited in vain. Lady Priscilla had retired completely behind her shield, and it was quite obvious that she had no intention of exposing herself any further to stray shots.
Later in the day the Germans succeeded in putting a pontoon bridge in place. Troops in solid masses hurried across; but as they reached the other side some well-directed shots from the Belgian guns blew the pontoon bridge to pieces, killing many. Throughout the night of October 4, 1914, and the day and night of October 5, the battle raged about Lierre with savage ferocity.
The guns did not burst, and though the shot fell far short, in consequence of the reduced charges, they drew an excited matchlock fire from the men in ambush, which did no harm, but showed their positions. The guns moved on, and Gerrard found excellent places for them in some rocky ground thick with thorny bushes, while his matchlockmen exchanged long shots with the concealed enemy.
There was a flapping of sails and a rattling of blocks, and then a broadside was fired; but it is no easy matter for angry and excited men to hit a mast at the distance of nearly half a mile. One of the shots ploughed up the deck within a yard of the foot of the mainmast, another splintered a boat, three others added to the holes in the sails, but no damage of importance was done.
Without a word of reply, the two women glided noiselessly like shadows into the thick darkness. About two minutes after they had disappeared, Maximus again fired several shots, taking care, however, to point considerably to the right of the canoe. Then he ceased for three minutes, and again fired several shots irregularly.
He at once woke the sleepers and called the others in, and by the time they reached the farm some thirty unmounted ponies, followed by Carmichael's party and the farmers, came up. "We have been longer than we expected," one of the latter said as he dismounted, "but we were lucky at last in finding this lot together in a kloof. Have you seen anything of the Boers? We thought we heard a few shots."
As we had ridden a distance of four or five miles the sun was now up, and as we heard several shots fired we put up our horses and proceeded immediately to the field; being too eager sportsmen to wait to take the breakfast which Mrs. Vezey had prepared for us.
Our anger was increased when we came across about 2000 Frenchmen, most of them without clothes and nearly all wounded, who had escaped death only by jumping into the river and swimming across in the face of the shots being fired at them from the opposite bank. Marshal Macdonald was among them; he owed his life to his physical strength and his ability as a swimmer.
Three shots had missed me, and I knew that the canoe was jerking about too much with the current to admit of a sure aim the savages. "Paddle on, Moralle!" I cried. "Faster faster!" Meanwhile I watched the right hank, hoping to get another chance at Cuthbert Mackenzie.
"He is not dead," said a third voice; "listen to him singing"; and indeed the poor fellow in his agony was giving utterance to dreadful groans. "Someone has tickled him well," said a fourth, "but what does it matter? We had better finish the job." Five or six musket shots followed, and the groans ceased.
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