air like  of no  ; the ringing clan- 
gour of the iron howitzers, the crackling of the fuses, the blazing 
splinters, the shouts of defiance, the more than savage yell of those 
in whose ranks alone the dead and the dying were numbered, made 
up a mass of sights and sounds almost maddening with their 
. On we struggled; the mutilated bodies of the leading 
files almost filling the way. 

By this time the third division had joined us, and the  of our 
thickening ranks was dreadful ; every moment some well-known leader 
fell dead or mortally wounded, and his place was supplied by some 
gallant fellow, who, springing from the leading files, would scarcely 
have uttered his cheer of , ere he himself was laid low. 
Many a voice, with whose notes 1 was familiar, would break upon my 
ear in tones of heroic daring, and the next moment burst forth in a 
death-cry. For above an hour the frightful carnage continued, fresh 
troops continually advancing, but scarcely a foot of ground was made ; 
the earth belched forth its volcanic , and that terrible barrier did 
no man pass. In turn the bravest and the boldest would leap into 
the whizzing flame, and the taunting cheers of the enemy, triumphed 
in derision at the effort. 

" Stormers, to the