BATTYE'S DEATH. 451 The five channels in which the Swat River ran were bridged near the village of Chakdara. On thenth General Low, with the cavalry and the third brigade, reached the left bank of the Panjkora. The cavalry reconnoitred on the other side, and found that Umra Khan's peopleheld somehillforts in the neighbourhood,and a largegathering of tribesmen was reported some miles to the westward. On the evening of the 12th the Guides' Infantry, under Colonel F.D. Battye, were ferried across the river, and entrenched themselves to cover the construction of a floatingbridge by the Engineers. Battye had orders to moveout next morning andclear and destroy some villages on the hillsides further down the river, from which the enemy had fired on ourcavalry. The bridge was hardly finished when it was swept awayby a suddenrise of the river, and in the morning the Guides found themselves cut off from communication with the rest of the army.

sons for fifty years have fallen on Indianbattlefields, several of them in the wild warfare of the North-WestFrontier.

During the day some reinforcements and a Maxim gun were got across onraftsto the bridge head. In the following night 2,000 swordsmen closed in on the entrenchment, and were just preparing to rush it, when luckily a star shell, thrownby the artillery, lit up the river banks. It had the same effect as the star shell that checked the rush of the Waziris at Wano. The tribesmen,suspecting somestrangemagic,turned and fled back to the hills.

During the next two days, while communication was kept up with the entrenchment by means of rafts, Colonel Aylmer, V.C., of the Engineers, threw a suspension bridge across the river at a p.int lower down the stream. The span was 100 feet. The cables were improvised by twisting telegraph wires together, and when finished it was strong enough for the passage of camels, horsemen, and mules laden with mountain guns. While the bridge wasbeingbuilt Aylmer gallantlysaved a soldier's life by a remarkable display of quick decision, pluck and athletic effort. One of the rafts at the old crossing was swept downby the stream. There were two menof the Devonshireregiment on it. One tried to swim to the shore and was drowned, theother stuck to the raft. General Gatacre, who saw his desperate plight, galloped rapidly downto theunfinished suspensionbridge, racing for the man's life, and was just in time to tell Aylmer the raft was coming. It was in the middle of the river. Aylmer, without a moment's hesitation,climbed along a slack wire, and bending down succeeded in seizing the man's coat as he passed and elraggedhim off the raft, whicha few moments after was shatteredon the rocks lowerdown. With great difficulty the Engineerspulled up the colonel and the man he had saved. Aylmer's hands were badly cut by the wire. It was as gallant an act as theearlie? deedof daringon the battlefieldwhich had won him the Victoria Cross. On the 13th the bridge wascompleted,and the cavalry under Sir Bindon Blood crossed the Panjkora and moved up the valley. Before following further the operations ofGeneral Low's army, let us see whatColonel Kelly's much smaller reliefexpedition was doing far away to thenorthward,amongtheHimalayan snows.

Nevertheless Battye, leaving two companies to hold the entrenchment, moved out with the rest of his battalion, drove the enemy's parties out of the villages,and set them on fire. So far all had gone well, but when the Guides began their retirementtowards the river, masses of the enemy, who had been waiting for this moment, crowned the hills,and began to descend to the attack. They knew thebridge hadbeen broken, and evidently thought that the small force opposed to them would prove an easy prey. But the Guides are the picked fighting men of the frontier;under the fire of the tribesmen, and threatened by their desperate charges, they fell back steadily towards the river,moving as if they wereon parade,firing only by the word of commandof their officers, someof the companies standing to hold the enemy in check with their well-aimed volleys, whilethe rest took up a new position. The two companies at the bridgehead moved out to their support. The mountain guns, a Maxim, and, as they drew nearer, the rifles of the second brigade, opened from the other bank to cover their retreat. In this way they safely regained the entrenchment, the enemy desisting from the attack as they neared the river bank. The tribesmen had lost hundreds. Of the Guides only twenty men had fallen,but among them was their gallant colonel, shot dead half-way downthe hill. He belonged to the"fighting Battyes,"a soldier family, whose