The passing of the Shereefian empire . had none of thequick-firing Schneider guns with him, but he gothis three mounted batteries into position, andplastered the retiring enemy with a tremendousshrapnel-fire, which lasted over half an hour, andwas by far and away the heaviest seen duringthe campaign. It was a fine sight,—eighteen gunsin action, blazing away for all they were worth,until the ground in front was hidden by a greatcloud of smoke and sand and the retreating enemyrendered invisible. But this made no difference :the Spanish gunners did not bother to wait for thesmoke to clear away, b
The passing of the Shereefian empire . had none of thequick-firing Schneider guns with him, but he gothis three mounted batteries into position, andplastered the retiring enemy with a tremendousshrapnel-fire, which lasted over half an hour, andwas by far and away the heaviest seen duringthe campaign. It was a fine sight,—eighteen gunsin action, blazing away for all they were worth,until the ground in front was hidden by a greatcloud of smoke and sand and the retreating enemyrendered invisible. But this made no difference :the Spanish gunners did not bother to wait for thesmoke to clear away, but continued to fire as fastas they could place a shell in the breech and pullthe lanyard. The bombardment was more comicthan serious. The premature explosions wereappallingly frequent, but as we had no infantryout in front this did not matter. The whole ofthe infantry were engaged in looking on at thegunners and urging them to still further exer-tion, and the firing only ceased through lackof ammunition. The mounted guns displayed. GENERAL TOVAR. 459 their usual tendency to fall to pieces without anyapparent cause; but this only added to the fun,and I fancy the retiring Moors were more scaredthan hurt. Sotomayor got a battery of Schneidersin position on a hill, from which he could alsocommand the plain, and opened up a very effectivecross-fire on the retreating foe. Tovars Divisionthen took up its quarters for the night on thehill commanding the Rio de Oro and the countrybeyond. Sotomaj^or proceeded to fortify his campon the south side of the river, and the two divi-sions were speedily in heliographic communication,the Generals sending messages of mutual congrat-ulation on the success of the days operations. Itwas now already growing dusk, and I wantedto return immediately to Melilla to send offdespatches. General de Torcy, a French oflScer whowas following the campaign, said he would comewith me ; so also did my old friend Ritwagen, whowas acting as special correspondent fo
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