After traversing a mile, and leaving
the men further and further behind, the two officers saw the enemy
passing through a wooded graveyard and on to a spur some eighty yards in
the rear.
Colonel Adams, who was coming up fast with the main body, shouted to the
two officers to stop, but owing to the noise of firing could not make
himself heard. He at once saw that the place to seize was the graveyard,
cavalry pursuit up a rocky hill being naturally impracticable, and from
there to open fire on the retreating enemy. He therefore at once seized
the graveyard with dismounted men. To describe the events of the next
few minutes it had best be done in the words of an officer who was an
eye-witness and whose account appears in _A Frontier Campaign_:
On Palmer and Greaves approaching the hill, they were subject to a
heavy fire from the enemy. Palmer's horse was at once killed,
whilst Greaves, having been shot at close quarters, fell, some
twenty yards further on, among the Pathans, who at once proceeded
to hack at him with their swords. Seeing this, Adams and Fincastle
went out to his assistance followed by two sowars, who galloped
towards Palmer, at that moment engaged in hand-to-hand conflict
with a standard-bearer. Palmer had been shot through the right
wrist and was only saved by the opportune appearance of these two
men, who enabled him to get back to the shelter of the ziarat in
safety.
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