All that fateful day the battle was carried on. Our wounded and dead lay as they fell, under a blazing sun, close to the Boer lines. Over their heads the shots of friends and foes passed, without ceasing. 'Many a gallant deed was done by comrades helping comrades; men who were shot through the body lay without water, enduring all the agony of thirst caused by their wounds and the blistering heat. To them crawled Scots with shattered limbs, sharing the last drop of water in their bottles, and taking farewell messages to many a cottage home in far-off Scotland.' But still the battle raged. Wounded and dead must wait alike the ultimate fate of the day. Lying on the veldt the British still held their ground, firing when they could, but drawing a hotter fire upon themselves from the trenches. For fourteen hours they thus lay--from three o'clock in the morning till six at night. It was cruel work, with all the odds against the attackers, fighting against a foe they could neither see nor reach. Once the Guards made a brilliant dash at the trenches, and like a torrent their resistless valour bore down all before them, and for a brief few moments they got within striking distance of the enemy; and well did they avenge the slaughter of the Scots. With bayonets fixed and a ringing cheer the Guardsmen, we are told by a graphic writer, 'tossed the Boers out of their trenches as men in English harvest-fields toss the hay.' Then they retired under the deadly fire from the heights above, falling thick as hail upon them. Not till the evening did the conflict cease. Then there was an armistice, and our ambulance bearers went out to bring in their fallen comrades. The Rev. J. Robertson, chaplain of the brigade, mentions in a letter: 'I was with Wauchope when he fell. I think he wished me to keep {192} near him, but I got knocked down, and in the dark and wild confusion I was borne away, and did not see him in life again, though I spared no effort to find him, in the hope that he might be only wounded.' This statement is confirmed by the Anglican chaplain with Lord Methuen, who, after describing the battle of Magersfontein, thus refers to the Highland Brigade: 'Being chiefly Highlanders, they were in Robertson's charge. He, good-hearted fellow, was risking his life in the trenches and under fire to find General Wauchope's body. Why he was not killed in his fearless efforts I cannot tell.' The General's body was found next morning from twenty to thirty yards off the Boer trenches, 'riddled with bullets,' and was carried reverently back into camp, amidst the unmistakable grief of every soldier. [Sidenote: 'Lochaber no more']