The exigencies of war brook no delay, and so the funeral was arranged for the day following. Three hundred yards to the rear of the township of Modder River, just as the sun was sinking in a blaze of African splendour, on the evening of Tuesday the 13th December, a long shallow grave lay exposed in the breast of the veldt. To the westward the broad river fringed with trees ran unconsciously along; to the eastward the heights still held by the enemy scowled menacingly; north and south stretched the long swelling plain. A few paces to the north of the grave, fifty dead Highlanders lay, dressed as they had fallen. They had followed their chief to the field, and they were to follow him to the grave. It was an impressive sight, and as one who saw it has said: 'The plaids dear to every Highland clan were represented there, and, as I looked, out of the distance came the sound of the pipes. It was the General coming to join his men. There, right under the eyes of the enemy, {193} moved with slow and solemn tread all that remained of the Highland Brigade. In front of them walked the chaplain, with bared head, dressed in his robes of office; then came the pipers with their pipes, sixteen in all, wailing out "Lochaber no More"; and behind them, with arms reversed, moved the Highlanders, in all the regalia of their regiments; and in the midst, the dead General, borne by four of his comrades.' Many a cheek was wet with tears, and many a heart throbbed with emotion as the last kind offices were performed. Right up to the grave they marched, then broke away into companies until the General was laid in the shallow grave, with a Scottish square of armed men around him. The simple Presbyterian service of the Scottish Church was led by Mr. Robertson, the chaplain, amid profound silence. No shots were fired. Only the silent farewell salute of his sorrowing men as they marched campwards in the gathering darkness, and the black pall of an African night was drawn sadly over the scene. [Illustration: THE GRAVE ON THE BATTLEFIELD. _From a Photograph by H. C. Shelley of "The King."_]