On the 11th day of December 1899, amid the rattle of rifles, the fierce booming of cannon, and the sharp bang of exploding shells, a British force of Scottish Highlanders found themselves suddenly confronted in the darkness of an early African morning by an unseen enemy. All night they had been on the march, tramping the bare rocky veldt north of the Modder river, to attack, and if possible capture, the fortified and strongly entrenched position held by the Boer army of General Cronje among the rocks and cliffs of Magersfontein. This was full of difficulty and danger. But the relief of the beleaguered garrison of Kimberley was urgent, and if the work were to be done, it demanded the best the British army could achieve. Steadily and determinedly stepped out the men of the Highland Brigade, commanded by him they had long had reason to trust. As lieutenant, as captain, as colonel, they had followed him in many a well-fought battle, and now with Major-General Wauchope leading them in the darkness, no doubt or fear entered their breast. But suddenly there was a flash of light from the rocks above, followed immediately by a long belching flame of fire from a thousand rifles in front. They had unexpectedly {10} stumbled on the enemy. There was no time for reorganisation, and in the midst of an entanglement of trenches and barbed wire fencing, and exposed the while to a withering fire against which nothing human could stand, the Highland Brigade was mown down. Here it was, but well in front of his men, endeavouring to the last to cheer on his followers, one of the most gallant and daring of modern British generals fought and fell, a martyr for his Queen and country. General Wauchope's tragic end was no unfitting conclusion to a life of devoted, arduous service. He died as he had lived, ever in the midst of strife, an earnest, brave, and self-denying man, thinking more of others than himself; graced with the dignity that comes from inborn gentleness of spirit, and ever in his conduct exemplifying the faith he professed. No wonder that when such a man fell, there was a wail of lamentation, not merely around his own home in Edinburgh where he was best known and loved, but throughout the whole British Empire. The story of his life is one of incident and hairbreadth escapes, and it deserves to rank high in the military annals of our country; for among those who have helped to raise Great Britain to the honourable position she holds among the nations of the world, as the vindicator of freedom, as the protector of the weak against the strong, as the pioneer of commerce, and the disseminator of Christianity, there are few who have laboured more zealously or fought more bravely than he whose career we shall in the following pages attempt to sketch. {11}