The prince was exceedingly fond of real work, and of sharing every privation and danger of his comrades. He was no feather-bed soldier. Anxious always to go out with patrols and on reconnaissance duty, it would have seemed ungracious to check his ardour, but his own daring and utter absence of fear made it specially necessary that men of tried experience should accompany him. At the commencement of June the Prince Imperial, attached to the Quartermaster-General's department, was at General Newdigate's camp. He had applied for and obtained leave to go on ahead of the division to the site of the new camp about to be formed. On the morning of the 1st of June, the reconnoitring party set out, consisting of the Prince Imperial, Lieutenant Carey of H.M. 98th Regiment, six selected men of Bettington's Horse, and one Kafir. Six mounted Basutos had been ordered to join the party, but they were left behind. The spot to which they were about to proceed was familiar to the prince, and he was aware [Sidenote: _Death of the prince._] that it was in the vicinity of Lord Chelmsford's camp on one side, and of General Wood's on the other. The party started at half-past nine o'clock, and when they arrived at the neck of the Incenci mountain were joined by some officers, who, after riding some distance with them, went off towards the left, in the direction of General Wood's camp. After crossing a rivulet which forms a tributary to the Ityotyozi river, they reached a large flat-topped hill, and there the prince, ordering the men to slacken girths for a little, took a sketch of the country.[40] Shortly after the march was resumed, the prince pointed out the kraal from which he had been fired upon on a previous occasion, and turned off to examine another one, which was found empty. Immediately afterwards the party descended towards a third kraal, about a mile further on, as the prince observed a small river—the Mbazani—at which the horses could be watered, and where coffee could be made for the men. The kraal consisted of five huts, with a small stone enclosure, and was distant about 200 yards from the river. In front there was an open space, on which fires for cooking had been made, but between the kraal and the river tambookie grass grew, five or six feet in height, with mealies and Kafir corn interspersed. The party halted on the open space, and the prince gave the order to "off saddle" for an hour. No sign of life was visible, except where two or three dogs furtively ran from the intruders. Water was obtained, coffee made, the horses were turned into the grass and grain crops, while with a feeling of perfect security all lay stretched, resting, on the ground. [Sidenote: _The prince's heroism._]