It should be unnecessary, after a narrative recording the actions in which the Highland Brigade took part, to emphasise their gallantry and their untarnished prestige, but if any support for such a statement were required it would be in the tribute of Lord Roberts: “No words of mine can adequately describe their magnificent conduct during this long and trying campaign. We have only to look at the gallantry displayed by the Gordons at Elandslaagte, at the unflinching bravery of the Highland Brigade at Magersfontein, and at Paardeberg, to realise that the traditions of these regiments are nobly maintained.” Footnote 12: See Cromb’s _Highland Brigade_, p. 389. CHAPTER XXVIII THE GREATEST WAR (1914- ) Thus only should it come, if come it must; Not with a riot of flags or a mob-born cry, But with a noble faith, a conscience high And pure and proud as heaven, wherein we trust, We who have fought for peace, have dared the thrust Of calumny for peace, and watched her die, Her scutcheons rent from sky to outraged sky By felon hands, and trampled into the dust. We fought for peace, and we have seen the law Cancelled, not once, nor twice, by felon hands, But shattered, again, again, and yet again. We fought for peace. Now, in God’s name, we draw The sword, not with a riot of flags and bands, But silence, and a mustering of men. ALFRED NOYES. Some day when the smoke has lifted from the battlefields of Europe and the tramp of feet has died away down the avenues of Time—when even such a war as this is falling into perspective, and order is disentangled from chaos—then will the story of the Highland regiments be told, and the great part they played in the cause of freedom and liberty become an inspiration for the years to come. It would be a commonplace to repeat that there is something new and terrible about this conflict—that it resembles in no way the struggles of our earlier chapters. It is not merely the greatest war—the war of nations instead of armies,—it is the most inhuman war. In it none of the laws of the game have been practised. From the sack of Louvain to the wreck of the _Lusitania_ the policy that has controlled the army and navy of the enemy has bowed neither to pity nor to good faith. In this colossal war, regiments, brigades, armies, even nations have been swallowed up into the dense confusion of ceaseless battle. Upon every frontier, every mountain pass, upon the water, under the water, and in the pure air of heaven the grim struggle is waged night and day. When great peoples sway to and fro in their millions the time has passed for speaking of individual battalions.