27. With Sir Ian Hamilton to Pretoria 277 28. The Greatest War 288 Index 313 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. The Camerons at Fuentes de Oñoro (p. _Frontispiece_ 95) 2. A Highland Chief 4 3. The Black Watch at Ticonderoga 22 4. The Highland Light Infantry at 60 Seringapatam 5. The Gordons at Quatre Bras 112 6. The Sutherland Highlanders at Lucknow 166 7. The Seaforths at Candahar 202 8. The Argyll and Sutherlands entering 294 Boulogne, August 1914 CHAPTER I THE FORMATION OF THE BLACK WATCH Let the ancient hills of Scotland Hear once more the battle-song Swell within their glens and valleys As the clansmen march along! The Highland Regiments have always enjoyed a world-wide popularity quite apart from the quality of their achievements. This popularity is due to the appeal of imagination and romance. The spectacle of a Highland regiment, its pipes playing, and the kilts swinging file by file, recalls the old days when the clans rose for the Stuarts. The Highland dress is not only linked for all time with Lucknow, Balaclava, and Quatre Bras, but, stepping farther backward, with Culloden, Killiecrankie, and Glencoe. People unacquainted with uniforms find a difficulty in recognising certain English line regiments whose records are the glory of our military history. But the Highlander, beyond his distinctive regiment, carries in the memories aroused a passport to popular favour. Fortunately the Highland Regiments have earned by more than glamour the admiration of Britain. In campaigns extending over the last hundred and fifty odd years the Highlanders have borne their share of the fighting, and whenever the call has come have proved themselves ‘second to none.’ It was in the eighteenth century that the Jacobites rose for the last time against the King of England, and whatever the rights or wrongs of the rebellion, the loyalty and bravery of the clans will for ever remain undimmed by time. Loyalty may make mistakes, but it is none the less noble for that, and when the ‘45 was over it was the sons of the men who died for Prince Charlie who were ready to fight for King George.