Ever since the arrival of the Prince Imperial in the colony he had continued to win the friendship and esteem of all ranks, and his unassuming quietude and modesty, genial humour, and readiness to learn the most minute details of the profession he had adopted, made him a universal favourite. It has been previously mentioned that the Prince had been engaged in several reconnaissances, and only three days before his death he had been with Lord Chelmsford upon a patrol extending more than twenty miles into the Zulu country. On May the 28th General Wood received orders to move parallel to, but slightly in advance, of General Newdigate's column, from Kopje Allein, in a south-easterly direction towards the Itelezi hill. After three days had been spent in carefully exploring the country, General Newdigate moved forward on June 1st with his division, as nearly as possible 10,000 strong, and with a baggage train of 480 waggons. The country had been carefully scouted by Buller's Horse for twenty miles round, and no Zulus were reported near. On the evening of the 1st the column laagered not far from the Itelezi, and on the following day the General moved south-east along a level country towards the Inguita range; and the flying column being one march ahead, a communication was kept up by the vedettes of General Newdigate and General Wood. On Sunday, the 1st, General Wood with a small escort reconnoitred in advance of the column, which was about five miles in advance of General Newdigate's force. Away on the right and left were Buller's horsemen dotting the ridges of the hills on either side. In front lay green slopes, which were traversed here and there by watercourses, and bounded by the most singularly shaped mountains, flat at the summit and crowned with a sort of rocky dome. A good deal of rain had fallen in the night, and the morning was as clear and fresh as a May day in England. The General and his escort had ridden about six miles, when the path suddenly made a bend to the left, skirting a clump of trees, which grew near the edge of the stream. Pushing a way through thick thorny underwood mingled with date-palms and tall reeds, they at length looked down upon the still deep waters of a narrow river, flowing across a long red sandbank. A ledge of granite formed a rugged barrier eight feet or ten feet high across the river, and down the hollows of this the clear water rushed and gurgled in fantastic rills, cascades, and rapids, bubbling and eddying among the great masses of rock above, in many of which great holes were worn by stones which during the floods had settled in small hollows. Traversing a sandstone hill, with a long spur stretching away to the eastward, and rising in cliffs of 300 feet to the south of the river, they came upon a grove of fan-palms and mimosa, where the banks of the stream were covered with golden-blossomed acacias. Crossing the river by an easy ford, they had ridden on about