On Sunday there was Church Parade, the troops assembling for divine service in full marching order upon the open veldt. It was a dramatic scene, which came vividly back to many memories when the bloody work of the following night and day had stretched so many of the worshippers lifeless upon the veldt. It seems unfortunate that Lord Methuen should have chosen Sunday for the beginning of the attack, seeing that, by a tacit understanding between the two opposed armies, this day was considered one of peace and rest. Putting Sabbatarian prejudices aside--and they must, as all men would allow, have at times to yield to real military necessities--it may be doubted if there was any necessity on this occasion which enjoined the immediate delivery of the attack. To have postponed it by twenty-four hours would have done no man any harm and would have spared the nation the sorrow of learning that many Boers had been killed by lyddite shells while engaged in prayer and worship. Just as after the battle of Bull Run, in the American Civil War, a popular explanation of the Northern defeat was that the Northern generals had desecrated the Sabbath by attacking on that day and had provoked the anger of God, so in England there were some who attributed the British repulse at Magersfontein to this profanation of a holy day. [Illustration: 1. Lieut. A. S. Grant. 2. Capt. Hon. J. F. T. Cumming-Bruce (killed). 3. Lieut. W. P. Nunnerley. 4. Major P. J. C. Livingston. 5. Lieut. H. C. W. Berthon (killed). 6. Capt. C. Eykyn. 7. Lieut. S. A. Innes (wounded). 8. Capt. E. J. Elton (killed). 9. Lieut. N. N. Ramsay (killed). 10. Lt.-Col. Coode (killed). 11. Capt. W. Macfarlane, Adjt. (killed). OFFICERS OF THE BLACK WATCH, MOST OF WHOM WERE WOUNDED OR KILLED AT MAGERSFONTEIN.] [Sidenote: Disposition of troops.] [Sidenote: [DEC. 10, 1899.] [Sidenote: Attack on Magersfontein kopjes.]