but here
a common type of confusion occurred. I had arranged to hold it in front
of the Scots Guards' camp, but in one battalion it was announced that it
would take place precisely where the Church of England service had just
been held, and in another precisely where the Roman Catholic service had
just been held. So before my service could begin, the shepherd had to
seek his sheep and the sheep their shepherd. Finally, by several
instalments, we got together, forming a circle, seated on the sand; and
then we gave ourselves to prayer and praise, followed by a brief
sacramental service of glad remembrance and renewed consecration. A camp
mug and a camp plate placed on the bare sand for table betokened a
ritual of more than primitive simplicity; but thus on the eve of battle
did a band of godly soldiers give themselves afresh to God in Christ.

'A similar open-air service was fixed for the evening, but never came
off. It may have been one of the sad necessities of war time, but was a
fact, nevertheless, deeply to be deplored, that at four o'clock on
Sunday afternoon our guns, which had been silent for a fortnight, again
opened fire and shelled the Boers with lyddite. As I listened to the
thunder and the thud of them I could not quite repress a wonder whether
that was quite the best possible way of propitiating the God of battle.
At eight o'clock, under cover of the darkness, we marched silently out
of camp, confident and strong, and bivouacked till midnight just beyond
the river. Nearly every other night since we came upon this ground had
been brightened by starlight, but on this occasion rain had fallen
during the day, and dense darkness covered us at night. So, with my
mackintosh wrapped around me, I lay for hours among the troops on the
damp ground awaiting the order to resume our midnight march. Soon after
one o'clock we were again on the move; but our only light was the
tell-tale searchlight from Kimberley, and many a vivid flash of
lightning, which only served to make the darkness visible. It was not
long, therefore, before the whole brigade hopelessly lost its way, and
had to halt by the hour, while the persistent rain drenched almost every
man, standing grimly silent, to the skin.

'Precisely at earliest dawn the splendid Highland Brigade appears to
have stumbled into a horrible snare, and in such close formation as to
render them absolutely helpless against their foes. Instantly their
general fell, mortally wound