Meetings while on the March.=

It seemed as though General French would never tire. He rode on far
ahead of his men--stern, taciturn, resolved--as they rushed across the
veldt to Kimberley, or hastened to the doom of Cronje. Our soldiers did
their best to follow, and did so till their horses dropped dying or dead
upon the veldt. It says much for their Christian enthusiasm that after
such days as these, and knowing that only two or three hours' sleep was
before them, they should step out of the lines and meet behind some rock
to pray. They talked of the old home, of Aldershot, of Sergeant-Major
Moss and his class. They pictured to themselves what we should all be
doing at home, and then they knelt in prayer. Very touching were those
prayers, very sweet that Christian intercourse. Its precious memory is
cherished still. And then they would sing a verse--one of the soldiers'
favourites--perhaps:--

'Some one will enter the pearly gate,
By-and-by, by-and-by;
Taste of the glories that there await--
Shall you, shall I?'

Or may be that soldiers' favourite _par excellence_ would be rung
out--the 'Six further on,' of which they all speak:--

'Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.'

And then a verse of 494:--

'God be with you till we meet again.'

And then back to the lines for rest and sleep. 'Good-night, Jim.'
'Good-night, my boy.' '494.' 'Aye! and "Six further on."' And so they
part. A delightful picture! a sad one too! Who knows whether they will
ever meet on earth again?

=The March to Paardeberg.=

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Feb. 17, 1900, the Guards had been suddenly
ordered to follow the cavalry from Modder River. At the mess that
evening the chaplains had been positively assured by the officers
present that there would be no move until Wednesday at the earliest.
Little they knew what was in the mind of the great general! But late at
night the summons came, and within two hours the whole brigade of
Guards, suddenly roused out of sleep and called in from outpost duty,
were marching out into the darkness. Whither they did not know. They
took with them neither blanket nor overcoat, but, as their chaplain
says, 'only an ample store of pluck and smokeless powder.' They did not
stop till they had covered about twenty miles, and before their
destination was reache