It is a solemn Sunday, and the camp, with its white tents looking snug and peaceful in the sunlight, holds its breath that the beating of its heart may not be heard.  On such a day as this the services of religion would appeal with passionate force to thousands.  I attended a church parade this morning.  What a chance this was for a man of great soul who feared God!  On every side were drawn up deep masses of soldiery, rank behind rank—­perhaps, in all, five thousand.  In the hollow square stood the General, the man on whom everything depended.  All around were men who within the week had been face to face with Death, and were going to face him again in a few hours.  Life seemed very precarious, in spite of the sunlit landscape.  What was it all for?  What was the good of human effort?  How should it befall a man who died in a quarrel he did not understand?  All the anxious questionings of weak spirits.  It was one of those occasions when a fine preacher might have given comfort and strength where both were sorely needed, and have printed on many minds a permanent impression.  The bridegroom Opportunity had come.  But the Church had her lamp untrimmed.  A chaplain with a raucous voice discoursed on the details of ‘The siege and surrender of Jericho.’  The soldiers froze into apathy, and after a while the formal perfunctory service reached its welcome conclusion.

As I marched home an officer said to me:  ’Why is it, when the Church spends so much on missionary work among heathens, she does not take the trouble to send good men to preach in time of war?  The medical profession is represented by some of its greatest exponents.  Why are men’s wounded souls left to the care of a village practitioner?’ Nor could I answer; but I remembered the venerable figure and noble character of Father Brindle in the River War, and wondered whether Rome was again seizing the opportunity which Canterbury disdained—­the opportunity of telling the glad tidings to soldiers about to die.

CHAPTER XX

THE COMBAT OF VAAL KRANTZ

General Buller’s Headquarters:  February 9, 1900.

During the ten days that passed peacefully after the British retreat from the positions beyond Trichardt’s Drift, Sir Redvers Buller’s force was strengthened by the arrival of a battery of Horse Artillery, two powerful siege guns, two squadrons of the 14th Hussars, and drafts for the Infantry battalions, amounting to 2,400 men.  Thus not only was the loss of 1,600 men in the five days’ fighting round Spion Kop made good, but the army was actually a thousand stronger than before its repulse.  Good and plentiful rations of meat and vegetables were given to the troops, and their spirits were restored by the General’s public declaration that he had discovered the key to the enemy’s position, and the promise that within a week from the beginning of the impending operation Ladysmith should be relieved.  The account