206 A HUNDKED YEAES 



straw or hay for beds at night, and charming weather 

 all the way. 



** Our first halt was at Slatadale, on Loch Maree, 

 where a regular flotilla of boats, drawn to the loch by 

 men from the sea at Poole we, was waiting for us. They 

 landed us all safely, like an army of dumb people, at 

 Taagan, whence we marched again to the inn at 

 Kenlochewe, where we fed and went to rest for an early 

 start next morning. The captains had their men 

 trained so quickly that really, had I been blind, I could 

 hardly have known when a new company went on duty. 

 Not one word was spoken, but all changed places at 

 a wave of the hand; there was nothing to tell of the 

 change but the tramp, tramp of the new company 

 stepping out on each side of me to reach the front. I 

 have never been, and never will be again, at such a 

 wonderful scene; I have never heard of the like, and 

 were I to live a thousand years I never could forget it. 

 Had the five hundred dreaded being put to death if heard 

 to speak one word, they could not have been more silent. 

 Many years after I had the great pleasure of reading the 

 beautiful lines on the ' Burial of Moses ' : 



" ' That was the greatest funeral that ever passed on earth, 

 When no man heard the tramping, or saw the train go forth. 

 Noiselessly as the springtime her crown of verdure weaves, 

 And all the trees on all the hills paint their myriad leaves; 

 So without sound of music, or voice of them that wept, 

 Silently down from the mountain's crown the great procession 

 swept.' 



" I doubt if ever a more silent, solemn procession than 

 ours was seen or heard of, and, though it was nearly 

 fifty years ago, I never can think of that wonderfully 



