COLONEL ALA ST AIR FRASER 359 



ague, and dysentery in a pestilential climate, and followed 

 by a winter of cold, hunger, and want generally, for by 

 day and night the Scots Guards were, like the rest, 

 attacked in the trenches. Many thrilling accounts are 

 recorded of his hair-breadth escapes in the Crimea. 

 He was present at three engagements. His sword 

 arm was shot away, his neck grazed, and he was hit in 

 the chest by a ball, which struck a relic of the true 

 Cross, which either his wife or his mother had given 

 him, the bullet leaving only a mark and inflicting no 

 wound. We all heard of the soldier-like qualities he 

 displayed — obedience, pluck, and fortitude ; and his 

 cheerful bearing in illness and suffering served to 

 help those who were suffering around him. Who 

 that ever saw him dance at the Northern meeting 

 can forget that shrivelled leg, which proved what he 

 must have so patiently suffered ? Until the false calf 

 which he wore turned to the front after the first few steps 

 of the reel, none but his friends would have known that 

 one leg was not as strong as the other, and no one 

 enjoyed the joke better than he when he had to dance 

 all night with his calf in front. Although often suffer- 

 ing great pain, his cheerful bearing was remarkable. I 

 will say no more than that he left a wife who bore 

 and bears her irreparable loss with true Christian 

 fortitude. These sad memories belong to her alone, 

 and I will not, therefore, further dwell on them or her 

 sorrow, though the latter must have been changed to joy 

 when she beheld him die a happy and resigned death. 

 Though he suffered fearfully, the pain left him before 

 his death, and he faced it all as if from stern duty, 

 calmly bearing the agony he suffered. Life was dear 

 to him, but its agony too great, and when told he was 



