'Yes, that you know well, dear Shafto,' said the lady coaxingly.
'Oh, by Jove! that is easier said than done. You don't know all the outs and ins of Finella; and one can't walk the course, so far as I can see.'
Shafto withdrew, but not before he saw the lace-edged handkerchief come into use, to hide the tears she did not shed at the brusque manner of her 'grandson,' who had failed to convince her, for she said to herself bitterly:
'There is a curse upon Craigengowan! Our youngest son threw himself and his life away upon a beggarly governess; and now our only grandson seems likely to play the same game with my upstart companion! I do like the girl, but, however, I must get rid of her.'
CHAPTER XVII.
WITH THE SECOND DIVISION.
Meanwhile the events of the war were treading thick on each other in Zululand. A fresh disaster had ensued at the Intombe river, where a detachment of the 80th Regiment was cut to pieces, and again old soldiers spoke with sorrow and disgust of the blunders and incapacity of those at head-quarters, who by their newfangled systems had reduced our once grand army to chaos.
Such alarms and surprises, like too many of the disasters and disgraces which befell our arms in these latter wars, were entirely due to the new formation of our battalions. 'That the destruction of the regimental system by Lord Cardwell has been the original cause of all our reverses, surprises, and humiliation, there can be little hesitation in saying,' to quote Major Ashe. 'The men at Isandhlwana were not well handled, it must be admitted, but it has since leaked out that many of them would not rally round their officers, but attempted safety in flight. Dozens of the men, sergeants, and other non-commissioned officers, have since disclosed that they did not know the names of their company officers, or those of their right or left hand men.'
Hence, by the newfangled system, there could be neither confidence nor cohesion. Elsewhere he tells us that the once-splendid 91st Highlanders, 'the envy of all recruiting sergeants, could only muster 200 men when ordered to Zululand,' but was made up by volunteers from other regiments—men all strangers to each other and to their officers, and whose facings were all the colours of the rainbow. Then, after the Intombe, followed the storming of the Inhlobane Mountain, where fell the gallant Colonel Weatherley, and the no less gallant old frontier farmer Pict Nys, who was last seen fighting to his final gasp against a horde of Zulus, across the dead body of his favourite horse, an empty revolver in his left hand, a blood-dripping sabre in his right, and more than one assegai, launched from a distance, quivering in his body.
The cry went to Britain now for more troops; and fresh reinforcements came, while the army in Zululand was reconstituted by Lord Chelmsford at Durban.