The service had for its keynote the Hallelujah Chorus, which was played as the procession left St. Giles’. It was a thanksgiving instinct with triumph and hope. The Resurrection and the Life was in prayer and praise. The Dean of the Order of the Thistle revealed the thoughts of many hearts in his farewell words:—
‘We are assembled this day with sad but proud and grateful hearts to remember before God a very dear and noble lady, our beloved sister, Elsie Inglis, who has been called to her rest. We mourn only for ourselves, not for her. She has died as she lived, in the clear light of faith and self-forgetfulness, and now her name is linked for ever with the great souls who have led the van of womanly service for God and man. A wondrous union of strength and tenderness, of courage and sweetness, she remains for us a bright and noble memory of high devotion and stainless honour. Especially to-day, in the presence of representatives of the land for which she died, we think of her as an immortal link between Serbia and Scotland, and as a symbol of that high courage which will sustain us, please God, till that stricken land is once again restored, and till the tragedy of war is eradicated and crowned with God’s great gifts of peace and of righteousness.’
The buglers of the Royal Scots sounded ‘the Reveille to the waking morn,’ and the coffin with the Allied flags was placed on the gun carriage. Women were in the majority of the massed crowd that awaited the last passing. ‘Why did they no gie her the V.C.?’ asked the shawl-draped women holding the bairns of her care: these and many another of her fellow-citizens lined the route and followed on foot the long road across the city. As the procession was being formed, Dr. Inglis’ last message was put into the hands of the members of the London Committee for S.W.H. It ran:—
‘November 26, 1917.
‘So sorry I cannot come to London. Dr. Williams and Dr. Ward are agreed, and quite rightly. Will send Gwynn in a day or two with explanations and suggestions. Colonel Miliantinovitch and Colonel Tcholah Antitch were to make appointment this week or next from Winchester; do see them, and also as many of the committee as possible and show them every hospitality. They have been very kind to us, and whatever happens, dear Miss Palliser, do beg the Committee to make sure that they (the Serbs) have their hospitals and transport, for they do need them.
‘Many thanks to the Committee for their kindness to me and their support of me.
‘Elsie Inglis.
‘Dictated to Miss Evelyn Simson.’
How the people loved her! was the thought, as she passed through the grief-stricken crowds. These, who knew her best, smiled as they said one to another, ‘How all this would surprise her!’
Edinburgh is a city of spires and of God’s acres, the graves cut in the living rock, within gardens and beside running waters. Across the Water of Leith the long procession wound its way. Within sight of the grave, it was granted to her grateful brethren, the representatives of the Serbian nation, to carry her coffin, and lower it to the place where the mortal in her was to lie in its last rest. Her life’s story was grouped around her—the Serbian officers, the military of her own nation at war, the women comrades of the common cause, the poor and suffering—to one and all she had been the inspiring succourer.
November mists had drifted all day across the city, veiling the fortress strength of Scotland, and the wild wastes of seas over which she had returned home to our island strength. Even as we turned and left her, the grey clouds at eventide were transfused and glorified by the crimson glow of the sunset on the hills of Time.
Printed in Great Britain by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press