A SOLDIER’S GRAVE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1270, 8 February 1883, Page 2

A SOLDIER’S GRAVE.

Writing after the Cavalry charge at Kassassin, the correspondent of tne New York " World " describes how he lay down after his fight in a palm grove at Magphar and fell asleep -It must have been close upon midnight when I was disturbed with numerous measured but heavy footsteps approaching, and before I could realise what was going on, I heard a clear voice saying—"l am the resurrection and the life, nth the Lord; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whomsoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." It would be impossible for me to attempt to explain the feeling which came over me ; it is enough to say that sleep was gone for that night. There, within 20 feet of where I had been sleeping, a big hole had been dug in the sand, ready to receive seven bodies wrapped in greatcoats, which were lying side by side on the ground. Around them stood their comrades of the Household Cavalry, healthy, handsome, but sad, each man thinkig, I feel certain, that his own turn might come tomorrow, and by the dim light of a single lantern I could see the tears, of which no man there need be ashamed, rolling down their manly faces. The scene reminded me so forcibly of Wolfe’s " Burial of Sir John Moore,” that, although I had not thought of it for years, every word came back to me. and every officer with whom I have spoken about it since has assured me that he had felt exactly as I did. I walked under the trees till morning, witnessing eight similar burials. This spot had evidently bean selected by the man for their comrades on aecount of the palms, and if a pretty burial ground is any comfort to the dead, or to their friends, this they certainly have at El-Mag-phar. '