One story of devotion more, and our tale of Ladysmith is at an end.  There was a certain much-loved chaplain shut up in Ladysmith, who greatly enjoyed a smoke.  In Buller’s relief column there were men who loved him well, and who knew his love for a pipe.  When they left Colenso, eleven of them each carried under his khaki tunic a quarter-pound tin of tobacco for the chaplain.  And then came all the horrors of that terrible struggle to reach the beleaguered town, culminating in the awful fight at Pieter’s Hill.  One after another, vainly trying to keep their cherished possession, parted with it bit by bit during those dreadful weeks; but one of them carried it all the time, and never so much as touched it.  When at last he reached Ladysmith, he had to march right through to encamp several miles beyond the town.  But next day he got a permit and tramped back to Ladysmith, found out his friend the chaplain, and handed over his treasure to him.  All black and grimy was that sacred tin of tobacco, black with the smoke of battle, and dented by many a hard fight; but it was there—­intact—­an offering of devotion, a holy thing, a pledge of love.  That chaplain has it still; he could not smoke it, it was far too precious for that.  It has become one of his household gods, to be kept for ever as a token of a soldier’s love.

And now we say good-bye to our gallant Ladysmith garrison.  We shall meet many of them again on other fields.  The siege proved that there was not a man of them without a religious corner somewhere.  Hundreds of them turned to God with full purpose of heart; and to every one of them Old England owes a debt of gratitude.  As we say good-bye, we are reminded of Tennyson’s lines about the soldiers of Lucknow—­lines just as true of the men of Ladysmith as of them:—­

’Handful of men as we were, we were English in heart and in limb,
Strong with the strength of the race, to command, to obey, to endure;
Each of us fought as if hope for the garrison hung but on him;

* * * * *

And ever upon the topmost roof our banner of England blew.’

Chapter XVI

‘IN JESU’S KEEPING’

At the annual ‘Roll Call Meeting,’ held in Wesley Hall, Aldershot, in January, 1900, we took as our ‘Motto’ for the next twelve months the words of Bishop Bickersteth’s beautiful hymn—­

    ‘In Jesu’s keeping we are safe, and they.’

All of us had friends in South Africa.  Most of us had relatives there; and as we bowed in prayer together we thought of the famous prayer of long ago:  ’The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another.’

All the way through we have realized that there was a God of love watching between us.  All the way through we have been quite certain that ‘in Jesu’s keeping’ they were safe.

Some of them we shall never see again on earth, but they are still ’in Jesu’s keeping.’  Some of them are still far away from us fighting for their country.  But they, too, are ‘in Jesu’s keeping,’ and for them we are not afraid.  We said ‘Good-bye’ many months ago, but it meant ’God be with you,’ and our farewell prayer has been answered. Here or there we expect to clasp hands with them again.