Christian drummers from the Regiment carry it to the grave in the Church enclosure. In the East the closing stages of human life are startling in their shortness. There have been but six hours of acute illness, twenty-four of sinking, thirty-six hours of interval between decease and burial; in all sixty-six hours from comparative convalescence to the very grave. For the survivors, this dread celerity of events deepens the gloom of the chasm that has been riven by death.
Dying in the Mauritius, more than twenty years before. Thomas Thomason the father, alluding to human life, its course and end, its race and goal, humbly said: 'This is a dark valley, but there's light at the end.' More truly may it be said of him, as of James Thomason the son dying in northern India, that there was light all the way.
