Kilspindie spoke:

"Friends of Drumtochty, it would not be right that we should part in
silence and no man say what is in every heart. We have buried the
remains of one that served this Glen with a devotion that has known no
reserve, and a kindliness that never failed, for more than forty years.
I have seen many brave men in my day, but no man in the trenches of
Sebastopol carried himself more knightly than William MacLure. You will
never have heard from his lips what I may tell you to-day, that my
father secured for him a valuable post in his younger days, and he
preferred to work among his own people; and I wished to do many things
for him when he was old, but he would have nothing for himself. He will
never be forgotten while one of us lives, and I pray that all doctors
everywhere may share his spirit. If it be your pleasure, I shall erect
a cross above his grave, and shall ask my old friend and companion Dr.
Davidson, your minister, to choose the text to be inscribed."

"We thank you, Lord Kilspindie," said the doctor, "for your presence
with us in our sorrow and your tribute to the memory of William MacLure,
and I choose this for his text:

"'Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.'"

Milton was, at that time, held in the bonds of a very bitter theology,
and his indignation was stirred by this unqualified eulogium.

"No doubt Dr. MacLure hed mony natural virtues, an' he did his wark
weel, but it wes a peety he didna mak mair profession o' releegion."