946: Chapter 936 A Grand Scottish Funeral 946: Chapter 936 A Grand Scottish Funeral Bruce’s body had been lying in his house for two days.
During those two days, Jansen had hardly stayed at Bruce’s house—he had been running back and forth between the airport and the hotel.
Jansen wanted to give Bruce a grand Scottish funeral, and he had been busy with the arrangements.
On the fourth day of his return home, it was time for Bruce to be buried.
Bruce was a man of faith, so the funeral would be held in a church.
By ten o’clock in the morning, everyone attending Bruce’s funeral had arrived.
All members of the Satan Mercenary Corps attended, along with some of Bruce’s relatives and friends.
Morgan was there.
Besides Morgan, Destin, who had specifically come from Israel to attend the funeral, was also present.
The friends and relatives of the Satan Mercenary Corps did not come.
Glolov and Frey’s relatives in America had not been informed.
The reason was simple: as a unit, the death of Bruce in action implied that they too might fall in action.
Besides not wanting to worry their families, Glolov and Frey did not want their families to interfere with their plans for revenge.
The number of people attending the funeral at the church was not very large.
Bruce was a third-generation immigrant, and his family was not large.
He had no close relatives in his third-generation-only lineage, and few friends attended, aside from a few who had grown up with Bruce.
None of his military comrades had been informed.
Gao Yang and his group were all in black formal wear, while Mrs.
William wore a black dress suit, a black hat, and a black veil.
Lucica was dressed the same as Mrs.
William.
She actually had not held a wedding ceremony with Bruce, nor had they formally married under the legal procedures, but at this moment Lucica still dressed as a widow.
As for Jansen, his outfit was quite special; he wore traditional Scottish attire and held a Great Highland Bagpipe, standing next to Bruce’s coffin.
According to the funeral procedure, the priest was to start reading the eulogy and then pray for Bruce.
However, the priest did not follow the usual procedure but instead signaled to Jansen that he could begin.
Jansen, with tears streaming down his face, but not making a sound, stepped forward as the parting ceremony of the funeral began.
Choking back tears, he said loudly, “Bruce, you were my elder brother, my best friend.
We promised to play the bagpipe for you.”
Jansen took a breath, then started to play the bagpipe.
The sound of the bagpipe was sob-inducing and plaintive.
Jansen’s attire was all very traditional, following Scottish customs.
He wore a short black Tam O’Shanter hat made of sheepskin, decorated with a white feather, a black wool doublet, a white shirt underneath, a black and gray checked pleated kilt, a large black and gray checked cloak, a black and white tasseled flask on his belt, black and gray checked woolen stockings, black leather shoes, and white spats.
The tune Jansen played was “Amazing Grace,” commonly heard at funerals in the United Kingdom and America and indeed very suitable for funerals.
After the mournful bagpipe performance, Jansen stepped back, covered his face with his hands, and began crying silently.
The priest started to talk about Bruce’s life and, finally, read a passage that Gao Yang and others had requested be added.
“Bruce William was a warrior.
He used his skills to save many lives, and his courage and spirit of sacrifice had saved his brothers and comrades.”
Gao Yang listened intently from below as the priest finished reading all the words of mourning and blessed Bruce for the last time.
It was the last time the people in the church would see Bruce.
Finally, Bruce’s coffin was closed.
The priest covered it with a piece of black velvet after which Gao Yang suddenly realized that he would never see Bruce again, whether alive or dead.
Next, Bruce was to be taken from the church to be buried in the cemetery.
Bruce’s grave was in a public cemetery where his grandparents and father were also buried.
There were originally twelve people in the Satan Mercenary Corps.
Now, with one less, there were eleven.
Lucica was Bruce’s widow, and Eileen, as a woman, was not suited to carry the coffin.
Jansen stood aside with the bagpipes, so, there were eight men available to carry Bruce’s coffin.
Normally, only four people were needed to carry a coffin, each at one corner, but Gao Yang and his group were eight in number and they didn’t want to rotate.
Each of them wanted to personally carry their brother for the last journey, so all eight of them carried the coffin.
Jansen played “Amazing Grace” again, and Gao Yang and his eight men lifted the coffin and walked out of the church.
Leading the procession, Jansen, with his bagpipes, walked in front, and Gao Yang and his team followed with the coffin, with Bruce’s family and friends behind.
After stepping out of the church’s door, Gao Yang and the eight men stopped, watching as Jansen passed through the neatly lined formation to stand at the front.
Indeed, a procession was formed outside the church.
Bruce had been a soldier.
Had he died in service, his coffin could have been draped with the national flag.
But having died as a mercenary, no flag covered his death, no matter how valiantly or greatly he died; he was not entitled to any honor.
Though Gao Yang and his team couldn’t drape Bruce’s coffin with a national flag, they could give Bruce a funeral worthy of a warrior, a Scottish Warrior’s funeral.
Outside the church, seventy-four individuals, holding bagpipes, bugles, whistles, or wearing marching drums, were all Highlands Scotsmen, wearing kilts strikingly similar to Jansen’s.
Perhaps the army Jansen served wasn’t built for combat, but it had the world’s best bagpipe band.
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Band, of which Jansen was once a part, meant that he might not be one of the best soldiers, but he was one of the world’s best bagpipers.
Playing at Bruce’s funeral wasn’t the time for surprises.
Hence, Gao Yang and the others knew what Jansen had been busy with these recent days—he had been busy inviting his former comrades to help honor Bruce with a traditional Scottish honor usually reserved for warriors.
Initially, Jansen could have invited about twenty people, all retired bagpipers, not necessarily formal members of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Band but definitely top-notch players.
Jansen’s comrades spread the news.
When it was known that one of Jansen’s comrades had died trying to save him, some retired for many years, and some Jansen did not even know, came to Seattle.
Among these were young people around Jansen’s age and men in their sixties or seventies.
Eventually, seventy-four people arrived, forming not just a complete but an impressively large bagpipe band.
Most came from the United Kingdom, and most of these from Scotland.
A few traveled from other parts of America and some from other European countries.
But although not all lived in Scotland, they were all Scottish.
In a British army, it would be impossible to have only Scottish players, but since they were conducting a funeral for a Scottish warrior, there was no filling in the number with English, Irish, or Welsh.
They were pure Scotsmen, hence all wore kilts.
As Jansen walked through the crowd, a dense drumbeat began, and as he stepped to the front, the bugles and whistles sounded, followed again by intense drumming.
Bruce’s funeral was not a regular military funeral; there was no gunfire, certainly no artillery salute, but that didn’t stop a group of Scots from playing traditional military music for a Scottish Warrior they did not know.
Jansen resumed playing the bagpipes, this time, the piece was “Scottish Warrior,” and then, the whole band of over fifty bagpipes joined in.
The entire pipers’ band began playing “Scottish Warrior,” and with the beat of the drums, the leading band began their solemn, rhythmic march forward.
The band led the way, and Gao Yang and his eight men followed with the coffin, with the mourners behind them.
The bagpipes weren’t played directly by mouth but by inflating the bag with air blown in by the mouth, then pressing the bag to let air flow through the pipes, vibrating the reed to create sound.
The music of the Scottish bagpipes, born from military music, soaring yet melancholic, mournful, and suitable for bidding farewell to Bruce.
A band of over seventy individuals was truly awe-inspiring.
A car ride from the church to the cemetery took ten minutes, a walk at least half an hour.
With continuous bagpipe playing, it took about forty minutes.
Gao Yang and his team didn’t plan to transport the coffin to the cemetery by car.
Not just forty minutes, even four hours would be spent carrying Bruce to the cemetery.
There would be vehicles and pedestrians along the way to the cemetery, and Gao Yang and his team couldn’t expect the police to close roads for a funeral.
Thus, they had to make their way to the cemetery along pedestrian routes.
Fortunately, they deliberately chose the least crowded route, so there weren’t many vehicles or pedestrians.
Initially, there weren’t many pedestrians, but the unusual and huge funeral procession drew much attention.
People came out of residential houses to watch, and oncoming vehicles would courteously stop by the roadside, following after the procession had passed.
However, Bruce’s funeral seemed too grand and rare, gradually gathering a purely pedestrian crowd behind and beside the mourners, intrigued by this rarely seen, artistically poignant ceremony.
The funeral procession couldn’t help but draw attention, as expected, because even a British Royal Family member’s funeral wouldn’t have more bagpipers.
Of course, the Royal funeral would have higher standards, with soldiers in red uniforms and bear-furred hats, along with honor guards, but for the Scots, those didn’t matter.
They were content with a purely Scottish bagpipe band.
The music never stopped.
“Scottish Warrior,” “Highland Cathedral,” over forty minutes, the band played several pieces, until they brought Bruce to the cemetery, ending with one last collaborative rendition of “Amazing Grace” to bless the deceased.
(To be continued.
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