From Henry Watterson.
I cannot answer your command for a sentiment in commemoration and in homage of the great Lee better than by sending you the noble lines which Sir Henry Taylor puts into the mouth of the Duke of Burgundy over the dead body of Philip Von Artevelde.
They might be fittingly uttered by the North on the occasion which you celebrate:
——Dire rebel though he was,
Yet with a noble nature and great gifts
Was he endowed—courage, discretion, wit,
An equal temper and an ample soul,
Rock bound and fortified against assaults
Of transitory passion; but below
Built on a surging, subterranean fire
That stirred and lifted him to high attempts,
So prompt and capable, and yet so calm,
He nothing lacked in sovereignty but the right,
Nothing in soldiership except good fortune.
Wherefore with honor lay him in his grave,
And thereby shall increase of honor come
Unto their arms who vanquished one so wise,
So valiant, so renowned.
