24
THE BATTALION.
to me so impressive for the courtly quality, the chivalric
fineness of his princely bearing-. Whoever knew Ross,
knew Lee, knew Washing-ton. I little dreamed when last
I parted from him that only a single day of conscious life
was left him. I noted that he looked ill, but this only
accentuated the graceful precision of his soldierly tread.
Even to his very feet he was a prince.
When he spoke you mig-ht note the self-distrust of a
great and modest soul; but not even the boor too dull to
realize the scornful courag-e indomitable born in every
baby blood of the aristocrat, failed to feel the sense of
fiery and volcanic valor tense as the bent spring- in the
very grace of our Ross.
He died so suddenly, and when I realized him stretch
ed there calm and eleg-ant as ever, onty one eulog-y would
keep on vibrating- in my head and heart:
“Ah! Sir Lancelot, there thou liest, that never were
matched of earthly hands. Thou wert the fairest person,
and the g-oodliest of any that rode in the press of knigdits;
thou wert the truest to thy sworn brother of any that
buckled on the spur; and thou wert the faithfulest of any
that have loved. Most courteous wert thou, and g-entle of
all that sat in hall among dames; and thou wert the stern
est knight to thy mortal foe that ever laid spear in rest.’ 1 '
. #■ 4* , * *
Will not the ex-cadets of the A. & M. College claim
the honor of erecting the first monument to the memor}^ of
the peerless Ross?—Ed.