Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/104

 been returned to the State Arsenal at Cambridge. There was not enough interest left to protest, or to revive the organization. Its requiem was sung by B. D. Winslow, Class Poet of 1835: "That martial band, ’neath waving stripes and stars Inscribed alike to Mercury and Mars, Those gallant warriors in their dread array, Who shook these halls,—O where, alas! are they? Gone! gone! and never to our ears shall come The sounds of fife and spirit-stirring drum; That war-worn banner slumbers in the dust, Those bristling arms are dim with gathering rust; That crested helm, that glittering sword, that plume, Are laid to rest in reckless faction’s tomb."

Another period of inactivity supervened. The short and unpopular Mexican War made not a ripple on “the fount of the Muses.” Neither, strange as it seems at first glance, did that tranquil pool reflect the ominous