Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/368

 simplicity. His discussion of a subject enchained attention by the spontanaiety of the though and chastity of speech which clothed it—this lightened with a genial humor, at times a quiet wit, which could be both searching and severe. He was at ease with those around him because of his self-respect, and courteous because of his respect for others. He had to the last the strict habits of a man of business. Punctual to his appointments, exact in his accounting, he knew as well how to take care of himself as to defend others. To the last his counsel was sought, valued, followed. A gentleman's inexorable instinct never failed him on any field of daring or of grace. Take him, all in all, he was a fine type of that fine old Virginia gentleman who rose up in a grand unappeasable wrath on the day that Lincoln called for troops to conquer commonwealths. AT THE LAST. So life wore to a close; until at last to the sadness of many, on the 29th day of March, 1904, the spark flew upward. Standing not far from him when he breathed his last, I felt that I saw expire one who was, if not the last, then among the last of the knights. It was the close of a life founded on conviction. As he was sinking he was heard to mutter, "Fitz/' as if calling to him by whose side he so often rode to mount the pale steed with him and once more at full gallop charge the enemy of all. The last trumpet had roused him to meet the last enemy in the spirit in which he met the first; with the same true friend, the same trusty sword by his side. And ah! so soon the one to whom he called did follow. Do two, who lived in sight of the same pattern, will strive together, like racers, for their goal? Was that, which so soon followed, the response? Have the old comrades clasped hands once more? "In what etherial dances By what eternal streams?" Never will I forget the beautiful lament which thrilled the air as his body was borne into the little church at Warrenton. A tender pathos quivered on the lips as of some vox humana which had wandered from the skies and to the skies returned.