But finest of all is the noble dirge, sung over Bacon's lifeless body by some one whose name will never now be surely known, since he disguised his identity, prompted by a wise dread of Berkeley's malignant revenge, and states that after Bacon's death "he was bemoaned in these following lines, drawn by the man that waited upon his person as it is said, and who attended his corpse to their burial place." Whoever the writer was, and a high authority designates him as a man named Cotton, dweller at Acquia Creek, it is very sure that no serving-man composed these lines, which are like an echo of the age that gave us Lycidas: "Who is't must plead our cause? Nor trump nor drum Nor deputations; these, alas! are dumb; And can not speak. Our arms, though ne'er so strong, Will want the aid of his commanding tongue. "Here let him rest; while we this truth report He's gone from hence unto a higher court To plead his cause, where he by this doth know, Whether to Cæsar he was friend or foe." These closing words may well form the epitaph written over the Colonial Cavalier. He is gone from hence unto a higher court--gone from this world forever. His open-handed hospitality, his reckless profusion, his chivalry to women, his quick-tempered, sword-thrusting honor, are as obsolete as his lace ruffles, his doublet and jerkin, his buckles and jewels and feathers. We are fallen on a prosaic age, and it is only in our dreams of the past that we conjure up, like a gay decoration against the neutral background of modern life, the figure of "The Colonial Cavalier." Appendix List of Authorities Alden's Collection of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions Alsop's Character of the Province of Maryland Anburey's Travels through the Interior Parts of America Bancroft's History of the United States Beverley's History and Present State of Virginia Bozman's History of Maryland Browne's Maryland Buck's Old Plate Burwell Papers, The Byrd's Westover Manuscripts Campbell's History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia Chastellux's Travels in North America Cooke's Virginia Doyle's English Colonies in America Fisher's The Colonial Era Hammond's Leah and Rachel; or, The Two Fruitful Sisters, Virginia and Maryland Hamor's True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia Hening's Virginia Statutes at Large Hildreth's History of the United States Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia Howell's State Trials Irving's Life of Washington Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia Jefferson, Thomas, Life and Letters of Jones' True Relation of the Present State of Virginia Lee, Richard Henry, Life and Letters of Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution McMaster's History of the People of the United States Madison, Mrs. Dolly, Life and Letters of Maryland Archives Magazine of American History Meade's Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia Moore's History of North Carolina Purchas: His Pilgrimes