Then followed the impressive funeral services of the Episcopal Church for the dead, amid a silence and solemnity that were imposing and sublimely grand.  There was no funeral oration, in compliance with the expressed wish of the distinguished dead; and at the conclusion of the services in the chapel the vast congregation went out and mingled with the crowd without, who were unable to gain admission.  The coffin was then carried by the pall-bearers to the library-room, in the basement of the chapel, where it was lowered into the vault prepared for its reception.  The funeral services were concluded in the open air by prayer, and the singing of General Lee’s favorite hymn, commencing with the well-known line—­

  “How firm a foundation, ye saint of the Lord,
  Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!”

and thus closed the funeral obsequies of Robert Edward Lee, to whom may be fitly applied the grand poetic epitaph: 

  “Ne’er to the mansions where the mighty rest,
  Since their foundations, came a nobler guest;
  Nor e’er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed
  A purer saint or a more welcome shade.”

II.

TRIBUTES TO GENERAL LEE.

In the deep emotion with which the death of General Lee has filled all classes of our people—­says the Southern Magazine, from whose pages this interesting summary is taken—­we have thought that a selection of the most eloquent or otherwise interesting addresses delivered at the various memorial meetings may not be unacceptable.

LOUISVILLE, KY.

On October 15th nearly the whole city was draped in mourning, and business was suspended.  A funeral service was held at St. Paul’s Church.  In the evening an immense meeting assembled at Weissiger Hall, and, after an opening address by Mayor Baxter, the following resolutions were adopted: 

“Resolved, That, in the death of Robert E. Lee, the American people, without regard to States or sections, or antecedents, or opinions, lose a great and good man, a distinguished and useful citizen, renowned not less in arms than in the arts of peace; and that the cause of public instruction and popular culture is deprived of a representative whose influence and example will be felt by the youth of our country for long ages after the passions in the midst of which he was engaged, but which he did not share, have passed into history, and the peace and fraternity of the American Republic are cemented and restored by the broadest and purest American sentiment.”

“Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the family of General Lee, to the Trustees of Washington College, and to the Governor and General Assembly of Virginia.”

ADDRESS OF GENERAL BRECKINRIDGE.