<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">In Memory of Major William La Touche Congreve, V.C.</h1><p class="epigraph"></p><p xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"></p><p class="line">" The best always befalls the best."</p><p>--<em>Quotation from letter of his tutor at Eton.</em></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">ONLY the best can e'er the best befall,</p><p class="line">Unto the best, the worst must best reveal;</p><p class="line">And though he felt the rent Earth rock and reel,</p><p class="line">And through the loathly yellow poison-pall</p><p class="line">Heard thunder to reboant thunder call,</p><p class="line">And glimpsed the flickering of bloody steel,</p><p class="line">Yet Faith he had to know that wounds may heal,</p><p class="line">And Love he had that could transfigure all,</p><p class="line">To his own Spirit's Beauty. So his sword,</p><p class="line">Put to such terrible and poignant test</p><p class="line">In slaughterous tasks his human heart abhorred,</p><p class="line">Seemed in his eyes God's Justice manifest.</p><p class="line">And of all glorious fates, the fate seemed best</p><p class="line">To die for Freedom, England, and his Lord.</p></div></body></html> · Great War