had in perfection), so that I could leave to our descendants a portrait
of one who was so good and so respected. My father was of a dark
complexion, with a very great forehead and dark hazel eyes, overhung by
eyebrows which remained black long after his hair was white. His nose
was aquiline, his smile extraordinary sweet. How well I remember it, and
how little any description I can write can recall his image! He was of
rather low stature, not being above five feet seven inches in height; he
used to laugh at my sons, whom he called his crutches, and say they
were grown too tall for him to lean upon. But small as he was, he had
a perfect grace and majesty of deportment, such as I have never seen in
this country, except perhaps in our friend Mr. Washington, and commanded
respect wherever he appeared.

In all bodily exercises he excelled, and showed an extraordinary
quickness and agility. Of fencing he was especially fond, and made my
two boys proficient in that art; so much so, that when the French came
to this country with Monsieur Rochambeau, not one of his officers was
superior to my Henry, and he was not the equal of my poor George,
who had taken the King's side in our lamentable but glorious war of
independence.

Neither my father nor my mother ever wore powder in their hair; both
their heads were as white as silver, as I can remember them. My dear
mother possessed to the last an extraordinary brightness and freshness
of complexion; nor would people believe that she did not wear rouge. At
sixty years of age she still looked young, and was quite agile. It was
not until after that dreadful siege of our house by the Indians, which
left me a widow ere I was a mother, that my dear mother's health broke.
She never recovered her terror and anxiety of those days which ended so
fatally for me, then a bride scarce six months married, and died in my