present day almost as much as his manners
disgusted the refined of his own; and yet
this man, so rude, so dogged, so slovenly,
I had almost said so savage, in mien and
manner, during his after successes, had
been selected by the capricious goddess, in
his early life, to figure as the hero of a
romance by no means devoid of interest or
of mystery.

Who can tell how meet he may have
been in his young days to play the part of
the lover or of the hero--who can say that
in early life he had been the same harsh,
unlicked, and rugged boor that, in his
maturer age, he proved--or how far the
neglected rudeness which afterwards
marked his air, and garb, and manners,
may not have been the growth of that
reckless apathy not unfrequently produced
by bitter misfortunes and disappointments
in early life?

These questions can never now be answered.

We must content ourselves, then,
with a plain statement of facts, or what
have been received and transmitted as
such, leaving matters of speculation to
those who like them.