A delightful old print ostensibly representing him at forty, shows him
to have been a round-faced, more or less portly gentleman, with a
full, pleasant mouth and very big and bright eyes. His wig is
meticulously curled and powdered, and he is, plainly, a very fine
figure of a man indeed. Roubilliac's bust of him in Westminster makes
him much better looking and not nearly, so stout. Thomas Janvier, who
has written delightfully about our captain, disturbs me by insisting
that he was a little man,--nay, his insult goes deeper: he says a
little, _fat_ man! I simply will not accept such a distressing theory!
Edward de Lancey, descended from the family of the girl Peter married,
describes him as being "... Of attractive manners, quick in perception
and action, but clear-headed and calm in judgment." And the historian
Parkman declares that at forty-two he had "the ardour of youth still
burning within him." Reverse the figures. What do you suppose that
ardour was like when he was not forty-two but twenty-four?
At the time of our hero's first command and first naval engagement on
his own ship, things were quite exciting for his King and country,
though we have most of us forgotten that such excitements ever
existed.
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