Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy FulfilledRichardson, Major (John)
History
Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled
Richardson, Major (John)
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction
Let the reader fancy an old man of about sixty, possessed of that
comfortable amptitude of person which is the result rather of a mind at
peace with itself, and undisturbed by worldly care, than of any marked
indulgence in indolent habits. Let him next invest this comfortable
person in a sort of Oxford grey, coarse capote, or frock, of capacious
size, tied closely round the waist with one of those-parti-colored
worsted sashes, we have, on a former occasion described as peculiar to
the bourgeois settlers of the country. Next, suffering the eye to
descend on and admire the rotund and fleshy thigh, let it drop gradually
to the stout and muscular legs, which he must invest in a pair of
closely fitting leathern trowsers, the wide-seamed edges of which are
slit into innumerable small strips, much after the fashion of the
American Indian. When he has completed the survey of the lower
extremities, to which he must not fail to subjoin a foot of
proportionate dimensions, tightly moccasined, and, moreover, furnished
with a pair of old English hunting spurs, the reader must then examine
the head with which this heavy piece of animated machinery is
surmounted. From beneath a coarse felt hat, garnished with an inch-wide
band or ribbon, let him imagine he sees the yet vigorous grey hair,
descending over a forehead not altogether wanting in a certain dignity
of expression, and terminating in a beetling brow, silvered also with
the frost of years, and shadowing a sharp, grey, intelligent eye, the
vivacity of whose expression denotes its possessor to be far in advance,
in spirit, even of his still active and powerful frame. With these must
be connected a snub nose--a double chin, adorned with grizzly honors,
which are borne, like the fleece of the lamb, only occasionally to the
shears of the shearer--and a small, and not unhandsome, mouth, at
certain periods pursed into an expression of irresistible humor, but
more frequently expressing a sense of lofty independence. The grisly
neck, little more or less bared, as the season may demand--a kerchief
loosely tied around the collar of a checkered shirt--and a knotted
cudgel in his hand--and we think our sketch of Simon Girty is complete.
Nor must the reader picture to himself this combination of animal
properties, either standing, or lying, or walking, or sitting; but in a
measure glued, Centaur-like, to the back of a noble stallion, vigorous,
active, and of a dark chestnut color, with silver mane and tail. In the
course of many years that Simon had resided in the neighborhood, no one
could remember to have seen him stand, or lie, or walk, or sit, while
away from his home, unless absolutely compelled. Both horse and rider
seemed as though they could not exist while separated, and yet
Silvertail (thus was the stallion named) was not more remarkable in
sleekness of coat, soundness of carcase, and fleetness of pace, than his
rider was in the characteristics of corpulency and joviality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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