He was tall rather than otherwise,--five feet ten inches and a half when measured for the St. James’s Volunteers; though, in common with men whose length is in the body rather than the legs, his height diminished as he advanced in life. He was remarkably straight and upright in his carriage, with a short, firm step, and a cheerful, almost dashing approach,--smiling, breathing, and making his voice heard in little inarticulate ejaculations as he met a friend, in an irrepressible satisfaction at the encounter that not unfrequently conveyed high gratification to the arriver who was thus greeted. He had straight black hair, which he wore parted in the centre; a dark but not pale complexion; features compounded between length and a certain irregularity of outline, characteristic of the American mould; black eyebrows, firmly marking the edge of a brow, over which was a singularly upright, flat, white forehead, and under which beamed a pair of eyes dark, brilliant, reflecting, gay, and kind, with a certain look of observant humour, that suggested an idea of what is called slyness when it is applied to children or girls; for he had _not_ the aspect given to him in one of his portraits, of which he said that “the fellow looked as if he had stolen a tankard.” He had a head massive and tall, and larger than most men’s,--Byron, Shelley, and Keats wore hats which he could not put on; but it was not out of proportion to the figure, its outlines being peculiarly smooth and devoid of “bumps.” His upper lip was long, his mouth large and hard in the flesh; his chin retreating and gentle like a woman’s. His sloping shoulders, not very wide, almost concealed the ample proportions of his chest; though that was of a compass which not every pair of arms could span. He looked like a man cut out for action,--a soldier; but he shrank from physical contest, telling you that his sight was short, and that he was “timid.” We shall understand that mistaken candour better when we have examined his character a little further. Yet he did shrink from using his vigorous faculties, even in many ways. Nature had gifted him with an intense dramatic perception, an exquisite ear for music, and a voice of extraordinary compass, power, flexibility, and beauty. It extended from the C below the line to the F sharp above: there were no “passages” that he could not execute; the quality was sweet, clear, and ringing: he would equally have sung the music of _Don Giovanni_ or _Sarastro_, of _Oroveso_ or _Maometto Secondo_. Yet nature had not endowed him with some of the qualities needed for the practical musician,--he had no aptitude for mechanical contrivance, but faint enjoyment of power for its own sake. He dabbled on the pianoforte; delighted to repeat airs pleasing or plaintive; and if he would occasionally fling himself into the audacious revels of _Don Giovanni_, he preferred to be _Lindoro_ or _Don Ottavio_; and still more, by the help of his falsetto, to dally