A Virginia cavalier

by Molly Elliot Seawell

Outside George pursued his way along a path up the mountain-side, his rage cooling, and growing more and more ashamed of himself. He thought highly of Lance, and was troubled at showing before him so much anger over a trifle; for trifle it was he realized. An hour’s brisk walking brought his pulses down, and he presently retraced his steps down the mountain. He was not in the mood to observe much, though he walked back rather slowly. He reached the house at one o’clock, just as Lord Fairfax came out of his study to dinner. The table was laid as usual in the hall. Behind the earl’s place stood Lance, while Billy’s head just peered above George’s chair.

“And how did you get on with your fencing-lesson?” was Lord Fairfax’s first question.

“Very poorly, sir, I am afraid,” answered George, blushing a little. “I lost my temper, and felt as if I were fighting instead of exercising, and so I did not succeed very well.”

Lord Fairfax laughed one of his peculiar, silent laughs.

“You are not the first young man who has done that. When I was a youth I was a very ungovernable one, and I remember chasing a fencing-master, who was giving me a lesson, through the streets of London until I came to myself, and was glad to call a hackney-coach and hide. A skilful adversary will very often test your temper in the beginning, and make some exasperating remark, which, in effect, renders your sword-arm powerless; for an angry man may be a fierce swordsman, but he can never be a skilful one.”

George’s eyes opened very wide indeed. He glanced at Lance, but the old soldier wore a perfectly impenetrable front. So that was why Lance made so free in his remarks! George reflected some moments, and came to the private conclusion that one could learn a great deal more in fencing than the art of attack and defence.

In the afternoon saddle-horses were brought, and Lord Fairfax and George started for a long ride over the mountains. Although the earl was not, and never had been, so familiar with the woods and fields, and the beasts and birds, and every living thing which inhabited them, as his young companion, he displayed stores of information which astonished and delighted the boy. He explained to him that the French and the English were engaged in a fierce contest for a great empire, of which the country around them was the battle-field; that the lines of demarcation, north and south, were very well defined; but that neither nation would commit itself to any boundaries on the east and west, and consequently the best part of the continent was in dispute. He gave George the geography of the country as it was then understood, and showed him what vast interests were involved in the planting of a single outpost of the French. For himself, the king had granted him all the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, and as far west as his majesty’s dominions went, which, as Lord Fairfax said, with a smile, were claimed to extend to the Pacific Ocean. Only a small part of these lands had been surveyed. He felt anxious to have the tract across the Alleghany Mountains surveyed, as it was of importance to guard against the advance of the French in that direction. He asked George if he had ever studied surveying, and on George’s saying that he had given considerable time to it, and was fond of it, the earl told him that there were fine opportunities for a surveyor in this new country, and it would be a good profession for George, provided he did not succeed in his ambition to join the army or the navy.

“I will join either one, if I can, sir, in preference to any other profession,” was George’s reply.

They reached home at dark, and found the cheerful welcome of a roaring fire in the great hall awaiting them. At supper Lance, with a great flourish, handed a dish to Lord Fairfax which George thought the most uninviting he had ever seen—huge lumps of something burned black; but the aroma was delicious. Seeing Lord Fairfax take one of the black lumps, George courageously followed his example, and, attacking it, found it perfectly delicious.

“Bears’ paws generally taste better than they look,” remarked Lord Fairfax; and George remembered that Lance had told him there would be bear meat for supper.