an action and summarily recovered damages, the fact transpiring after the sale, that the horse was unable to swim. Inasmuch as the lawyer had been detained from a term of the court by reason of this defect, the jury mulcted the defendent in heavy damages, requiring him at the same time to receive back the comparatively useless animal.

To this important town of Staunton, the centre of all that was learned in the law, our respected father was called by his appointment as public prosecutor in 1808, and was now reaping the honours and rewards of his profession. Absorbed by these duties, he could give little of that care and attention to his son's education which my grandfather had bestowed upon his. His wife, however, a woman of energy and experience combined with rare good sense, and whose nature was tempered with singular tenderness of affection and adorned by much simplicity of character, a freshness of wit and an unfailing cheerfulness, which made her the delight of every circle, qualities which were transmitted with exceptionable fidelity to her son, undertook and performed this task. His mind was early stored by her with useful knowledge, his heart fortified with generous principles, and his passions regulated by discipline. She sought to make him good rather than great, believing that nothing can make a man truly great but being truly good. She had none of the ambition and worldlymindedness of the mother of Zebedee's children, who brought her two sons to Christ, and said: "Grant that these may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other

on the left, in Thy Kingdom. "She was wiser than that mother whom the Saviour so sharply reproved for her haughty spirit, by saying: "Ye know not what ye ask." She understood too well that the wings of Icarus are but the instruments of self destruction to the simpletons who try to soar away upon them; "that it is better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud."

In his fifteenth year he had the misfortune to lose the guardianship of this excellent woman. The illness which terminated her life was sudden and unexpected. She had long been in delicate health. This had, however, at no time given rise to symptoms causing much anxiety. The melancholy event overwhelmed the world of Staunton, where she had made hosts of friends, with grief. She was a dear and admired friend and her body, says one of those present, was followed to the tomb by multitudes, who responded to the sad summons with tears and marks of sympathy.

Mrs. Susan Madison Peyton often spoke with a mother's pride and affection of the obedient, truthful, and ingenuous character of her son, remarking that he had never, save upon one occasion, deliberately defied her authority. This occurred in his tenth year, when, during the war of 1812-15 between England and the United States, a call was made for volunteers. Our patriotic father, who had been two years in the service, returned on furlough, from Camp Holly, near Richmond, to pass a few days with his family. During this short leave he was actively engaged recruiting, and a number

B

of young men were enrolled in the service. On his arrival at home, he presented my brother with a fowlingpiece, purchased in Richmond. William was greatly delighted with this plaything, and was the whole day "banging away" at beast and bird.

Some of Napoleon's biographers have endeavoured to account for his sanguinary tastes and love of war, by the supposition that these were called forth and stimulated by a dismounted field-piece, which he used in his childhood as a plaything. If there be any truth in this account, which I doubt, it is possible that William Peyton's fowling-piece and the smell of villanous saltpetre aroused in him something of the like martial spirit, for he was quickly seized with a desire to join the Augusta forces and proceed to the seat of war. The idea was simply ridiculous, and its absurdity was explained to him by his mother. Inexpressibly disappointed, chagrined, and mortified, he held his peace and waited an opportunity. Next morning our father bade farewell to his family, giving much good advice to my brother. The substance of this was contained in the celebrated President Thomas Jefferson's ten good rules to be observed in practical life, a copy of which he left with William. With Mr. Jefferson our father had been on terms of intimate friendship for many years, always passing a night at Monticello when attending the superior court of Albemarle, and having been Mr. Jefferson's counsel in the Rivanna canal and other suits.

Mr. Jefferson's rules, which my brother committed

to memory, but which I doubt whether he governed himself strictly by, were:

1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.

2. Never trouble others for what you can do yourself.

3. Never spend your money before you have it.

4. Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap.

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.

6. We never repent of having eaten too little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

8. When angry, count ten before you speak if very angry, one hundred.

9. Take things always by the smoothest handle.

10. In all cases when you cannot do as well as you would, do the best you can.

After my father's farewell, he took command of the recruits and proceeded by forced marches to the front. The day following, my brother was missed. A diligent search failed to disclose his hiding place. Messages were despatched in pursuit towards Richmond, his old nurse declaring her belief that he had followed the "sogers. On the next day they came upon him twenty-five miles from home on the Eastern slope of the Blue Ridge mountain, When overtaken, he was sitting, apparently in meditation, munching a piece of salt pork, among a party of teamsters belonging to the supply trains, covered with dust, wearied and foot sore, his fowling piece loaded lying by his side. Though nearly exhausted in body, his resolution was as determined as ever to follow the troops, and stand up, as he said, for old Virginia. He seemed to think his country in dire extremity. Like his companions, the teamsters, he believed, however, that she would emerge from the storm and have a brilliant future. For himself, he

asked no recompense, but to serve her, to fight for her. Such were the notions already floating through his juvenile mind. Was this patriotism? Could such sentiments find a place in the breast of one so young or had the smell of gunpowder and the fowling-piece aroused the spirit of war in his bosom? He was at once taken prisoner and borne home in the most inglorious manner. Finding on his return, his mother ill and in tears, he was deeply grieved at his behaviour; his conscience, indeed, seemed to overwhelm him with reproaches. Becoming at once sensible of the reckless cruelty of his foolish conduct, he made every apology and atonement in his power; sought to soothe her with a voice and manner of touching sorrow, and ever after was the most affectionate and obedient of sons. It is not, surprising then, that he was the darling of her heart.

It may not be here out of place to anticipate and to remark that from this period, throughout life, deference to his parents was one of his leading traits. He honoured them by loving them, confiding in them, obeying them, abstaining from whatever was disagreeable to them, and doing everything in his power to promote their comfort and happiness. After the loss of his mother, and our father's second marriage to one of her cousins, Anne Montgomery Lewis, daughter of Major John Lewis, of the Sweet Springs, a distinguished officer of the American revolutionary army, and grandfather of the writer, he extended to her, not only deference and respect, but a truly filial affection. My mother was,