All this bustle and anticipation has caused me to study the general
with a little more attention than, perhaps, I should otherwise have
done; and the few days that he has already passed at the Hall have
enabled me, I think, to furnish a tolerable likeness of him to the
reader.
He is, as Master Simon observed, a soldier of the old school, with
powdered head, side locks, and pigtail. His face is shaped like the
stern of a Dutch man-of-war, narrow at top and wide at bottom, with
full rosy cheeks and a double chin; so that, to use the cant of the
day, his organs of eating may be said to be powerfully developed.
The general, though a veteran, has seen very little active service,
except the taking of Seringapatam, which forms an era in his history.
He wears a large emerald in his bosom, and a diamond on his finger,
which he got on that occasion, and whoever is unlucky enough to notice
either, is sure to involve himself in the whole history of the siege.
To judge from the general's conversation, the taking of Seringapatam
is the most important affair that has occurred for the last century.
On the approach of warlike times on the continent, he was rapidly
promoted to get him out of the way of younger officers of merit;
until, having been hoisted to the rank of general, he was quietly laid
on the shelf.
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