CHAPTER XIV.
To Comyn the red, that crafty lord?
And who for the meed of his country's smile
Will brave the keen edge of the foeman's sword?"
Fight of Falkirk.
The narrator of Bunker-hill had not taken his leave, when two gentlemen entered, who like him had served through the war, but with a different fortune. They were of the distinguished family of ———, and sons of a gentleman who, by enterprize in commercial pursuits, had acquired an ample fortune, and, by that energy of character which gives man influence over his fellows, had become the founder of one of the most respectable aristocracies which dignified his native place. He had been an officer in the war of 1755, and his death occurred at about the period of this sketch. The latter years of his life had been marked by some aberrations of intellect, like that of Otis, the early advocate of the liberties of Massachusetts, whose memory the classic pen of Tudor has embalmed. General ———, the eldest of his five sons, was of small stature, but of correct, and graceful symmetry. Firm in camps, and wise in council, in refined society he was gentleness itself. The friend of Washington, an inmate of his military family, and highly respected by the soldiers under his command, he bore into domestick life,
