nd his forehead unusually
high and broad. His hair was soft, and his skin, although dark,
suffered from extreme sensitiveness.

"There is no accounting for thinness of skins in different
animals, human, or brute [he once said]. Mine, I believe to
be more tender than many infants of a month old. Indeed I
have remarked in myself, from my earliest recollection, a
delicacy or effeminacy of complexion, which but for a spice
of the devil in my temper would have consigned me to the
distaff or the needle."

"A spice of the devil" is mild indeed, considering that before he was
four years old he frequently swooned in fits of passion, and was
restored to consciousness with difficulty.

His most striking feature was his eyes. They were deep, dark, and
fiery, filled with passion and great sadness at the same time. "When
he first entered an assembly of people," said one who knew him, "they
were the eyes of the eagle in search of his prey, darting about from
place to place to see upon whom to light. When he was assailed they
flashed fire and proclaimed a torrent of rage within."

The voice of this great statesman was a rare gift:

"One might live a hundred years [says one,] and never hear
another like it. The wonder was why the sweet tone of a
woman was so harmoniously blended with that of a man. His
very whisper could be distinguished above the ordinary tones
of other men. His voice was so singularly clear, distinct,
and melodious that it was a positive pleasure to hear him
articulate anything."

Such was the man who swayed the multitude at will, punished offenders
with sarcasm and invective, inspired fear even in his equals, and
loved and suffered more than any other prominent man of his
generation.

He had many acquaintances, a few friends, and three loves--his mother,
his brother, and the beautiful young woman who held his heart in the
hollow of her hand, until the Gray Angel, taking pity, closed his eyes
in the last sleep.

His mother, who was Frances Bland, married John Randolph in 1769, and
John Randolph, of Roanoke, was their third son.

Tradition tells us of the unusual beauty of the mother--

"the high expanded forehead, the smooth arched brow; the
brilliant dark eyes; the well defined nose; the full round
laughing lips; the tall graceful figure, the beautiful dark
hair; an open cheerful countenance--suffused with that dee