first glance, sees
nothing extraordinary, but of which the interest becomes more impressive
the longer we gaze upon them. His stature was very little above the
middle size, but in person he was uncommonly well-built, and capable
both of exerting great force, and enduring much fatigue. In fact,
he enjoyed a constitution of iron, without which he could not have
sustained the trials of his extraordinary campaigns, through all of
which he subjected himself to the hardships of the meanest soldier.
He was perfect in all exercises, whether peaceful or martial, and
possessed, of course, that graceful ease of deportment proper to those
to whom habit has rendered all postures easy.

His long brown hair, according to the custom of men of quality among the
Royalists, was parted on the top of his head, and trained to hang down
on each side in curled locks, one of which, descending two or three
inches lower than the others, intimated Montrose's compliance with that
fashion against which it pleased Mr. Prynne, the puritan, to write a
treatise, entitled, THE UNLOVELINESS OF LOVE-LOCKS. The features which
these tresses enclosed, were of that kind which derive their interest
from the character of the man, rather than from the regularity of their
form. But a high nose, a full, decided, well-opened, quick grey eye, and
a sanguine complexion, made amends for some coarseness and irregularity
in the subordinate parts of the face; so that, altogether, Montrose
might be termed rather a handsome, than a hard-featured man. But those
who saw him when his soul looked through those eyes with all the energy
and fire of genius--those who heard him speak with the authority of
talent, and the eloquence of nature, were impressed with an opinion
even of his external form, more enthusiastically favourable than the
portraits which still survive would entitle us to ascribe to it. Such,
at least, was the impression he made upon the assembled Chiefs of the
mountaineers, over whom, as upon all persons in their state of society,
personal appearance has no small influence.

In the discussions which followed his discovering himself, Montrose
explained the various risks which he had run in his present undertaking.
His first attempt had been to assemble a body of loyalists in the north
of England, who, in obedience to the orders of the Marquis of Newcastle,
he expected would have marched into Scotland; but the disinclination of
the English to cross the Border, and