In his most brilliant and pampered days he had always considered in his
own heart that he was a graceless fellow, not worth his salt, and had
occasionally wondered, in a listless sort of way, why so useless a
bagatelle a la mode as his own life was had ever been created. He
thought much the same now; but following his natural instincts, which
were always the instincts of a gentleman, and of a generous temper,
he did, unconsciously, make his life of much value among its present
comrades.

His influence had done more to humanize the men he was associated with
than any preachers or teachers could have done. The most savage and
obscene brute in the ranks with him caught something gentler and better
from the "aristocrat." His refined habits, his serene temper, his
kindly forbearance, his high instinctive honor, made themselves felt
imperceptibly, but surely; they knew that he was as fearless in war,
as eager for danger as themselves; they knew that he was no saint, but
loved the smile of women's eyes, the flush of wines, and the excitation
of gaming hazards as well as they did; and hence his influence had a
weight that probably a more strictly virtuous man's would have strained
for and missed forever. The coarsest ruffian felt ashamed to make an
utter beast of himself before the calm eyes of the patrician. The most
lawless pratique felt a lie halt on his lips when the contemptuous
glance of his gentleman-comrade taught him that falsehood was
poltroonery. Blasphemous tongues learned to rein in their filthiness
when this "beau lion" sauntered away from the picket-fire, on an icy
night, to be out of hearing of their witless obscenities. More than
once the weight of his arm and the slash of his saber had called them
to account in fiery fashion for their brutality to women or their thefts
from the country people, till they grew aware that "Bel-a-faire-peur"
would risk having all their swords buried in him rather than stand by to
see injustice done.

And throughout his corps men became unconsciously gentler, juster; with
a finer sense of right and wrong, and less bestial modes of pleasure, of
speech, and of habit, because he was among them. Moreover, the keen-eyed
desperadoes who made up the chief sum of his comrades saw that he gave
unquestioning respect to a chief who made his life a hell; and rendered
unquestioning submission under affronts, tyrannies, and insults which,
as they also saw, stung him to the quick, and tortured