was over
before he reached the place, where he was presently told of a
characteristic reply just made by Wolfe to some officers who had
apologized for not having taught their men the new exercise. "Poh,
poh!--new exercise--new fiddlestick. If they are otherwise well
disciplined, and will fight, that's all I shall require of them."

Knox does not record his impressions of his new commander, which must
have been disappointing. He called him afterwards a British Achilles;
but in person at least Wolfe bore no likeness to the son of Peleus, for
never was the soul of a hero cased in a frame so incongruous. His face,
when seen in profile, was singular as that of the Great Conde. The
forehead and chin receded; the nose, slightly upturned, formed with the
other features the point of an obtuse triangle; the mouth was by no
means shaped to express resolution; and nothing but the clear, bright,
and piercing eye bespoke the spirit within. On his head he wore a black
three-cornered hat; his red hair was tied in a queue behind; his narrow
shoulders, slender body, and long, thin limbs were cased in a scarlet
frock, with broad cuffs and ample skirts that reached the knee; while on
his left arm he wore a band of crape in mourning for his father, of
whose death he had heard a few days before.

James Wolfe was in his thirty-third year. His father was an officer of
distinction, Major-General Edward Wolfe, and he himself, a delicate and
sensitive child, but an impetuous and somewhat headstrong youth, had
served the King since the age of fifteen. From childhood he had dreamed
of the army and the wars. At sixteen he was in Flanders, adjutant of his
regiment, discharging the duties of the post in a way that gained him
early promotion and, along with a painstaking assiduity, showing a
precocious faculty for commanding men. He passed with credit through
several campaigns, took part in the victory of Dettingen, and then went
to Scotland to fight at Culloden. Next we find him at Stirling, Perth,
and Glasgow, always ardent and always diligent, constant in military
duty, and giving his spare hours to mathematics and Latin. He presently
fell in love; and being disappointed, plunged into a variety of
dissipations, contrary to his usual habits, which were far above the
standard of that profligate time.

At twenty-three he was a lieutenant-colonel, commanding his regiment in
the then dirty and barbarous town of Inverness, amid a disaffected and
turbul