Colt's success was rapid. He acquired a large fortune, and built
an elegant and tasteful mansion in Hartford, where he resided,
surrounded with all the luxuries of wealth and taste. In 1855, he
married Miss Elizabeth Jarvis, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, of
Portland, Connecticut, a lady of great beauty and superior character and
accomplishments. She still survives him.

He repeatedly visited Europe after his settlement at Hartford, and as
the excellence of his weapons had made his name famous the world over,
he was the recipient of many attentions from the most distinguished
soldiers of Europe, and even from some of the monarchs of the Old World.
In 1856, being on a visit to Russia, with his family, he was invited
with them to be present at the coronation of the Emperor Alexander II.
He was decorated by nearly all the Governments of Europe, and by some of
the Asiatic sovereigns, with orders of merit, diplomas, medals, and
rings, in acknowledgment of the great services he had rendered to the
world by his invention.

He died, at his residence in Hartford, on the 10th of January, 1862, in
the forty-eighth year of his age. The community of which he was a member
lost in him one of its most enterprising and public-spirited citizens,
and the country one of the best representatives of the American
character it has ever produced.

CHAPTER XX.

SAMUEL F.B. MORSE.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse is the eldest son of the late Jedediah Morse,
one of the most distinguished Presbyterian clergymen of New England. He
was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April, 1791, was
carefully educated in the common schools of his native town, and at an
early age entered Yale College, where he graduated in 1810. He exhibited
an early fondness for art as well as studies of a scientific character,
and while a student at Yale displayed an especial aptness for chemistry
and natural philosophy. Upon leaving college he decided to adopt the
profession of an artist, and was sent abroad to study under the tuition
of West and Copley and Allston.

[Illustration: SAMUEL F.B. MORSE.]

"When Allston was painting his 'Dead Man Restored to Life,' in London,"
says Mr. Tuckerman, in his _Book of the Artists_, "he first modeled his
figure in clay, and explained to Morse, who was then his pupil, the
advantages resulting from a plan so frequently adopted by the old
masters. His young countryman was at this time meditating his first
compo