Pass in, sir, and these other gentlemen
with you," answered the soldier, saluting. "It's glad the general will
be to see you."

Without further preliminaries the young man opened the door and
entered, followed by his three companions. A cheerful fire of logs was
blazing and crackling in the wide fireplace in the long low room. On
the table before it stood a great bowl of steaming punch, and several
officers were sitting or standing about the room in various positions.
The uniforms of all save that of one of them were scarcely less worn
and faded, if not quite so tattered, than were those of the escort; the
same grim enemies had left the same grim marks upon them as upon the
soldiers. The only well-dressed person in the room was a bright-eyed
young man, a mere boy, just nineteen, wearing the brilliant uniform of
an officer of the French army. He was tall and thin, red-haired, with
a long nose and retreating forehead; his bright eyes and animated
manner expressed the interest he felt in a conversation carried on in
the French language with his nearest neighbor, another young man
scarcely a year his senior. The contrast between the new and gay
French uniform of the one and the faded Continental dress of the other
was not less startling than that suggested by the difference in their
size. The American officer was a small, a very small man; but, in
spite of his insignificant stature, the whole impression of the man was
striking, and even imposing. In contrast to the other, his face was
very handsome, the head finely shaped, the features clear-cut and
regular; he had a decisive mouth, bespeaking resolution and firmness,
and two piercing eyes out of which looked a will as hard and imperious
as ever dwelt in mortal man.

In front of the fire were two older men, each in the uniform of a
general officer, one of thirty-five or six years of age, the other
perhaps ten years older. The younger of the two, a full-faced,
intelligent, active, commanding sort of man, whose appearance indicated
confidence in himself, and the light of whose alert blue eyes told of
dashing brilliancy in action and prompt decision in perilous moments,
which made him one of those who succeed, would have been more noticed
had not his personality been so overshadowed by that of the officer who
was speaking to him. The latter was possessed of a figure so tall that
it dwarfed every other in the room: he was massively moulded, but well
proportioned,