But time and
space are limited, and I must select as best I may.
I have a very pleasant recollection of "Garibaldi's Englishman,"
Colonel Peard. Peard had many more qualities and capabilities than
such as are essential to a soldier of fortune. The phrase, however, is
perhaps not exactly that which should be used to characterise him. He
had qualities which the true soldier of fortune should not possess.
His partisanship was with him in the highest degree a matter of
conviction and conscientious opinion, and _nothing_ would have tempted
him to change his colours or draw his sword on the other side. I am
not sure either, whether a larger amount of native brain power, and
(in a much greater degree) a higher quality of culture, than that of
the general under whom it may be his fortune to serve, is a good part
of the equipment of a soldier of fortune. And Peard's relation to
Garibaldi very notably exemplified this.
He was a native of Devonshire, as was my first wife; we saw a good
deal of him in Florence, and I have before me a letter written to her
by him from Naples on the 28th of January, 1861, which is interesting
in more respects than one. Peard was a man who _would_ have all that
depended on him ship-shape. And this fact, taken in conjunction with
the surroundings amid which he had to do his work, is abundantly
sufficient to justify the growl he indulges in.
* * * * *
"My dear Mrs.
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