Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/87

Rh It was evident from the travel-worn appearance of their horses, as well as from their equipments, that they had journeyed many a mile before they had reached this spot.…

Arthur Butler was now in the possession of the vigor of early manhood, with apparently some eight and twenty years upon his head. His frame was well proportioned, light, and active. His face, though distinguished by a smooth and almost beardless cheek, still presented an outline of decided manly beauty. The sun and wind had tanned his complexion, except where a rich volume of black hair upon his brow had preserved the original fairness of a high, broad forehead. A hazel eye sparkled under the shade of a dark lash and indicated, by its alternate playfulness and decision, an adventurous as well as a cheerful spirit. His whole bearing, visage, and figure seemed to speak of one familiar with enterprise and fond of danger; they denoted gentle breeding predominating over a life of toil and privation.

Notwithstanding his profession, which was seen in his erect and peremptory carriage, his dress at this time was, with some slight exceptions, merely civil. He was habited in the costume of a gentleman of the time, with a round hat pretty much of the fashion of the present day—though then but little used except amongst military men—with a white cockade to show his party, while his saddlebow was fortified by a brace of horseman's pistols stowed away in large holsters covered with bear-skin: for in those days, when hostile banners were unfurled and men challenged each other upon the highways, these pistols were a part of the countenance (to use an excellent old phrase) of a gentleman.

Galbraith Robinson was a man of altogether rougher mold. Every lineament of his body indicated strength. His stature was rather above six feet; his chest broad; his limbs sinewy, and remarkable for their symmetry. There seemed to be no