than eighteen months after her husband's death.

Young, handsome, and reputed the wealthiest widow in Virginia in days when the single state was not regarded as one of blessedness for either man or woman, it is reasonable to believe that many suitors knocked at the door of the White House, the favorite residence of Mrs. Custis during her widowhood, when the first year of mourning was well over. We hesitate to indulge in surmise, and yet, reading between the lines of the scant chronicle, we venture to assume the probability that she had taken refuge with her friend and neighbor, Major Chamberlayne, in order to escape the importunities of some too persistent swain, and thus, like many another woman, fled from her fate only to find it awaiting her at the end of her journey, as here it was that she met Colonel Washington.

III

THE YOUNG VIRGINIA COLONEL

AMONG cherished traditions of the old town of Fredericksburg, there is one to the effect that Colonel Washington first met Mrs. Custis at Chatham, the home of Colonel William Fitzhugh, when she was paying a visit there during her husband's life. There is no proof whatever of any such meeting, while it is more than probable that both Colonel and Mrs. Custis had met the young Virginia soldier upon the occasion of one or the other of Washington's visits to the Governor at Williamsburg, as we learn from his diary that he was there upon official business in 1754, after his expedition to the Ohio and the disastrous affair of Great Meadows. Whatever military critics, French and English, said or thought of the young officer's management of this, his first campaign, the Virginia House of Burgesses had no word of censure for the gallant if somewhat rash soldier, as he soon after received a vote of thanks for his services, and money for

his men. From that other disaster, which came in the next year, when Braddock led the Colonial forces, Washington alone, says Mr. Lodge, emerged with added glory, being offered upon his return the command of all the Virginia troops upon his own terms. Hence if Mrs. Custis met Colonel Washington during the years of her married life, he appeared before her in the light of a military hero, which, perhaps for some reason having its origin far back in the dim and early struggles of the race, in days when "might made right," is the sort of a hero that has always excited the admiration of the gentlest and most peace-loving of womankind.

Whether or not the young widow had met Colonel Washington prior to their momentous encounter at Major Chamberlayne's house, she had lived too much in official circles not to know by reputation the officer whom Virginia most delighted to honor. Now, in addition to his military renown, high character, and advantages of birth and breeding, Washington appeared before her in all the grace and vigor of his superb manhood. All authorities agree that his figure and bearing were most distinguished. Standing six feet two inches, spare rather than stout, with limbs of noble mould, the young

soldier's form and face most harmoniously combined strength and endurance with grace, ease, and dignity. Washington's dignity was inherent, an altogether natural manifestation of his high character and natural self-respect. Whatever graces of manner he possessed were probably acquired by his close and familiar companionship with his half-brother, Lawrence Washington, of Mount Vernon, and through his intimate acquaintance with Lord Fairfax, who, having come from court circles of the Old World to live the life of a recluse upon his estate in Virginia, welcomed to his heart and home this young man, in whom he seems to have found early promise of future greatness.

1

Mr. Custis, of Arlington, the adopted son of Washington, says that the equestrian portrait painted by Trumbull in 1790, and an engraving by Loisier, from a painting by Coignet, a French artist, are the only two portraits that fairly represent the General's

1 George Washington Parke Custis, known in his later years as Mr. Custis of Arlington, his beautiful home near Washington, D. C., having been named after the Custis estate upon the Eastern Shore of Virginia, was the grandson of Mrs. Washington, and the adopted son of the General. In his Recollections of Washington, Mr. Custis has related so much that is intimate and personal with regard to the Washingtons, that, despite its disconnected and rambling character, his book will always be authoritative as the record of one who had the advantage of living at Mount Vernon during his childhood and early youth.

matchless form. He adds: "So long ago as the days of the vice-regal court of Williamsburg, in the time of Lord Botetourt, Colonel Washington was remarkable for his splendid person. The air with which he wore a small sword, and his peculiar walk, that had the light elastic tread acquired by long service on the frontier, was a matter of much observation, especially to foreigners.'

The best-known portraits of Washington were all painted during or after middle life. Even the portrait executed by the elder Peale at Mount Vernon in 1772, with its clear penetrating eye, round unlined face, and alert but commanding form, represents a much older man than the young soldier who, between 1752 and 1756, had performed on the Virginia frontier the most daring service upon record. It is this Washington, in all the strength and enthusiasm of young manhood, brave even to recklessness, as upon the fatal field of Braddock, where he had two horses shot under him and four bullets through his coat, who now appeared before Mrs. Daniel Parke Custis as the honored friend of her host, and a little later as a suitor for her hand.

Mrs. Custis was at this time nearly twentyseven years of age, being three months