Westmoreland County. Within one generation the
family had spread to Stafford County, and within another to Loudoun
County also. Thus it befell that there was a Mr. Craven Peyton, of
Loudoun County, justice of the peace, vestryman, and chief warden of
Shelburne Parish. He was the father of nine sons and two daughters.
One of the sons was Harry.

This Harry grew up longing to be a soldier. Military glory was his
ambition, as it had been Washington's; but not as a mere provincial
would he be satisfied to excel. He would have a place as a regular
officer, in an army of the first importance, on the fields of Europe.
Before the Revolution, Americans were, like all colonials, very loyal
to their English King. Therefore would Harry Peyton be content with
naught less than a King's commission in the King's army.

His father, glad to be guided in choosing a future for one of so many
sons, sent Harry to London in 1770, to see something of life, and so
managed matters, through his English relations, that the boy was in
1772, at the age of nineteen, the possessor, by purchase, of an
ensign's commission. He was soon sent to do garrison duty in Ireland,
being enrolled with the Sixty-third Regiment of Foot.

He had lived gaily enough during his two years in London, occupying
lodgings, being patronized by his relations, seeing enough of society,
card-tables, drums, routs, plays, prize-fights, and other diversions.
He had made visits in the country and showed what he had learned in
Virginia about cock-fighting, fox-hunting and shooting, and had taken
lessons from London fencing-masters. A young gentleman from Virginia,
if well off and "well connected," could have a fine time in London in
those days; and Harry Peyton had it.

But he could never forget that he was a colonial. If he were
treated by his English associates as an equal, or even at times
with a particular consideration, there was always a kind of
implication that he was an exception among colonials. Other
colonial youths were similarly treated, and some of these were glad
to be held as exceptions, and even joined in the derision of the
colonials who were not. For these Harry Peyton had a mighty disgust
and detestation. He did not enjoy receiving as Harry Peyton a
tolerance and kindness that would have been denied him as merely an
American. And he sometimes could not avoid seeing that, even as
Harry Peyton, he was regarded as compensating, by certain attractive
qualities in