el;
Xerxes that great wast not free from Cupid's Dart,
And all the greatest Heroes felt the smart."

He wrote at length to several of his friends concerning his youthful
passions. In the tell-tale pages of the diary, for 1748, there is this
draft of a letter:

"DEAR FRIEND ROBIN: My place of Residence is at present at
His Lordship's where I might, was my heart disengag'd, pass
my time very pleasantly, as there's a very agreeable Young
Lady Lives in the same house (Col. George Fairfax's Wife's
Sister); but as that's only adding fuel to fire, it makes me
the more uneasy, for by often and unavoidably being, in
Company with her revives my former Passion for your Lowland
Beauty; whereas was I to live more retired from young Women
I might in some measure aliviate my sorrows by burying that
chaste and troublesome Passion in the grave of oblivion or
eternal forgetfulness, for as I am very well assured, that's
the only antidote or remedy, that I shall be relieved by, as
I am well convinced, was I ever to ask any question, I
should only get a denial which would be adding grief to
uneasiness."

The "Lowland Beauty" was Miss Mary Bland. Tradition does not say
whether or not she ever knew of Washington's admiration, but she
married Henry Lee.

"Light Horse Harry," that daring master of cavalry of Revolutionary
fame, was the son of the "Lowland Beauty," and some tender memories of
the mother may have been mingled with Washington's fondness for the
young soldier. It was "Light Horse Harry" also, who said of the
Commander-in-Chief that he was "first in war, first in peace, and
first in the hearts of his countrymen!"

By another trick of fate the grandson of the "Lowland Beauty" was Gen.
Robert E. Lee. Who can say what momentous changes might have been
wrought in history had Washington married his first love?

Miss Gary, the sister of Mrs. Fairfax, was the "agreeable young lady"
of whom he speaks. After a time her charm seems to have partially
mitigated the pain he felt over the loss of her predecessor in his
affections. Later he writes of a Miss Betsey Fauntleroy, saying that
he is soon to see her, and that he "hopes for a revocation of her
former cruel sentence."

When Braddock's defeat brought the soldier again to Mount Vernon, to
rest from the fatigues of the campaign, there is abundant evidence to
prove that he had become a personage in