crape. It would be hard to find three men, with good hats on
them, would bail me to the amount of ten pounds; and here I am to-day
just as ready to face them all as ever."

What canting nonsense do we occasionally read in certain quarters
to disparage mere personal courage,--"mere personal courage"! We are
reminded that the ignoble quality is held in common with the bull-dog,
and that in this essential he is our master; we are reminded that it is
a low and vulgar attribute that neither elevates nor enlightens, that
the meanest creatures are often gifted with it, and the noblest natures
void of it. To all this we give a loud and firm denial; and we affirm as
steadfastly, that without it there is neither truth nor manliness. The
self-reliance that makes a man maintain his word, be faithful to his
friendships, and honorable in his dealings, has no root in a heart that
shakes with craven fear. The life of a coward is the voyage of a ship
with a leak,--eternal contrivance, never-ceasing emergency. All thoughts
dashed with a perpetual fear of death, what room is there for one
generous emotion, one great or high-hearted ambition?

What a quality must that be, I would ask, that gives even to such
a nature as this man's a sort of rugged dignity? Yes, with all his
failings and short-comings, and I am not going to hide one of them, his
personal courage lifted him out of that category of contempt to which
his life assigned him. How well the world understands such men to be
the _ferae naturae_ of humanity! It may shun, deprecate, disparage, but it
never despises them. If then of such value be a gift that makes even
the bad appear tolerable, there is this evil in the quality, that it
disposes men like Davis to be ever on the attack. Their whole policy of
life is aggressive.

It was about eight o'clock, on a mellow autumnal morning, as Grog
reached Neuwied, and rode down the main street, already becoming
thronged with the peasantry for the market: Guiding his horse carefully
through the booths of flaunting wares, gay stalls of rural finery, and
stands of fruit, he reached the little inn where he meant to breakfast.

The post was not to open for an hour, so that he ordered his meal to be
at once got ready, and looked also to the comfort of his beast, somewhat
blown by a long stage. His breakfast had been laid in the public room,
in which two travellers were seated, whose appearance, even before he
heard them speak, proclaimed them t