, the
Duke made a signal for all around him to retire, excepting only two general
officers of distinction. While they spoke together in whispers for a few minutes
before Morton was permitted to advance, he had time to study the appearance of
the persons with whom he was to treat.
    It was impossible for any one to look upon the Duke of Monmouth without
being captivated by his personal graces and accomplishments, of which the great
High Priest of all the Nine afterwards recorded -
 
Whate'er he did was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please;
His motions all accompanied with grace,
And Paradise was opened in his face.
 
Yet to a strict observer, the manly beauty of Monmouth's face was occasionally
rendered less striking by an air of vacillation and uncertainty, which seemed to
imply hesitation and doubt at moments when decisive resolution was most
necessary.
    Beside him stood Claverhouse, whom we have already fully described, and
another general officer whose appearance was singularly striking. His dress was
of the antique fashion of Charles the First's time, and composed of chamois
leather, curiously slashed, and covered with antique lace and garniture. His
boots and spurs might be referred to the same distant period. He wore a
breastplate, over which descended a grey beard of venerable length, which he
cherished as a mark of mourning for Charles the First, having never shaved since
that monarch was brought to the scaffold. His head was uncovered, and almost
perfectly bald. His high and wrinkled forehead, piercing grey eyes, and marked
features, evinced age unbroken by infirmity, and stern resolution unsoftened by
humanity. Such is the outline, however feebly expressed, of the celebrated
General Thomas Dalzell,35 a man more feared and hated by the whigs than even
Claverhouse himself, and who executed the same violences against them out of a
detestation of their persons, or perhaps an innate severity of temper, which
Grahame only resorted to on political accounts, as the best means of
intimidating the followers of Presbytery, and of destroying that sect entirely.
    The presence of these two generals, one of whom he knew by person, and the
other by description, seemed to Morton decisive of the fate of his embassy. But,
notwithstanding his youth and inexperience, and the unfavourable reception which
his proposals seemed likely to meet with, he advanced boldly towards them upon
receiving a signal to that purpose, determined that the cause of his country,
and of those with whom he had taken up arms, should suffer nothing from being
intrusted to him. Monmouth received him with the graceful courtesy which
attended even