life, and the manner in which he himself had been bred, the
youth was disposed to feel more accurately the moral duties incumbent on his
station than was usual at the time.
    He reflected on his interview with his uncle with a sense of embarrassment
and disappointment. His hopes had been high; for although intercourse by letters
was out of the question, yet a pilgrim, or an adventurous trafficker, or a
crippled soldier, sometimes brought Lesly's name to Glen-houlakin, and all
united in praising his undaunted courage, and his success in many petty
enterprises which his master had intrusted to him. Quentin's imagination had
filled up the sketch in his own way, and assimilated his successful and
adventurous uncle (whose exploits probably lost nothing in the telling) to some
of the champions and knights-errant of whom minstrels sang, and who won crowns
and kings' daughters by dint of sword and lance. He was now compelled to rank
his kinsman greatly lower in the scale of chivalry; but blinded by the high
respect paid to parents, and those who approach that character - moved by every
early prejudice in his favour - inexperienced besides, and passionately attached
to his mother's memory, he saw not, in the only brother of that dear relation,
the character he truly held, which was that of an ordinary mercenary soldier,
neither much worse nor greatly better than many of the same profession whose
presence added to the distracted state of France.
    Without being wantonly cruel, Le Balafré was, from habit, indifferent to
human life and human suffering; he was profoundly ignorant, greedy of booty,
unscrupulous how he acquired it, and profuse in expending it on the
gratification of his passions. The habit of attending exclusively to his own
wants and interests, had converted him into one of the most selfish animals in
the world; so that he was seldom able, as the reader may have remarked, to
proceed far in any subject without considering how it applied to himself, or, as
it is called, making the case his own, though not upon feelings connected with
the golden rule, but such as were very different. To this must be added, that
the narrow round of his duties and his pleasures had gradually circumscribed his
thoughts, hopes, and wishes, and quenched in a great measure the wild spirit of
honour, and desire of distinction in arms, by which his youth had been once
animated. Balafré was, in short, a keen soldier, hardened, selfish, and
narrow-minded; active and bold in the discharge of his duty, but acknowledging
few