celebration in Norfolk, saddened the place to him, and he returned with his family to France. He had been anxious to take with him his brother's family, and made it a point with his widow to accompany him. Her decided refusal to leave her own country, occasioned an alienation between them also, and she was left to herself with the usual defenceless lot and narrow circumstances which are not the most uncommon heritage of widows and orphans.

Of the brother's family, which returned to France, we have no knowledge, except of the recent death of a daughter named Cornelia, in a convent in South America. The widow, with her young family now removed permanently to Charleston, South Carolina.

At an early age the eldest boy, with whose future fortunes we are more particularly concerned, entered the law office of John W. Mitchell, Esq., one of the prominent citizens of Charleston. Here he gave such evidence of intelligence and industry as greatly to interest Mr. Mitchell, who found pleasure in directing the capacity he seemed to possess, and devoted many of his leisure hours to young Fremont's instruction. The lad's vigorous application required more time than Mr. Mitchell had at his disposal, and, in prosecution of the plan he had formed for him, he placed him under the instruction of Dr. John Roberton, a Scotch gentleman, who had been educated at Edinburgh, and who had established himself as a teacher, principally of ancient languages, at Charleston.

A brief but interesting memorial of this part of young Fremont's life from Dr. Roberton himself, who, though bending under the weight of some seventy winters, still

continues in the faithful exercise of his profession at Philadelphia, is preserved in the preface to an excellent interlinear translation of Xenophon's Anabasis which was published by him some six years ago. In the course of it he refers especially to the intellectual and personal habits of Fremont, while under his charge, and commends them to his pupils, to whom the book is dedicated, as pre-eminently worthy of imitation.

"For your further encouragement," he says, "I will here relate a very remarkable instance of patient diligence and indomitable perseverance:

"In the year 1827, after I had returned to Charleston from Scotland, and my classes were going on, a very respectable lawyer came to my school, I think some time in the month of October, with a youth apparently about sixteen, or perhaps not so much (14), of middle size, graceful in manners, rather slender, but well formed, and upon the whole what I should call handsome; of a keen, piercing eye, and a noble forehead, seemingly the very seat of genius. The gentleman stated that he found him given to study, that he had been about three weeks learning the Latin rudiments, and (hoping, I suppose, to turn the youth's attention from the law to the ministry) had resolved to place him under my care for the purpose of learning Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, sufficient to enter Charleston College. I very gladly received him, for I immediately perceived he was no common youth, as intelligence beamed in his dark eye, and shone brightly on his countenance, indicating great ability, and an assurance of his future progress. I at once put him in the highest class, just beginning to read Cæsar's Commentaries, and although at first inferior, his prodigious memory and enthusiastic

application soon enabled him to surpass the best. He began Greek at the same time and read with some who had been long at it, in which he also soon excelled. In short, in the space of one year he had with the class, and at odd hours he had with myself, read four books of Cæsar, Cornelius Nepos, Sallust, six books of Virgil, nearly all Horace, and two books of Livy; and in Greek, all Græca Minora, about the half of the first volume of Græca Majora, and four books of Homer's Hiad. And whatever he read, he retained. It seemed to me, in fact, as if he learned by mere intuition. I was myself utterly astonished, and at the same time delighted with his progress. I have hinted that he was designed for the church, but when I contemplated his bold, fearless disposition, his powerful inventive genius, his admiration of warlike exploits, and his love of heroic and adventurous deeds, I did not think it likely he would be a minister of the Gospel. He had not, however, the least appearance of any vice whatever. On the contrary, he was always the very pattern of virtue and modesty. I could not help loving him, so much did he captivate me by his gentlemanly conduct and extraordinary progress. It was easy to see that he would one day raise himself to eminence. Whilst under my instruction, I discovered his early genius for poetic composition in the following manner. When the Greek class read the account that Herodotus gives of the battle of Marathon, the bravery of Miltiades and his ten thousand Greeks raised his patriotic feelings to enthusiasm, and drew from him expressions which I thought were embodied, in a few days afterward, in some well-written verses in a Charleston paper, on that far-famed, unequal but successful conflict against tyranny and oppression; and suspecting my