On His Finger He Wore A
Very Fine Diamond Ring; And In His Cap, Which Was Of Velvet, He Bore A
Gold Medal, The Head And Motto Of Which I Have Forgot:
But, in his latter
days, he wore a plain cloth cap without ornament.
His table was always magnificently served and attended, having four
major-domos or principal officers, with many pages, and a great quantity
of massy plate both of gold and silver. He dined heartily about mid-day,
drinking only about half a pint of wine mixed with water. He was not nice
or expensive in his food, except on particular occasions, where he saw it
to be proper. He was exceedingly affable with all his captains and
soldiers, especially those who accompanied him at first from Cuba; yet
practised the strictest attention to military discipline, constantly going
the rounds himself in the night, and visiting the quarters of the soldiers,
severely reprehending all whom he found without their armour or
appointments, and not ready to turn out at a moments warning, saying, "It
is a bad sheep that cannot carry its own wool." He was a Latin scholar,
and as I have been told, a bachelor of laws, a good rhetorician, and
something even of a poet. He was very devote to the Holy Virgin, and to St
Peter, St James, and St John the Baptist. His oath was, "By my conscience."
When angry with any of his friends, he used to say, "may you repent it;"
and when in great warmth, the veins of his throat and forehead used to
swell much, but he then never spoke.
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