Enjoying these opportunities for knowing the man, and engaged at the time in writing his military history, I naturally took to studying his peculiar characteristics. For a long while he was just as much of an enigma to me as to the rest of the world. The apparent absence of vanity, of ambition, of pride in his success, of selfishness, was so complete and so unusual in a man who had achieved such success, that I could not at first comprehend him. I soon, however, grew into a profound affection for him, which, enhanced by my admiration for his achievements, became the paramount feeling of my life. All my object and ambition were to help build up or illustrate his fame.
He appreciated this regard and, I thought, returned it with a warmth that he did not often display. He allowed me to say things to him that few men say to each other, and at last he permitted me to see beneath the veil that concealed the mystery from mankind. I found him a man like other men, with feelings as profound as those of the most
