Broadswordsman

Thomas Stephens was the first Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Cavalry and succeeded Washburn as Colonel. He had been a soldier in the British army and was an expert broadswordsman.

By noon the morning's work is got over, including the consumption of a cup of soup, the ablution without which no true believer is happy, and the obligations of Frankish toilette. Then comes a stroll to the fencing-school, kept by an excellent broadswordsman, an old German trooper.

His point of view is the exceedingly advantageous one obtained by an American birth, a French education and a long continued residence in England, and his manner may be described as that of a light fencer whose deftness and despatch are in graceful contrast to the exertions of the unwieldy broadswordsmen of literature.