A Virginia Cavalier

A Virginia Cavalier by Molly Elliot Seawell

A Virginia Cavalier traces the youth of George Washington in the Virginia countryside of 1746, opening as the fifteen-year-old, already marked by extraordinary physical grace, woodcraft, and gravity of character, encounters the splendid coach and retinue of Lord Fairfax on the King's highway near his mother's home at Ferry Farm. Recognizing the nobleman from his mother's stories of her youth in England, George hurries home in time to receive the earl properly, and the visit reveals both Madam Washington's quiet pride in her eldest son and Fairfax's immediate, deepening fascination with the boy's poise, intelligence, and natural authority — evident when George expertly organizes the ferrying of the earl's coach and horses across the Rappahannock. Fairfax formally invites George to visit Greenway Court, his remote manor-fortress in the Blue Ridge, and after some deliberation Madam Washington consents, sending her son off with her blessing though not without foreboding. At Greenway Court George is absorbed into a world entirely new to him: Fairfax's library, his old campaigning servant Lance (a veteran of Marlborough's wars who recounts, in vivid and comic detail, his disguise as "Madame Geoffroy" alongside the young Fairfax to spy inside the besieged fortress of Bouchain), and daily fencing lessons in which George's quick temper repeatedly costs him the bout until Lance teaches him that self-mastery, not aggression, is the swordsman's true weapon — a lesson George absorbs and carries forward. His devoted, work-shy body servant Billy, left behind at Ferry Farm, tracks George's coach on foot for over a hundred miles with only his dog Rattler for company, arriving starved but joyful, and is allowed to stay. Fairfax speaks to George of the contested frontier, the rival French and English claims beyond the Alleghenies, and his plan to have his western lands surveyed — planting the seed of George's future profession. The idyll turns dangerous when Indians, incited by French agents and led by a warrior posing as a peaceable "squaw man" named Black Bear, launch a night assault on Greenway Court. George fights beside Fairfax and Lance with cool effectiveness, dragging a swivel gun into position and capturing the wounded Black Bear rather than letting him be killed. Nursed back to health, Black Bear is transformed by this mercy into a friend, offering George aid should he ever need it among his people — a foreshadowing of the Ohio frontier crises to come. As his stay ends, Fairfax presents George with the sword he wore at Bouchain and extracts a promise of lifelong friendship. George travels on to Mount Vernon for Christmas with his half-brother Laurence Washington and his wife, where the gaiety of holiday balls, fox hunts, and the visiting frigate Bellona under Admiral Vernon culminate in the admiral's offer of a midshipman's warrant in the Royal Navy — arranged through Laurence and eagerly, secretly treasured by George. A tender subplot follows George's bond with his small niece Mildred, including a night ride through the snow to fetch a doctor for her sudden illness, and a reconciliation with his friend William Fairfax after George strikes him in anger over a thoughtless remark about inheritance, an episode that tests and ultimately strengthens George's self-control. Returning home in his new uniform, George is met not with his mother's blessing but with a letter from his uncle in England disparaging naval service, and, more decisively, with Madam Washington's unprecedented emotional collapse — pleading, weeping, and begging him to renounce the sea. Torn between his sense of honor toward his brother and Admiral Vernon and his love for his mother, George yields, surrendering his commission, though the decision leaves him shaken and privately convinced his mother was mistaken. The rupture, comforted chiefly by his sister Betty's loyalty, briefly darkens the household until Madam Washington relents on another front, agreeing to let George accept Lord Fairfax's commission to survey his vast trans-Allegheny landholdings. The section closes with George, now sixteen, riding back toward Greenway Court in spring, surveyor's license in hand, Billy and Rattler again at his side, poised to begin the practical apprenticeship in the wilderness — mapping contested frontier land — that will shape his character and set him on the path toward his historic role in the struggle between France and England for the continent.

By Molly Elliot Seawell · First published 1897 · Genre: Historical Fiction, Biographical Fiction, Coming-of-Age Novel · 20 chapters · 88,109 words

First lines

"_Nature made Washington great; but he made himself virtuous._"

The sun shines not upon a lovelier land than midland Virginia. Great rivers roll seaward through rich woodlands and laughing corn-fields and fair meadow lands. Afar off, the misty lines of blue hills shine faintly against the deeper blue of the sky. The atmosphere is singularly clear, and the air wholesome and refreshing.

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A Virginia Cavalier is listed on Textopian as a novel by Molly Elliot Seawell, dated 1897 CE.

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Tags

historical fiction · romance · adventure · Virginia setting · American literature · Southern fiction · historical romance · social drama · aristocracy · gentility · honor · courtship

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