By reason of the half of me that was priestly, I could, upon occasion, hear confession, administer the holy sacrament, and shrive a sinner as effectively as the laziest priest in Christendom.

I could also set a broken bone, and could mix as bitter a draught as any Jew out of Judea.

So, you will see, I was a useful member of a household wherein ancestry took the place of wealth, and pride was made to stand for ready cash.
The good duke might have filled his coffers by pillaging travellers, as many of his neighbors did; but he scorned to thrive by robbery, and lived in grandiose but honest penury.
Max took readily to the use of arms, and by the time he was eighteen, which was three years before our now famous journey to Burgundy, a strong, time-hardened man might well beware of him.

When the boy was fourteen or fifteen, I began to see in him great possibilities.

In personal beauty and strength he was beyond compare.