He was a great hand at talking and could, when he warmed up,
pronounce about three hundred words a minute. His style was
distinguished for mettle, pomp, and imagery; and his Caucasian
accent with characteristic lisping and throaty sounds, resembling
now the hawking of a woodcock, now the clucking of an eagle, not
only did not hinder his discourse, but somehow even strangely
adorned it. And no matter of what he spoke, he always led up the
monologue to the most beautiful, most fertile, the very foremost,
most chivalrous, and at the same time the most injured country--
Georgia. And invariably he cited lines from THE PANTHER'S SKIN of
the Georgian poet Rustavelli; with assurances, that this poem was
a thousand times above all of Shakespeare, multiplied by Homer.
Even though he was hot-headed, he was not spiteful; and in his
demeanour femininely soft, gentle, engaging, without losing his
native pride ... One thing only did his comrades dislike in him--
some exaggerated, exotic love of women. He was unshakably, unto
sacredness or folly, convinced that he was irresistibly splendid
of person; that all men envied him, all women were in love with
him, while husbands were jealous .
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