Never were freebooters more formidable to the world at large, or more docile to their chief, than were the followers of General Schenk.

Never was a more finished captain of highwaymen.

He was a man who was never sober, yet who never smiled.

His habitual intoxication seemed only to increase both his audacity and his taciturnity, without disturbing his reason.

He was incapable of fear, of fatigue, of remorse.
He could remain for days and nights without dismounting-eating, drinking, and sleeping in the saddle; so that to this terrible centaur his horse seemed actually a part of himself.