Maclay says:  “In this brilliant cruise Captain Stewart proved himself an officer of rare ability.  His action with the Cyane and Levant, and his masterly escape from the British squadron, called for all the qualities of a great commander, while his unhesitating attack on what appeared, in the heavy weather, to be two frigates, the beautiful style in which the Constitution was put through the most difficult manoeuvres, and the neatness with which he captured a superior force, have ranked him as one of the most remarkable naval officers of his day.  Congress awarded him a sword and gold medal.”

It happened one day, when I was talking with Admiral Stewart at his home, that he showed me a Toledo sword which had been presented to him by the King of Spain, because of his rescue of a Spanish ship, drifting helplessly in mid ocean, with the captain and all the crew dead or prostrated by yellow fever.

The blade of the weapon, although quite plain and ordinary looking, of course was very valuable, but the hilt was so rough and crude that I expressed my surprise.

“I supposed that when a king makes a present of a sword,” I said, “that the hilt is generally of a more costly pattern than that.”

“So it is,” replied Stewart, accepting it from me and playfully making a few lightning-like passes in the air just to show that he had not forgotten how to handle the weapon; “that was a very handsome sword when it came to me, and I could not accept it until authorized by Congress.  During my fight with the Cyane and Levant I was walking back and forth with this sword under my arm, the hilt slightly projecting in front of my chest, when a grapeshot slipped it off, as it grazed me.  The hilt which it now has was put there by my gunner.”

“Were you ever wounded in battle?” I asked.  “I was struck only once, and it amounted to nothing.  It was in the same battle.  A pigeon became so frightened by the smoke and racket that it flew hither and thither, and finally perched on my shoulder.  While there a musket ball struck its claw at the junction of the toes with the leg, and entered my shoulder.  The resistance it met was so tough that it saved my shoulder from being shattered; except for that, the hurt must have proved serious, but it did not bother me at all.”

The Admiral, still loosely holding the weapon in his hand, turned his faded eyes toward the window and gazed out over the snow.  Those eyes seemed to look backward over the vista of forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years, and must have recalled the many stirring scenes in which he had taken part, as well as the faces of the brave fellows, like himself, who had gone from earth long ago, leaving him alone.  Then the old veteran, still erect and with the fires of patriotism glowing in his brave heart, softly murmured: 

“I have been more fortunate than I deserve; strange that I should be the only one left, but it cannot be for long.”