a learn'd laureate

a man with a suave demeanor

[…] I said you didn't like them ere strong liquors, but if he warn't particular, I was sure you would pledge him in a glass of juniper, for I had always made you, since we had been man and vife, take a drop afore you went to market, to keep cold out.

The rest of his ragged company remained seated, their heads low, staring at the earth, panting in the thin air. There was no sound but the swack - swack of the machete.