HispanicBusiness

Series, he brought his security detail to Washington's stadium to practice getting the ball over the plate.

Mr. Petraeus had seemed all but indestructible. He had been shot in a training accident, had broken his pelvis in a skydiving mishap and survived prostate cancer. Criticized by the advocacy group MoveOn.org in 2007 as "General Betray Us," he shrugged off the attack and rallied his indignant supporters. Until Friday, fans speculated that post-C.I.A. he might become president of Princeton University, where he earned his doctorate in international relations in 1987, or conceivably even president of the United States. (He has told friends he would never run for president; to show his impartiality, while in the military, he did not vote.)

But as the news sent astonished Petraeus watchers to the Web on Friday night, many people discovered a January episode of The Daily Show, where Ms. Broadwell, who served on active duty in the army for a decade and is a reserve lieutenant colonel, appeared to promote her book, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."

She recounted how she had first e-mailed Mr. Petraeus about her doctoral dissertation and then had showed up in Afghanistan, where he helped her in what she called a mentoring relationship, as he had many young officers. She said she and Mr. Petraeus shared an interest in fitness and that he had taken her running.

"That was the foundation of our relationship," she said. From time to time, they would go running in Kabul. "For him, I think it was a good distraction from the war."

From her many profiles and interviews, Ms. Broadwell, who was born while Mr. Petraeus was a West Point cadet and turned 40 on Friday, emerges as a younger, female version of him: travel to 60 countries; service in intelligence, special operations and with an F.B.I. counterterrorism task force; Harvard degree; wife of a physician; mother of two boys.

In her Charlotte, North Carolina, neighborhood Friday night, television trucks converged on her house as curious neighbors stopped by to ask what was happening. One thought it was a crew filming "Homeland," which is shot in that city. A woman on a bicycle rode by, calling out to the crowd of reporters: "Go home. Go home."

Written in the family's driveway in gold-colored chalk was a child's inscription that read: "Dad loves Mom."

Ms. Broadwell's book, which reportedly earned her an advance in the mid-six figures, paints a glowing portrait of her mentor. She told associates recently that she was at work on another Petraeus book. She did not respond to requests for comment.

But inside the military, where Mr. Petraeus compiled such a stunning record, views of him were more complex.

His circle of advisers included iconoclasts from the army's ranks as well as freethinking civilian analysts, unusual for a military service in which senior officers often surrounded themselves with so- called yes men. Mr. Petraeus was well known for sending e-mails to lower-ranking officers to get a sense of what was happening on the ground instead of relying on reports that filtered up the chain of command.

"P4," as he was called for the four stars he earned, was viewed with respect -- but often grudging respect. His celebrity brought positive attention to an all-volunteer force that at times struggled