The characters in this work are for the most part actual life studies. None are overdrawn, not even Peter Denton, least of all McAuliffe.
The local colour is simply so much word photography. The particular fort on the Great Saskatchewan has been described with absolute accuracy of detail. The river pool (Chap. II.) is there; also the island in mid-stream, where the fight actually occurred; the great rapids, the oil swamp, the log wharf—all are there. In fact, description and dialogue has entailed upon the writer rather an effort of memory than any strain upon the imagination.
[1] The first Cathedral was destroyed by fire immediately after completion, when all the parish records were destroyed.
PART I
THE HEART'S JOY
CHAPTER I
THE FOREST
'There will be full moon to-night, and a south wind. Then the evil one will steal from the marshes. For there will be war and fire. War and Fire!'