THE wirrrx mosr or THE HUIICHr. * TEE accidental knowledge of
what is said to be an "o'er true tale • has given a peculiarity to the motives in this novel, and to the nature of 'the ineattents, which could. not have been produced.from the genera/ events of English 'life by observation or skill. In addition, the scenes of the story are mostly laid among the wilds-of Canada, with Indians and Canadians for aot- ors ;. yet the circumstances of the tale are such as-to remove them from the usual Bad Indian- inoidents and characters; which Cooper has made familiar and his imitators-hacknied.
The originfof the tale is the.marriage of a CoIonel.Marsden,,a man of family, to a half.-breed Canadian in.a frontier settlement. When he carries his wife and two-children to Faiglaral, his proud mother refuses- to -receive or -publicly acknowledge them. The
• The White .Bose of the Huron. By Georgians C. Munro, Author of " The voy- age of Life." In three volumes. Published by Saunders and Otley.
Colonel is weak,,hts' wife ignorant of her rights, and the marriage difficult of proof. He allows himself to be persuaded to disown
his wife, who is banished. to a boarding-house ; persuaded
children are re- moved from her, shortly reported dead, and the Colonel marries
geanivhilp, the *RI* are brought obscurity, under the n*e el Graham; Ifaxaret the, girl heing designed for a governess, and William for slaopngin... The latter, however, revolts at this career, stimulated thereto by dim reemeries of a former condition. He throws himself into the world . to find his parents ; but quickly finds that the first thing he will have to do is to support himself. Accident and resolute exertion enable him to acquire a fortune ; and circumstances carry him with the other actors in the drama to Canada ; -where he is eventually enabled to establish his birthright, though he reaps no benefit from his suc- cess, owing to the reckless andrevengeful manner in which he has pursued it. What may be called the moral of the story is well conceived. The effect of desertion, though only dimly remembered, on the elm.- meter of young Graham, an the unscrupulous revengeful impulses of his Indian blood, are distinctly brought out. The punishment of Colonel Marsden and his mother is impressive, though it also falls upon his innocent second wife and son. There is, however, a want of skill in the management, which renders the narrative heavy and the denouement unattractive. Part of this is owing to trivial persons and occurrences being introduced into the story without contributing to its unravelment. The main cause of the failure is the ill-conditioned character of Graham. He is mean in conduct, and malignant rather than revengeful in feeling—in the poetic " dignity of revenge." Hence the sympathy of the reader is rather against him, however just his claim, especially as his an. tagamsta are more amiable than himself, and the real punishment fella heavier upon the innocent than the guilty. " The Bose of Huron " is a love-story, intrinsically separate from the main pur- pose of the book, but connected with it by the lover having a family connexion with the principal actors.
Although the novel-reader will be disappointed in the termina- tion, yet the death of Horace Marsden and his mother was perhaps a necessity, after the reckless exposure of their position ; and though arising from accident, it is a means of punishing Graham. The dramatis personce are collected at an island near a remote place, the portage of the three Falls. Horace is about to cross the river-to the island,just after the denouement, to avoid Graham, now Ludavico -Marsden.
"The remainder were much as Ludovico left them: but on seeing him approach, Horace moved from where he had been standing, and walked to the water's edge, remarking that it was time they should return to the is- land. One of the Indians who were loitering about came to the young officer the instant he observed him, and having launched the lightest of the canoes, they both stepped into it immediately. " Ludovico looked on from the upper part of the bank. At that moment, in mite of the ruin which awaited Horace, in his heart he envied him. He envied him the preference of all, and, as he believed, the love of the beauti- ful being for whom he would have borne almost anything to call his own. In his incensed and irritable state of mind, he was disposed to resent the slightest occurrence as an affront, and it displeased him much to perceive that the young Indian who had been so ready to attend Horace was one whose services had always been more peculiarly given to himself. Without pausing-to think, he called aloud the youth's name ; and the Indian sprang onshore directly, leaving the Englishman alone. "The water was so deep in-shore, that the canoe floated free close to the abrupt and rocky bank, which rose at first merely a few inches above the surface ; and before Horace observed it, the shallop was a yard or so nearer the point beyond which the rapidly-contracted current swept on with head- long fury to the fall, nearly at aright angle with the receding shore, above where-a small bight formed a safe and convenient place for landing. On perceiving the change of position, he caught a hemlock bough that drooped over the 'edge of the water, to keep the canoe stationary until the arrival of two Indians whom he saw approaching. "At this-moment, Colonel Marsden awoke sufficiently from his apparent lethargy to observe Horace standing heedlessly on the seat of the canoe, with the slender branch by which he held, all that there was to keep it from gliding on, or himself from falling; and, alarmed at his hazardous position, he called out suddenly to 'Take care.' " "Horace, startled at the sound of his father's voice, and looking up hastily, relinquished the detaining branch. In an instant he perceived his error, but, in a hurried attempt to repair it, lost his balance ; and nearly fell, then gave the hemlock boughs a push, to regain his footing ; which serving as an impetus to the canoe, it darted from the shore, and shot on rapidly to the
point. He seized a paddle instantly ; but his unskilled hand had not power to alter the course or check the dangerous speed of his boat, for already it was. within the deadly sweep of the current, and in another moment it was borne .071 with the arrowy swiftness which could lead only to destruction.
"The Indiana knew at once that all hope of aiding him was vain, and looked. at each other in silence. Of the rest, Ludovico—foremost in good or evil—was the first to reach the bank beside the short but furious rapid which foamed above the cascade ; the canoe was amidst it, though still upright, and its devoted passenger stood motionless, surveying his approaching doom. One &nee. told the-practised seaman that present help was impossible, and he darted along the bank with a speed which few could equal. Yet, even in his-haste, he saw the canoe as it trembled for an instant on the very brink of the fall, then as it shot downwards, was lost in boiling foam; and in the next moment he had plunged into the calmer water on the border of the frothing cauldron at its foot. A few seconds of anxious exertion, and he had caught the hand of Horace, almost before the tumultuous waters had relinquished him, and with some difficulty, owing to the strength of- the current, he succeeded in bringing his motionless companion to land. "And now that the only act of kindness that had ever marked his conduct towanl sh is helpless burden was accomplished, he saw that it was useless : he felt that with the one who had been made the sufferer for other's deeds he had parted for ever—and in bitterness. What a change had come over Ludovico's feel- ings within the last few minutes, almost momente! His work was done-this re- venge could scarcely inflict greater pain than it had already given ; and now the chief barrier to his success, his brother and- rival, lay lifeless before him —and was he happy ? Oh, no! that bond of relationship which his heart had disregarded with respect to the living, it acknowledged to the dead ; and in that hour he vainly wished that the last year of their existence could be cancelled. Were it to be lived over again, how differently it should be spent !"
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