Project Gutenberg's A Canadian Heroine, Volume 1, by Mrs. Harry Coghill

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Title: A Canadian Heroine, Volume 1
A Novel

Author: Mrs. Harry Coghill

Release Date: March 16, 2006 [EBook #18002]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A CANADIAN HEROINE.

A Novel.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF "LEAVES FROM THE BACKWOODS."

"Questa chiese Lucia in suo dimando,
E disse: Or ha bisogno il tuo fedele
Di te, e io a te lo raccomando."--_Inferno. Canto II._

"Qu'elles sont belles, nos campagnes;
En Canada qu'on vit content!
Salut o sublimes montagnes,
Bords du superbe St. Laurent!
Habitant de cette contree
Que nature veut embellir,
Tu peux marcher tete levee,
Ton pays doit t'enorgueillir."--_J. Bedard._

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET. STRAND.
1873.
[_All rights Reserved._]

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

A CANADIAN HEROINE.

CHAPTER I.

It was near sunset, and the season was early summer. Every tree was in
full leaf, but the foliage had still the exquisite freshness of its
first tints, undimmed by dust or scorching heat. The grass was, for the
present, as green as English grass, but the sky overhead was more
glorious than any that ever bent above an English landscape. So far away
it rose overhead, where colour faded into infinite space, that the eye
seemed to look up and up, towards the Gate of Heaven, and only through
mortal weakness to fail in reaching it. Low down around the horizon
there was no blue, but pure, pale green depths, where clouds floated,
magnificent in deep rosy and golden splendour. Under such skies the
roughest landscape, the wildest forest, softens into beauty; such light
and colour, like fairy robes, glorify the most commonpla