The French half breeds profess the Roman Catholic religion, and they have a number of churches.  At the head of the Roman communion is Archbishop Tache, of St. Boniface.  This is the gentleman who provided the munificence for Louis Riel’s education.  He is the same bishop whose name so many hundreds of thousands of our people cannot recall without bitterness and indignation.

CHAPTER III.

Such, then, was the condition of Red River before the person who is the subject of this book appeared upon the scenes.  But perhaps it is as well that I should relate one occurrence which fanned into bright flame the smouldering embers of discord between the half-breeds and their white neighbours.  An officer of the Hudson Bay Company, living at an isolated post, had two daughters.  As they began to arrive toward young-womanhood he was anxious that they should have an education, in order that they might, in proper season, be able to take their position in society.  There were good schools at Red River, and thither the officer sent his daughters, placing them under the care of a guardian whom he knew would exercise an authority as judicious as his own.  The two girls were remarkably handsome, and whenever they walked through the settlement, or drove abroad with their guardian, they attracted all the attention.  Many a half-dusky heart was smitten of their white skin, which he would compare in colour to the pure snow that covers the plains.  Now had the faces of the Red River beauties been Parian white, instead of dusky olive, the young beaux of the settlement would not have found their hearts beating half so wildly about the two pale daughters of the Hudson Bay Company’s officer.  They would indeed have languished for chestnut eyes, and complexions of Spain and the southern vineyards of France.  But here amongst their sturdy “tiger blossoms,” and passionate prairie roses blew two fair cold lilies; and their hearts bounded beyond measure at the thought of winning a look or a kindly smile.  But the guardian watched the two pale girls closely, and permitted them to do little beyond his surveillance.  There were not many whites in the circle of their acquaintance, but of this few, nearly every one was a suitor for one or other of the girls, yet for all the advances their hearts were still whole and they moved,

   “In maiden meditation fancy free.”

Now in Red River was a young half-breed, almost effeminate in manners, handsome in face and form, and agreeable and gentle in his address.  He was indeed a sort of Bunthorne of the plains, just such a person as a romantic, shallow girl is most apt for a rose’s period to sigh out her soul about.  You find his type in fashionable civilised circles, in the languid dude who displays his dreams in his eyes to captivate the hearts of the silly girls, and—­discreetly —­keeps his mouth shut, to conceal his lack of brains.  The two white daughters of the Company’s