ugh, true fibre of the veterans
that came out of the struggle. There could hardly be a better type of
the conscientious and patriotic soldier than Captain Colburne; and if
Colonel Carter must not stand as type of the officers of the old army,
he mast be acknowledged as true to the semi-civilization of the South.
On the whole he is more entertaining than Colburne, as immoral people
are apt to be to those who suffer nothing from them. "His contrasts of
slanginess and gentility, his mingled audacity and _insouciance_ of
character, and all the picturesque ins and outs of his moral
architecture, so different from the severe plainness of the spiritual
temples common in New Boston," do take the eye of peace-bred
Northerners, though never their sympathy. Throughout, we admire, as the
author intends, Carter's thorough and enthusiastic soldiership, and we
perceive the ruins of a generous nature in his aristocratic Virginian
pride, his Virginian profusion, his imperfect Virginian sense of honor.
When he comes to be shot, fighting bravely at the head of his column,
after having swindled his government, and half unwillingly done his
worst to break his wife's heart, we feel that our side has lost a good
soldier, but that the world is on the whole something better for our
loss. The reader must go to the novel itself for a perfect conception of
this character, and preferably to those dialogues in which Colonel
Carter so freely takes part; for in his development of Carter, at least,
Mr. De Forrest is mainly dramatic. Indeed, all the talk in the book is
free and natural, and, even without the hard swearing which
distinguishes the speech of some, it would be difficult to mistake one
speaker for another, as often happens in novels.

The character of Dr. Ravenel, though so simple, is treated in a manner
invariably delightful and engaging. His native purity, amiability, and
generosity, which a life-long contact with slavery could not taint; his
cordial scorn of Southern ideas; his fine and flawless instinct of
honor; his warm-hearted courtesy and gentleness, and his gayety and wit;
his love of his daughter and of mineralogy; his courage, modesty, and
humanity,--these are the traits which recur in the differing situations
with constant pleasure to the reader.

Miss Lillie Ravenel is as charming as her adored papa, and is never less
nor more than a bright, lovable, good, constant, inconsequent woman. It
is to her that the book owes its few sc