“Twice the brigade chaplain came to the tent, but seeing me retired. The third time he appeared my foster father said: ‘He’s come to talk to me of Christ and Raphael. It is pleasant to hear his kind assurance that the journey to them is a swift one, done in the twinkling of an eye� . So — I will say good-bye. Now go, my child.’

“Locked in my desperate embrace, his wandering gaze came back and met my terror-stricken eyes. And after another moment a slow colour came into his wasted face. ‘Lois,’ he said, ‘before I go to join that matchless company, I think you ought to know that which will cause you to grieve less for me� . And so I tell you that I am not your father� . We found you at our door in Caughnwagha, strapped to a Seneca cradle-board. Nor had you any name.