'Tale of a man's life recalled in later years - and principally of his friend Harcourt Darrell, the scion of an old Roman Catholic family in England. The narrator and Darrell were school friends and spent several months in Devonshire studying with a Protestant clergyman before they were to enter the army. While there, Darell fell in love with the gentle clergyman's daughter but his strict Roman Catholic mother opposed the match unrelentingly. The effect of her refusal on the lives of all the protagonists, especially Darrell in his rapid decline into a true "Wild Darell" comprises the major thread of the tale whose main events take place around 1850. The narrator, George Wainwright's efforts to restore his father's lost fortunes through entering military school in France and his grand passion for a married Frenchwoman bring adventures to him too. Walstab also takes the chance to involve Wainwright in French politics and [the life of] Louis Napoleon (1848-1851). Wainwright eventually emigrates to Australia and joins the Victorian mounted police. Among the other duties, [he guards] a quarantined ship.' (PB)
