The crisis reached--Consequences of Seven Oaks--The noble Earl--His generous spirit--His mistakes--Determined courage--Deserves the laurel crown--The first Governor--Macdonell's difficulties--His unwise step--A Captain in red--Cameron's adroitness--A wearisome imprisonment--Last governor of Fort Gibraltar--The Metis chief--Half-breed son of old Cuthbert--A daring hunter--Warden of the plains--Lord Selkirk's agent--A Red River patriarch--A faithful witness--The French bard--Western war songs--Pierriche Falcon. The skirmish of Seven Oaks was the most notable event that ever occurred on the prairies of Rupert's Land or in the limits of the fur country. It was the crisis which indicated the determination of the Company, whose years were numbered by a century and a half, to hold its own in a great contest, and of the pluck of a British nobleman to show the "_perfervidum ingenium Scotorum_," and unflinchingly to meet either in arms or legal conflict the fur-trading oligarchy of that time in Canada. It represented, too, the fierce courage and desperate resource of the traders of the great Canadian Company, who, we have seen, were called by Washington Irving "the lords of the lakes and forests." It was also the _dénouement_ which led the Old and the New Worlds' fur companies, despite the heat of passion and their warmth of sentiment, to make a peace which saved both from impending destruction. It led, moreover, to the sealing up for half a century of Rupert's Land to all energetic projects and influx of population, and allowed Sir George Simpson to build up for the time being the empire of the buffalo, the beaver, and the fox, instead of developing a home of industry. Crises such as this develop character and draw out the powers of men who would otherwise waste their sweetness on the desert air. The shock of meeting of two such great bodies as the Hudson's Bay Company and the North-West Company enabled men to show courage, loyalty, honest indignation, decision of character, shrewdness, diplomatic skill, and great endurance. These are the elements of human character. It is ever worth while to examine the motives, features of action, and ends aimed at by men under the trying circumstances of such a conflict. At the risk of some repetition we give sketches of the lives of several of the leading persons concerned. THE EARL OF SELKIRK. [Illustration: LORD SELKIRK.]