The Shadow of the Sword

# Catalog Note

The Shadow of the Sword, a novel by Robert Buchanan (Montreal: Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Company, 1877), is a historical romance spanning forty-five chapters. The narrative opens with a poetic proem invoking religious and political allegory—contrasting the dormant Christ with the rise of "Imperial Cain" (Napoleon)—before shifting to a domestic scene on the Breton coast where the young peasant girl Marcelle watches her lover Rohan collect seabirds' eggs from a cliff face. The chapter structure progresses through titled sequences: "Rohan and Marcelle," "Rohan's Cathedral," military episodes involving "Corporal Derval," scenes titled "Rachel, mourning for her children," conscription narratives, and later sections dealing with cave encounters, siege, hunger, and warfare. The table of contents suggests a plot moving from idyllic Breton life toward conflict, involving caves, mysterious discoveries, battle scenes, and references to Bonaparte and "Sic Semper Tyrannis," indicating a Napoleonic War narrative incorporating both personal romance and historical upheaval.