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Uncaptioned headnote vignette on the first page of eighteenth instalment (Chapters 41-42)
John McLenan
1861
Wood engraving
10.5 cm. by 6 cm.
Bulwer-Lytton's A Strange Story
Harper's Weekly 5 (7 December 1861): 782.
Scanned image and commentary by Philip V. Allingham.
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Thus, hours rolled on hours, till, I think, on the third day from that night in which I had last beheld the mysterious Shadow, my door was hastily thrown open, a confused crowd presented itself at the threshold, — the governor of the prison, the police superintendent, Mr. Stanton, and other familiar faces shut out from me since my imprisonment. I knew at the first glance that I was no longer an outlaw beyond the pale of human friendship. And proudly, sternly, as I had supported myself hitherto in solitude and suspense, when I felt warm hands clasping mine, heard joyous voices proffering congratulations, saw in the eyes of all that my innocence had been cleared, the revulsion of emotion was too strong for me, — the room reeled on my sight, I fainted. [Chapter XLI, page 782]
Despite Fenwick's being convinced that Margrave is somehow behind the trumped up "evidence" of the bloody casket and knife found in the doctor's cabinet, an official from a nearby asylum for the mentally deranged bears witness that the public-spirited informant against Fenwick is in fact an escaped homicidal maniac, and that he is the one responsible for Sir Philip Derval's murder. The supposed witness against Fenwick was observed by a maid exiting from the doctor's window. And Allen is completely vindicated when the madman confesses his guilt, although he assigns some blame to a malignant spirit who had directed him to commit the murder: "he had been guided to the murder and to all the subsequent proceedings by the luminous shadow of the beautiful youth — the Scin-Laea" (p. 124 in the Collier edn.). With the intervention of the Mayor of L — (one of Fenwick's chief supporters locally) and the joy of the general populace, Dr. Allen Fenwick is now released from his prison cell.
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 21 December 1861.
Bulwer Lytton, Edward (Lord Lytton). A Strange Story. The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton, Vol. VII. New York: P. F. Collier, n. d., pp. 7-242.
Created 21 November 2007 Last modified 6 July 2026