Picturesque but not Pleasant by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), July 1849. Steel-engraving. 9.3 cm high by 15.3 cm wide (3 ⅝ by 6 inches), framed, full-page dark plate for Roland Cashel, Chapter LIX, "Giovanni Unmasked," facing p. 492. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Italian "Giovanni" turns out to be the Columbian, Enriquez
There was nothing, then, for it but to advance; and he continued to do so, calmly and warily, till about twenty paces from the rock where the other sat, still and immovable. Then it was that, dropping on one knee, the stranger threw back a cloak that he wore, and took a deliberate aim at him.
The steady precision of the attitude was enough to show Cashel that the man was well versed in the use of firearms. The distance was short, also, and the chance of escape consequently, the very smallest imaginable. Roland halted, and crossing his arms upon his breast, stood to receive the fire exactly as he would have done in a duel. The other never moved; his dark eye glanced along the barrel without blinking, and his iron grasp held the weapon still pointed at Cashel's heart.
“Fire!” cried Roland, with the loud utterance he would have used in giving the word of command; and scarcely was it spoken when the rifle was flung to the earth, and, springing to his feet, a tall and muscular man advanced with an outstretched hand to meet him. [Chapter LIX, "Giovanni Unmasked," 493]
Commentary: Linton's Plot begins to Unravel
Instead of an aggrieved Dan Keane out for revenge, the solitary walker encounters his Columbian friend Enriquez, released by the British Navy on charges of piracy. After his business appointment with the financier Hoare to which he and his lawyer, Kennyfeck, have gone by carriage earlier, as afternoon declines to evening Cashel elects to take the bridal path rather than the carriage-road through the mountains back to Tubbermore from the town of Drumcoolaghan. Phiz brilliantly suggests the alpine backdrop devoid of vegetation as Cashel confronts on stage, as it were, the lone rifleman, "Giovanni," who proves to be none other than his old colleague. Thus, Lever and Phiz set us up for a murder (of the gullible Dan Keane, or of Cashel himself) that does not occur at this point. And, in place of a murder, Lever gives us a double unmasking, not only of Linton's confidant and hired thug, the sinister Italian, Giovanni, but of the scheming Linton himself. Enriquez reveals every aspect of Linton's plan, and returns to his friend's safe keeping the two documents Linton had purloined: a forged deed of sale for Tubberbeg (on which "Giovanni," impersonating Cashel, had forged Cashel's signature) and "another document of apparently far greater value" (496), probably the bond of King George the Third which is the lynchpin of Linton's cunning scheme to murder Cashel and acquire both his estates and the woman he loves.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Lever, Charles. Roland Cashel. With 39 illustrations and engraved title-vignette by Phiz. London: Chapman & Hall, 1850.
Lever, Charles. Roland Cashel. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vols. I and II. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 19 August 2010.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Seven: "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and a Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 298-316.
Created 20 January 2023