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The Wanderer's return
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
steel engraving
13.5 cm by 11 cm (5 ¼ by 4 ⅜ inches), vignetted
October 1845
Charles Lever's The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago, Chapter XXXV, "The Wanderer's Return," facing p. 293.
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“Who is that?” cried the O'Donoghue, “who is standing yonder?” and they all turned their eyes towards the door.
“Why don't you speak?” continued the old man. “Have you any tidings from my son? — is it news of Mark you bring me?”
“Even so sir,” responded the other, as he slowly advanced into the strong light, his arms folded upon his breast, and his brow stern and contracted.
“Mark! — my boy! my child!” cried the old man, springing from his chair, and, with a strength that seemed at once to defy age and infirmity, rushed towards him, and threw his arms about him. “He's here — he's with us once more!” said he, in accents half choked by sobs — “my son! my hope! my pride!” — and while the old man poured forth these words of happiness, the young one stood pale, cold, and seemingly apathetic. His eyes bent on vacancy, and his features devoid of all expression of passion, he turned from Sir Archy, who grasped one hand, and looked at Kate, who held the other between hers, but in his gaze there was rather the look of one suddenly recalled to consciousness out of some long-fevered sleep, than the healthful aspect of waking life. [Chapter XXXV, "The Wanderer's Return," 293]
Mark now returns to the ancestral home after two months on the run. He looks poorly dressed and thoroughly disheveled, but has been able to avoid the government arrest warrant that Frederick Travers had warned him was imminent, for Lanty Lawler had betrayed him by giving the French correspondence to the authorities. As he enters the familiar parlour at Carrig-na-curra, Mark registers the presence of the perfidious Hemsworth seated beside Kate (left) who is playing an Irish harp. Sir Archy M'Nab (rear centre) and his balding father (right) delightedly welcome him, despite the infirmities of advanced age. Embarrassed by the situation, Hemsworth with a deferential bow exits. His plan to marry Kate is still secure, and he has driven a wedge between her and Frederick Travers. But he must somehow get Mark out of the way without the government's actually prosecuting him for treason.
Although Lever has already established that William Hemsworth is Sir Marmaduke Travers' Irish agent, and has intimated that Hemsworth intends to use some sort of financial slight of hand to take over the estates of the O'Donoghues and the Travers, we (and Kate) first make his closer acquaintance in Chapter XXIX, "First Impressions." Having just returned from Scotland, he joins the Travers for dinner in Dublin:
The picture she had drawn of him in her own mind was not a flattering one — composed of features and ingredients which represented all that was base, low-minded, and treacherous — a vulgar sycophant, and a merciless tyrant. What was her astonishment, almost her chagrin, to discover, that Hemsworth entered the room a gentleman-like person, of about five-and-forty, tall, and well-formed, with regular features, rather melancholy in their expression than otherwise, and with a voice singularly low, soft, and pleasing, his manner a mixture of well-bred ease, and that excessive deference so often seen in those who have passed a long portion of life about persons of rank superior to their own, but without the slightest trace, that she could discover, of any thing subservient. With all her disposition to be critical, she could find little fault with either his manner or his conversation, nor could she detect any appearance of affectation. [Chapter XXIX, "First Impressions,"237]
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago. With 26 engravings by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1845.
Lever, Charles. The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. In One Vol. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: May 11, 2010.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter VIII, "Heretic Among Tories, 1844-1845." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 128-145.
Sutherland, John A. "Lever, Charles." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 372-374.
Created 5 January 2024