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Mark makes a dash at the Soldiers
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
steel engraving
13.3 cm by 11.5 cm (5 ¼ by 4 ½ inches), vignetted
November 1845
Charles Lever's The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago, Chapter LIX, "The Glen and the Bay," facing p. 394.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Without the slightest noise Mark dismounted, and, ungirthing his saddle, re-adjusted and fastened it further back. He then looked carefully to his bridle, to see all was safe there, and loosened the curb, to give the horse free play of his head. This done, and with his cap pressed firmly down upon his brow, he sprang into his saddle once more.
The bright blaze enabled him to see the party in front, and, while he himself escaped all observation, to devise his plans at leisure. He advanced, therefore, at a slow walk, keeping the horse's feet in the deep ground, where no noise was made. He counted seven figures around the fire, and two as sentinels, and suspected at once that the whole party was not there. Still there was no other chance. To attempt the mountain would delay him a day at least, and a day now was a life-time. Creeping noiselessly forward, he came within a few yards of the outposts, and could distinctly hear the voices as they talked together. He halted for a second or two, and looked back down the glen. It was an involuntary action, for even had all not been dark around him, his home, to which he wished to bid a last adieu, was out of sight.
A cannon-shot rung out at the instant, and, taking it for a signal, Mark reined in his horse sharply, and then, dashing the spurs to his sides, made him plunge madly forward, and, with the bound, shot through the space between the two sentinels, each of whom presented, but feared to fire, lest he should injure his comrade.
“Come on — follow me!” cried Mark, waving his hand as if encouraging others on, and the action turned every look down the glen, in the direction from whence he came, and whence now came a wild, shrill yell, the most savage and appalling.
“Fire! — down with him! — fire!” shouted the soldiers to one another, as Mark, leaning flat on his horse's main, rode on; and the balls whistled quick, above and around, but not one struck him. [Chapter LIX, "The Glen and the Bay," pp. 394-395]
Wearing the uniform of an officer in the French grenadiers and mounted on Hemsworth's horse, Mark O'Donoghue must get past a party of British dragoons to join forces with French expeditionary force landing in Bantry Bay. Because Sam Wylie, Hemsworth's underling, arrested the wrong O'Donoghue brother the night before, Mark is still very much an active agent in the staging of the rebellion and the French landing. Although the picture does not clarify the time of the action, it is past eleven o'clock in the evening when Captain Travers and his regiment occupy the pass between Carrig-na-curra and the bay. As he approaches the bay the intensity of the hurricane increases, and Mark hears the French ships firing their canon. However, rather than preparing for landing their troops, the enemy fleet is leaving its anchorage because the glen is full of British dragoons. The gesticulating figure to the right is intended to be Terry, the wild boy of the glens, waving his cap as he bounds forward, encouraging Mark's followers to charge. Terry is felled by a sabre blow, and Mark's horse is shot out from under him. By a miraculous reversal, Mark is not taken prisoner, but is rescued by Captain Travers, who gives Mark his own mount so that he can reach the last of the French ships in time to make his escape to the French Republic, where he will serve with distinction before he loses an arm — presumably at Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
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 10 January 2024