Passage Illustrated: Kate reunited with with Jack through the help of "Mr. Barry"

“Well,” said Martin, entering, “I have sent for another advocate to plead my cause. My daughter will tell you, sir, that she, at least, is not afraid to encounter the uncivilized glens beside the Orinoco. Come in, Kate. You tell me that you and Mr. Massingbred are old friends.”

Massingbred started as he heard the name, looked up, and there stood Kate before him, with her hand extended in welcome.

“Good heavens! what is this? Am I in a dream? Can this be real?” cried Jack, pressing his hands to his temples, and trembling from head to foot in the intensity of his anxiety.

“My father tells me of an invitation he has given you, Mr. Massingbred,” said she, smiling faintly at his embarrassment, “and asks me to repeat it; but I know far better than he does all that you would surrender by exile from the great world wherein you are destined to eminence. The great debater, the witty conversationalist, the smart reviewer, might prove but a sorry trapper, and even a bad shot! I have my scruples, then, about supporting a cause where my conscience does not go along with me.”

“My head on't, but he'll like the life well,” said Barry, half impatiently.

“Am I to think that you will not ask me to be your guest?” said Jack, in a whisper, only audible by Kate.

“I have not said so,” said she, in the same low tone. “Will you go further, Kate,” muttered he, in tremulous eagerness, “and say, 'Come'?”

“Yes!” said she. “Come!”

“I accept!” cried Jack, rushing over, and grasping Martin's hands between his own. “I'm ready, — this hour, this instant, if you like it.”

“We find the prisoner guilty, my Lords,” said Repton; “but we recommend him to mercy, as his manner on this occasion convinces us it is a first offence.” [Chapter LXVIII, "Towards the End," 624]

Commentary: A Surprise Resolution to Massingbred's Marriage Proposal

As in the text, the characters are the genial, elderly attorney Val Repton (seated), Kate Henderson (revealed as an illegitimate daughter of the house of Cro' Martin), Barry Martin (gesturing), and young adventurer Jack Massingbred, formally dressed. On the wall is a single, small-scale rendering of the main tower of Castle Cro' Martin. None of these points of identification would have been thoroughly apparent to the readers of the last double-number of the serial, which went on sale at the beginning of June 1856. And, in fact, the presence of the young lady would have been something of a puzzle since Mary Martin (whom Kate here resembles since she is Mary's half-sister) was dying of typhus after her nautical adventure to the Brannock Isles to retrieve Joan Landy.

In the previous chapters, Lever has established Barry Martin's superior claim to the Cro' Martin estate through the research and personal diligence of Val Repton. The baptismal record in the vellum-bound vestry-book, kept from the Anglican clergyman by Godfrey, has supported the contention that Barry was the elder son and heir. However, the generous-hearted older brother agreed to give up his claim as long as Godfrey were alive. Thus, the plot secret revealed has completely undone Merl's claim to the estate through acquiring the reversion as a result of Harry Martin's gambling debts. Ever generous, Barry has bought him out although by Godfrey Martin's death his claims became baseless. But one plot secret more remains to be uncovered.

Some two months after the tandem funerals of Mary and her uncle on the Cro’ Martin estate, Barry reveals to Kate Henderson and Val Repton her true identity as his own illegitimate daughter, born two years before he married and three before he became Mary’s father. He had sent remittances to Henderson, whose sister in Bruges raised her. But Barry had never intended that her education should have placed her in aristocratic households as a governess. She has welcomed him as her father, and renounced her stepfather. She is now about to return with her new-found father to the Savannahs of the New World. In this closing scene, Massingbred agrees to accompany them to the Orinocco  River's Llanos, the expansive grasslands stretching across northern South America and occupying western Venezuela and northeastern Colombia.

Bibliography

Lever, Charles. The Marins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.

Lever, Charles. The Marins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 28 February 2018.

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Created 17 October 2022