Instalment-by-instalment Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters: Lever's "Tom Burke of 'Ours'" (May 1843 through August 1843)

May 1843 through August 1843: Instalments Four through Seven (Chapters XIII-XXXI)

In the second sequence of chapters in the two-volume historical novel, Tom escapes from the party of soldiers who had raided Ned Malone's cottage in search of De Meudon, but must flee the country after Darby the Blast inadvertently kills (or thinks he has killed) a British officer who has tried to apprehend Tom in Dublin, mistaking him for a French agent. The pivotal moment occurs when Tom tries to cover Bubbleton's losses at cards, and accidentally shows a French banknote from De Meudon's correspondence that Darby has just retrieved for him. Tom then enters the house in Stafford-street, a short walk from Dublin Castle. Tom offers Anthony Basset three hundred pounds from his grandfather's legacy of five hundred to burn the papers of indenture and set him free. Basset shrewdly notes that the legacy is only payable on Tom's attaining the age of majority. Should Basset accede to his request, Tom promises, he will leave Ireland immediately, and go to join the Army of the Republic in France.

Fourth Instalment, May 1843: Chapters XIII-XVIII

The rancorous Barton fails in his attempt to have under-age Tom thrown into Newgate as a rebel, not through Bubbleton's efforts to go bail for Tom, but rather through the papers of indenture that attorney Basset presents to Mr. Cooke at the Castle. And so, in Chapter XVII, "Mr. Basset's Dwelling," Tom finds himself under the roof of the ruthless lawyer last seen in Law and Physic in the Chamber of Death in Chapter I, "Myself" (February 1843) — and with "the man I most dreaded and disliked of all the world" (115) Tom has entered the house in Stafford-street, a short walk from Dublin Castle. Tom offers Anthony Basset three hundred pounds from his grandfather's legacy of five hundred to burn the papers of indenture and set him free. Basset shrewdly notes that the legacy is only payable on Tom's attaining the age of majority. Should Basset accede to his request, Tom promises, he will leave Ireland immediately, and go to join the Army of the Republic in France.

Fifth Instalment, June 1843: Chapters XIX-XXII

Concluding the transaction for four hundred pounds (to be drawn from Tom's legacy when he reaches majority), Basset gives Tom his money and indenture papers. After they shake hands on the bargain, Bubbleton whisks Tom back to his quarters at the George's-street Barracks. Although Lever has led readers to believe that Tom will sail for France immediately upon receiving the meagre portion of his inheritance, the next frame, Darby exchanges Compliments with a Soldier, reveals that Tom has at least one further adventure left with Darby The Blast in Ireland in Chapter XIX, "The Quarrel" (June 1843). Through the flashback Darby accounts for how he acquired De Meudon's papers on the high road back to Dublin, shooting a soldier after he has been attacked for possession of papers that Barton had dropped earlier.

Providentially, then, Darby has in his possession the very papers of De Meudon that Tom needs if he is to enter the military academy, the Ecole Polytechnique, that his French friend had recommended. The sudden arrival of Bubbleton and his fellow officers cuts Darby's narrative short, and forces him to resume his disguise as old Kitty Cole, the Dublin street-singer. However, when Tom attempts to cover Bubbleton's losses at cards with a French banknote from De Meudon's papers, Darby has to come to rescue again, killing Tom's assailant and spiriting him out of Ireland on a fishing boat bound for France. A year after Darby helped to smuggle Tom out of Ireland, the adolescent is a student at the École Militaire (otherwise, the Polytechnique), thanks to De Meudon's letters of recommendation.

Sixth Instalment, July 1843: Chapters XXIII-XXII

A year after Darby helped to smuggle Tom out of Ireland on a fishing-boat bound for France after escaping from the regimental barracks in Dublin, the adolescent is a student at the École Militaire (otherwise, the Polytechnique), thanks to De Meudon's letters of recommendation. All the elements in the picture have their exact counterpart in the letterpress, including the Principal of the school (the chef d'école, centre), the Lanciers rouges and a wing of the school in the rear, the two "elegantly dressed" ladies who have accompanied the First Consul and are concerned about Tom after his leading the mock-storming of the student fortress, and, of course, the thoughtful General Bonaparte himself. He and Tom effectively occupy the centre of the composition, and are the focal characters. Underneath the recumbent Tom is the flagstaff that he has just snatched from the top of the mock-fortress (not depicted), signifying his having led his party to victory. Noticing that Tom has torn his corporal's uniform in the fray, General Bonaparte questions the headmaster, Monsieur Legrange, about the student's character and performance. Receiving a highly positive review, Bonaparte orders that Tom be given his brevet, including his officer's epaulettes and the rank of officer Cadet: "I was no longer a mere schoolboy" (159). Thus, the alternate title of this steel-engraving is C'était bien fait, mon enfant.

With a promotion, Tom finds himself in the exquisite shop of Monsieur Crillac in the Place Vendome, hoping to replace his cadet's uniform. Lever indicates that a dozen fashionable young men are lounging indolently about the Boulevard showroom. In the plate, ten are customers; the tailor himself is sipping sweetened water, one elbow on the mantlepiece (upper left), and Tom has just entered the shop, right. Immediately that he makes his intention known, Tom is insulted as a Polytechnique "Pompier" by an expert duellist, De Beauvais (possibly the tall swell with the dog at his feet, centre). Without hesitation the hot-headed Tom accepts the officer's challenge, determined to pay the swaggerer back for his insolence. Only once outside does Tom reflect that his embroiling himself in a duel on the first day of his promotion will not sit well with the First Consul. In all likelihood, the date is August 1802, when Napoleon redrew the constitution, and made himself or "had just been chosen Consul for life" (162). Lever's references early in the chapter to various Napoleonic victories, particularly "the Pyramids — Mount Tabor" (152), suggest that the action occurs in the year 1801, the third year in which Napoleon was First Consul: the battle at the Bridge of Lodi occurred on 10 May 1796 in Italy, and that of Mount Tabor was fought on 16 April 1799 in Syria.

Seventh Instalment, August 1843: Chapters XXIII-XXXI, "The Rose of Provence"

Phiz's illustrations for the summer 1843 instalments emphasize Tom's infatuation with "The Rose of Provence," who turns out to be De Meudon's sister. Left: The Rose of Provence (July 1843). Centre: The Lady of the Lake (August 1843). Right: The Chouans in Chapter XXXI, "The 'Chateau'" (August 1843).

Ever since he had his first glimpse of Marie De Rochford, The Rose of Provence, Madame Bonaparte's confidant, on the parade ground of the Polytechnique in the scene which Phiz realizes as Tom distinguishes himself in Chapter XXI, "The 'École Militaire'," he has been obsessed by her stunning beauty and frank personality. How fortunate, then, that she turns out to be the cousin of his new best friend, the aristocratic Henri de Beauvaise, who is quite prepared to arrange a rendezvous with her in "the green alleys of Versailles" (187). The British ambassador has just demanded his passports and fled Paris after the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens and the sudden prospect of a renewal of hostilities in what historians will now call "The Napoleonic Wars" rather than "The Revolutionary Wars." Napoleon now orders a massive military buildup at Bolougne on the English Channel in preparation for an invasion of Great Britain.

Whereas all the other Hussar regiments have been reassigned to the coming offensive with Great Britain, by some odd turn of events (which Tom ascribes to Henri De Beauvaise's influence) his own squadron, the huitiéme, has been ordered to Versailles, "to execute le service des dépéches from St. Cloud and Versailles to Paris." And so, at the conclusion of Chapter XXVII, "The March to Versailles," Tom finds himself quartered in a building adjoining the Palace of Versailles, where he discovers a sumptuous supper awaiting him. In Chapter XXVIII, "The Park of Versailles," it immediately becomes apparent that his unit's mission is not despatches, but guarding the palace and its grounds, and the court of Madame Bonaparte and her hordes of guests, but Tom for three weeks himself remains a social isolate, uninvited to any soirées and other social functions.

From his friend the Abbé D’Ervan (who, it is later revealed, is the notorious police spy Mehée de la Touche) Tom learns that Henri De Beauvaise had asked for the permission of Madame Bonaparte to marry his beautiful cousin, Marie de Meudon, nicknamed "The Rose of Provence." However, since the Bonapartes regard the youth from a prominent Bourbonist family as a “chouan” (Breton slang for an insurrectionist), they refuse. Also from the Abbé Tom learns that the Rose of Provence is in fact Charles de Meudon’s sister, and that De Beavaise is in love with her: Marie de Rochford (to avoid using her proscribed, Bourbonist last name) even looks the female counterpart of her dead brother, and yet Tom had failed until now to detect the resemblance. As the officer on duty, Tom makes his rounds between the pickets and deliberately approaches a dark alley in the trees near the Trianon that leads to a little lake, the setting for his meeting with “Mademoiselle de Meudon.” When he encounters her on her favourite walk, Tom addresses her by her proscribed surname, and reveals his relationship with her brother. She, of course, immediately wants to know about the circumstances of her brother's death. She had received letters from Charles describing the Irish "youth that loved him so tenderly" (210) — and Tom is that very youth. Suddenly she experiences a fit as she believes that she has just seen the spirit of her dead brother reflected in the water.

Further Information

Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1844. Illustrated by H. K. Browne. Rpt. London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. Serialised February 1843 through September 1844 in twenty parts. 2 vols.

Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vols. I and II. In two volumes. Dublin: William Curry, 1844, and London: Chapman and Hall, 1865, Rpt. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 27 February 2018.

Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939.

Sutherland, John. "Tom Burke of "Ours"." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989. P. 632.

Created 30 October 2023

Last updated 6 December 2023

Instalment-by-instalment Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters: Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours" (May through August 1843)