The Suspicion by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), September 1849. Steel-engraving. 9.1 cm high by 12.5 cm wide (3 ½ by 4 and 15/16 inches), framed, full-page dark plate for Roland Cashel, Chapter LXII, "Murder of Mr. Kennyfeck — Cashel Detained on Suspicion," facing p. 526. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Without Alibi, Cashel a Person of Interest in Kennyfeck's Murder
“We want you, Mr. Cashel,” said the judge, in an accent which all the instincts of his habit had not rendered free from a slight tremor.
The door was immediately thrown wide, and Roland stood before them. He had not changed his dress since his arrival, and his torn sleeve and blood-stained trousers at once caught every eye that was fixed upon him. The disorder, too, was not confined to his own haggard look; the room itself was littered with papers and letters, with clothes strewn carelessly in every direction; and conspicuously amid all, an open pistol-case was seen, from which one of the weapons was missing. A mass of charred paper lay within the fender, and a great heap of paper lay, as it were, ready for burning, beside the hearth. There was full time for those who stood there to notice all these particulars, since neither spoke, but each gazed on the other in terrible uncertainty. Cashel was the first to break the silence.
“Well, sirs,” said he, in a voice that only an effort made calm, “are my friends so very impatient at my absence that they come to seek me in my dressing-room?”
“The dreadful event that has just occurred, sir,” said the judge, “makes apology for our intrusion unnecessary. We are here from duty, Mr. Cashel, not inclination, still less caprice.”
The solemnity of manner in which he spoke, and the grave faces around him on every side, seemed to apprise Roland that bad tidings awaited him, and he looked eagerly to each for an explanation. At length, as none spoke, he said, —
“Will no one vouchsafe to put an end to this mystification? What, I pray, is this event that has happened?”
“Mr. Kennyfeck has been murdered,” said the judge.
Roland staggered backwards, and grasped a chair for support. “When? — How? — Where?” said he, in a low voice, every accent of which trembled. [Chapter LXII, "Murder of Mr. Kennyfeck — Cashel Detained on Suspicion," pp. 525-526]
Commentary: Cashel Cannot Account for his Whereabouts
Lever telegraphs Cashel's innocence by his immediate physical response to the terrible news, but his disheveled, blood-stained appearance undermines his credibility. He had, the reader recalls, damaged his clothing as he burst through the window of his upper storey room to confront Linton, rummaging through his papers. He looks as if he has been in a fight, and cannot account for his whereabouts after leaving his business meeting with his lawyer at the nearby town of Drumcoolaghan. The reader suspects that, in the twilight, the suborned gate-keeper, the vindictive Dan Keane, has mistaken the well-dressed Kennyfeck for his intended victim, Cashel himself. But another culprit comes to mind: Linton himself. Kennyfeck has been shot on the road to Tubbermore:
. . . his dead body was discovered in the Gap of Ennismore, and that a pistol-shot had penetrated his brain.” Sir Andrew grasped the weapon more tightly as these words were uttered. [526]
Although Keane's weapon of choice is a gamekeeper's shotgun, the reader recalls that Linton in The Temptation gave him a gentleman's weapon, a finely crafted, "high tech" percussion cap pistol, which now ironically makes Cashel a suspect. In fact, by sheer coincidence, Sir Andrew recognizes the murder weapon as Cashel's:
“Why, this pistol is Mr. Cashel's!” exclaimed Sir Andrew, examining the stock closely; “I know it perfectly — I have fired with it myself a hundred times.” [Chapter LXII, 523]
Apparently, by a masterstroke of planning, Linton had given Keane Cashel's own firearm with which to murder Cashel. He has probably even used Cashel's boots to check out the location, since a bootmark matching Cashel's distinctive, high-heeled pair has been discovered at the site. Linton now protests, cunningly, that the weapon couldn't possibly be his friend's. Whereas Sir Andrew, centre, holding the pistol, is no longer in costume, three of the arresting party are recognizable from the previous Phiz plate, The Masquerade.
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 22 January 2023