The Arrest by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), November 1849. Steel-engraving. 9.7 cm high by 15.1 cm wide (3 ¾ by 6 inches), framed, full-page dark plate for Roland Cashel, Chapter LXXI, "Arrest of Linton," facing p. 616. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Realised: Linton finally arrested in Paris for Kennyfeck's Murder
“That's the man,” whispered a voice from behind the commissary; and, at the same instant, that functionary approached, and laying his hand on the other's shoulder, said, —
“I arrest you, sir, on the charge of murder.”
“Murder!” repeated Linton, with a sneer that he could not merge into a laugh. “This is a sorry jest, sir.”
“You will find it sad earnest!” said a deep voice.
Linton turned round, and straight in front of him stood Roland Cashel, who, with bent brows and compressed lips, seemed struggling to repress the passion that worked within him.
“I say, Frobisher, are you omitted in the indictment?” cried Linton, with a sickly attempt to laugh; “or has our buccaneering friend forgotten to stigmatize you for the folly of having known him?”
“He is in my custody,” said a gruff English voice, in reply to some observation of the commissary; and a short, stout-built man made a gesture to another in the crowd to advance. [Chapter LXXI, "The Arrest of Linton," pp. 616-617]
Commentary: The Numerous Climactic Coincidences Contribute to the Resolution
Conveniently, the morose Cashel just happens to be on a wharf under his apartment on the Île de la Cité in Paris when he witnesses two men quarrelling in a boat. Suddenly he realizes that the pair are the villains whom he has been seeking over the past three years since the Kennyfeck murder near Tubbermore: Tom Linton and Dan Keane. Their falling out quickly leads to Linton’s shooting Keane, and his dumping Keane's body in the Seine. But he is still alive! Cashel dives into the murky waters to rescue him, giving Keane a few precious hours of life in which he confesses his part in the murder back in Ireland, and incriminates Linton. Finally through the former gate-keeper's death-bed confession Cashel is able to exonerate himself, and bring the actual killer to justice. The scene in the ultimate illustration plays out at Don Rica's gaming establishment in Paris. Placed at the head of the climactic November 1849 serial instalment, the dark plate signals to Victorian readers the multiple triumphs of poetic justice.
At the centre of the composition in the opulent cassino salon is the arrogant Linton, being placed in cuffs. The Commissionaire de police had battered down the casino door, and apprehended Linton in the midst of challenging the Duc de Marsac to a duel over an apprehended insult. The moment that Linton identifies himself by name the plain-clothes leader of the uniformed gendarmes (rear left) arrests him for murder. Phiz does not depict the ruffled Linton trying to laugh off the indictment in front of the crowd of disheveled gamblers (right). Cashel is presumably the lone figure in the centre of the salon. The partially bald, bearded man in evening clothes (right) is Don Rica, about to be arrested for running an after-hours gaming establishment. His true identity Lever shortly reveals.
The remaining portion of Chapter LXXI and all of LXXII constitute the dénouement in which Cashel discovers that Maritaña has escaped by the window, and then goes bail for her father. He then bails Sir Charles Frobisher, too, and encounters in Mrs. Frobisher the now poverty-stricken Jemima Meek. In the final chapter, Lever reveals that "Don Rica" is in fact the Irish father of Mary Leicester. Keane dies in a Paris hospital, and Linton is transported to Limerick for the trial. At the British embassy in Paris, Cashel meets the new ambassador to Florence, none other than Lord Kilgoff, miraculously restored to health. He is also reunited here with Mat Corrigan and his granddaughter, Mary. To them he restores the title of their Irish estates, the royal pardon of King George the Third that Enriquez had stolen from Linton. Maritaña has been discovered sleeping in the woods outside Paris, and returned to her father's keeping. Rica (otherwise, Leicester) gives the hand of his older daughter, Mary, to Cashel. The whole party, accompanied by the kindly Dr. Tiernay, now departs for "hearty, generous, hospitable Ireland" (625). Surprisingly, Linton dies in transit, found dead in his cell in England.
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 31 January 2023