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Passage Illustrated: More than the Players are "deeply interested in the game"

In a few moments after, they had drawn the little marquetrie table close to the fire, and were deeply interested in the game.

At first, each party played with a seeming attention, which certainly imposed on Herbert, who sat eagerly watching the progress of the game. Frederick Travers was, however, far more occupied in observing his antagonist than in the disposition of his rooks and pawns. While she, soon perceiving his inattention, half suspected that he did not deem her an enemy worth exerting his skill upon, and thus, partly in pique, she bestowed more watchfulness than at first.

“So, Mademoiselle,” cried Travers at length, recurring to his game, “I perceive you have only permitted me to advance thus far, to cut off my retreat for ever. How am I to save myself now?”

“It's hard to say, Sir Captain. It's the old tactique of Celts and Saxons on both sides; you would advance into the heart of the enemy's country, and as, unhappily, the men in ivory are truer than the natives were here, and won't take bribes to fight against their fellows, you must e'en stand or fall by your own deservings.”

“Come, then, the bold policy for ever. Check.” [Chapter XIX, "A Diplomatist Defeated," 159]

Commentary: Another New Character Introduced — former French nun Kate O'Donoghue

With the French revolutionaries' recent conquest of the Low Countries has come the dissolution of convents and monasteries there. Thus, Sir Archy, the O'Donoghue, and Mark now receive an expected visitor, the charming and beautiful cousin Kate O'Donoghue, until recently a nun. In the chess-playing scene we recognise Captain Frederick Travers from his uniform as introduced in the previous illustration, Frederick & Mark, but this is Kate's initial appearance in the narrative-pictorial sequence, although Lever has already introduced her in Chapter XVII. Oddly enough, Frederick and Kate have already met as they were fellow passengers on the Bristol packet.

Just as in the previous illustration, Phiz appears to be capturing a moment in conversation, but here the boy in the easy-chair seeems to be making an observation, too. Only a moment before, Mark had been present, but Herbert's suggesting that his cousin challenge the handsome soldier to a game of chess apparently provokes Mark's sudden departure. What Herbert must be interjecting is "No, no, cousin Kate; continue, and you will win it" in response to Frederick's playful suggestion that they call the game a draw.

The visual continuity of the scene relies upon both Frederick Travers' uniform and the furnishings of the O'Donoghue's ground-floor chamber: the armour, family portraits, and screen which we have already seen in A Fireside Group in Chapter III and Sir Archy in a Dilemma in Chapter XII. In terms of the dual romance plot structure, Kate completes the familiar Lever pattern of two contrasting young men (here, Mark and Frederick) and two attractive, intelligent young women (Kate and Sybella).

Bibliography

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.

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Created 31 December 2023