"Cut and Run." — Phiz's thirty-fourth engraving for Charles Lever's "Tom Burke of 'Ours'," Chapter LXIX, "A Fragment of The Maître d'Armes' Experiences" (May 1844)

Cut and Run (facing p. 143 in vol. 2 of the 1844 edition, p. 189 in vol. 2 of the 1865 edition), horizontally-mounted, 8.9 cm high by 14.7 cm wide, (3 ⅜ by 5 ¾ inches), vignetted steel illustration for Charles Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours,", Chapter LXIX, "A Fragment of The Maître d'Armes' Experiences" (May 1844), in the William Curry, Jun. two-volume edition (Dublin, 1844); Chapter XXV in the second volume of the Chapman and Hall edition (London, 1869). [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]

Passage Illustrated: The Charge of the Mameluke

“This was the signal for the Mameluke charge; and down they came. Sacristi! how the infidels rode us down! Over and over our fellows rolled, men and horses together, while they slashed with their keen cimeters on every side; few needed a second cut, I warrant you.

“By some good fortune, my beast kept his legs in the mêlée, and, with even better luck, got so frightened that he started off, and struck out in full gallop after the general, who, about two hundred paces in front of me, was dashing along, pursued by a Mameluke, with a cimeter held over his head. The Turk's horse, however, was wounded, and could not gain even on the tired animal before him, while mine was at every stride overtaking him.

“The Mameluke, hearing the clatter behind, turned his head. I seized the moment, and discharged my only remaining pistol at him, — alas! without effect. With a wild war-cry the fellow swerved round and came down upon me, intending to take my horse in flank, and hurl me over. [Chapter LXIX, "A Fragment of The Maître d'Armes' Experiences," pp. 142-143 in the 1844 edition, Chapter XXV, pp. 188-189 in the 1865 edition]

Commentary: The Maître d'Armes' Egyptian Adventure, An Interpolated Tale

One of Lever's tricks in filling out a lengthy serialisation was to insert first-person accounts and anecdotes not directly associated with either the protagonist or the main plot of the novel. This fragmentary account of the Egyptian campaign by the Maitre d'Armes is such an interpolated tale, a reminiscence of his youthful soldiering.

In Chapter LXVIII, "Jena and Auerstadt," Tom loses his way in the darkness, and finds himself among the Voltigeurs of the Faubourg St. Antoine led by his old duelling adversary Maître François on the morning of the Battle of Jena. His description of manoeuvre and counter manoeuvre is detailed until a Prussian hussar gives him a head wound and another cuts open his shoulder as he retreats. Tom goes forward to Weimar in a wagonload of moderately wounded, watching the Prussians routed. Within a week he has recovered, and prepares to rejoin his hussar regiment, giving up the foraging cap for the chako. After his recovery, Tom finds himself listening to the conversation around a bivouac fire, and hears the tale of the Maître d'Armes François' youthful Egyptian adventure.

On 21 July 1798, Napoleon's forces captured captured Cairo, Egypt, at the Battle of Pyramids through the innovation of the division square. Up to this point in the history of the Ottoman caliphate, the Mamluks had achieved spectacular success diplomatically and militarily. Subsequently, Napoleon formed his own Imperial Guard of the Mamelukes in 1804, with French officers commanding mounted troopers from the eastern Mediterranean. Each trooper was armed with a brace of pistols, a curved sabre (such as that depicted here), a dagger, and a mace; eventually Napoleon armed the unit with a special carbine, a modified blunderbuss. The Turkish warrior in Phiz's illustration is armed only with a curved sabre, doubtless of Damascus steel. The North African setting is implied in the palm tree, rear right; in the background, mounted Mamelukes are fighting French cavalry. In the account of the Maître d'Armes the Islamic troops who have been garrisoned at a ruined temple have the French outnumbered fifty to twenty on the desert sands.

Further Information

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

Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'" Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.

Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1844. Illustrated by H. K. Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1869. Serialised February 1843 through September 1844. 2 vols.

Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 24 February 2021.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Four: "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 86-112.

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

_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.

Created 21 November 2023