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Passage Illustrated: The robber Freney collars an Eavesdropper

Just as Freney had got thus far, he drew his legs up close beneath him, sunk down his head as if into his neck, and with a spring, such as a tiger might have given, cleared the space between himself and the door, and rolled over on the floor, with the trembling figure of Linwood under him. So terribly sudden was the leap, that Miss Daly and Bicknell scarcely saw the bound ere they beheld him with one hand upon the victim's throat, while with the other he drew forth a clasp-knife, and opened the blade with his teeth.

“Keep back, keep back!” said Freney, as Bicknell drew nigh; and the words came thick and guttural, like the deep growl of a mastiff.

“Who are you, and what brings you here?” said Freney, as, setting his knee on the other's chest, he relinquished the grasp by which he had almost choked him. [Chapter LXVIII, "A Lesson for Eaves-Dropping," 566]

Commentary: Reverting to Freney's search for Tom Gleeson

This scene is very much a companion to the previous one in this same serial number, Mr. Dempsey in My Lady's Boudoir (facing p. 557). The Netherbys are determined to prevent Forester from going to Ireland, for they strongly suspect that he intends to marry Helen Darcy, of whose mother Lady Netherby remains inveterately jealous. However, Lord Wallincourt's brain fever prevents his taking the packet at Bangor, so that he must send his servant, Linwood, to Dublin instead to deliver Lord Castlereagh's despatches to Bicknell, the Darcys' attorney. Linwood, accompanied by Bicknell's servant, goes to the run-down house in Stafford Street in search of the attorney. Directed upstairs by a ragged urchin at the door, Linwood enters a low-ceilinged apartment in decay, and notices an open interior door. When the occupants of the adjoining room do not respond to Linwood's announcing himself, he ventures to listen at the open door of the inner apartment. This, then, is the eavesdropping situation in which Linwood finds himself. The lady in the shawl and the little man in a powdered wig and cravat beside the lady's chair we do not recognize, but the "thick-set, powerful man, in a jockey-cut coat and top-boots" (564) and carrying a horsewhip is almost certainly the notorious robber, Jack Feney, in his signature green coat. The conversation concerns Garret, Tom Gleeson's butler, for whom Freney has been searching on behalf of Bagenal Daly. The thin-faced woman whom he is addressing is Miss Daly, and the small, well-dressed professional man is Bicknell, acting for the Darcys in their suits against the Hickmans over the ownership of Gwynne Abbey.

What Linwood overhears are the true circumstances of the fire at Newgate, which Freney's "imp," Jemmy, set in order to help his mentor break out. Freney swears Linwood to secrecy once he establishes his identity and his reason for seeking out Bicknell. Learning that Lord Wallincourt (Forester) has fallen seriously ill in Bangor, Miss Daly determines to accompany Linwood to assist in his recovery in the Northern Irish coastal village on the Irish Sea. Meanwhile, Bicknell will see that the documents arrive at The Corvy.

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. The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union. London: Chapman and Hall, serialised January 1846 through July 1847.

Lever, Charles. The Knight of Gwynne. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 28 February 2018.

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. Chapter IX, "Nomadic Patriarch, 1845-1847." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 146-164.

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

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Created 17 August 2023