"'The Howling Wind' alias Bagenal Daly captures 'Honest Tom'" — Phiz's fortieth and final serial engraving for Charles Lever's "The Knight of Gwynne" (July 1847)

"The Howling Wind" alias Bagenal Daly captures "Honest Tom"

Phiz

July 1847 (final) instalment: second illustration

Steel-engraving

13.6 cm by 11.7 cm (5 ¼ by 4 ⅝ inches), vignetted.

Charles Lever's The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union (July 1847), originally for Part 19/20, facing p. 619.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Bagenal Daly Apprehends the Embezzler, "Honest" Tom Gleeson

It would probably not interest our readers were we to dwell longer on Gleeson or his motives. That some vague intention existed of one day restoring to Darcy the release of his mortgage, is perhaps not unlikely. A latent spark of honour, long buried beneath the ashes of crime, often shines out brightly in the last hour of existence. There might be, too, a cherished project of vengeance against the man that tempted and destroyed him. Be it as it may, he guarded the document as though it had been his last hope; and when tracked, pursued, and overtaken near Fort Erie by a party of the Delawares, of whom the Howling Wind, alias Bagenal Daly, was chief, it was found stitched up in the breast of his waistcoat.

Our space does not permit us to dwell upon Bagenal Daly's adventures, though we may assure our readers that they were both wild and wonderful. One only regret darkened the happiness of his exploit. It was that he was compelled so soon to leave the pleasant society of the Red Skins, and the intellectual companionship of “Blue Fox” and “Hissing Lightning” . . . . [Chapter LXXV, "Conclusion," pp. 623-624]

Commentary: A Complicated Plot Involving Multiple Forgeries Revealed at Last

Only Paul Dempsey appears more often than the Satanic Bagenal Daly, who is the novel's most active and decisive character, completely eclipsing both the Knight of Gwynne (just five appearances) and the highly moral heroine, Helen Darcy (four appearances). Although the financial plot and the machinations surrounding the passage of the 1801 Act of Union principally involve Maurice Darcy, the titular character, Daly is far more active, and serves as the focal point for many of the novel's most effective scenes, including the capture of "Honest" Tom Gleeson and his presentation in the day-long courtroom scene in Chapter LXXIV, "The Last Struggle," that climaxes the bankruptcy plot. In the end, the whole case rests on Darcy's contention that the signatures on the deeds Dr. Hickman holds and on loans arranged for Lionel Darcy by Gleeson have all been forged.

The penultimate chapter thus tidies up the bankruptcy plot by a flashback to the apprehension of Tom Gleeson in Canada, and the sudden death of the instigator of the plot against the Darcys, Dr. Peter Hickman, at the winter assizes of Galway in 1802. The last-minute introduction of Daly and Gleeson in court caps a sensational day of legal wrangling in the crowded Court of Justice in the provincial capital as a hurricane rages without. The chapter's illustration, therefore, constitutes a picturesque flashback rather than a realisation of the resolution of the case in the courtroom. Bicknell has squared off against O'Halloran, the latter discomfited by the presence of his enemy Forester, now elevated to the peerage as the Earl of Wallincourt and sitting beside the judges on the bench.

Lever winds up the plot expeditiously as the survivors of a wrecked ship in Galway Bay burst into the courtroom: Daly, Sandy, and "Honest" Tom, captured by Daly in his indigenous persona of "Howling Wind" at Fort Erie in Upper Canada after Gleeson has been identified and pursued in the eastern United States. He has merely been the dupe and pawn of Dr. Hickman in an elaborate scheme of forgery, fraud, and misappropriation of properties dating back many years. Hickman had always threatened Gleeson with exposure and prison had he attempted to back out of their arrangement, and so, at an opportune moment, Gleeson had fled, and contrived his supposed suicide in order to disappear with funds embezzled by the malignant doctor. Nemesis is well served by the demise in the courtroom of the Machiavellian Hickman, and the restoration of Darcy's estates.

Other Images of Bagenal Daly, Adventurer in Canada and the United States

6. Sandy M'Grane expedites the doctor (facing p. 56) February 1846
9. Daly stirs up the Post-boy (facing p. 115) April 1846
10. Daly surveying the robber's Imp (facing p. 122) April 1846
11. Daly and his friends (facing p. 143) May 1846
12. Jemmy sends his compliments to the Alderman (facing p. 148) May 1846
19. Tate's tête-à-tête Interupted (facing p. 274) September 1846
20. Daly bestows a helmet on "Bully Dodd" (facing p. 286) September 1846
21. Daly visits Freney in Prison (facing p. 298) October 1846
28. "Mercy on us! The Leddies are coming!" (facing p. 402) January 1847

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.

Created 21 August 2023