[“Tomlinson learns the faithful Michael Martin is alive”] — illustration for G. W. M. Reynolds’s “The Mysteries of London” by G. Stiff

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Tomlinson learns the faithful Michael Martin is alive

“Tomlinson learns Michael Martin is alive”

G. Stiff

c. 1843

Wood engraving

Source: The Hathi Trust version of G. W. M. Reynolds’s The Mysteries of London 1.337

The illustration depicts a passage in Chapter 109.

Click on image to enlarge it and see passage illustrated below.

The two men drew the corpse gently out of its coffin

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Passage illustrated

An old man, without a name, took up his abode in a by-street in Globe Town some months ago. He was taken ill, and, to all appearance, died. He was buried. A surgeon fancied him as a subject, and hired me and a friend of mine to have him up again. We resurrectionized him, and took him in a cart last night to the surgeon's house. He was conveyed into the dissecting-room, and stretched on the table. The doctor and I went into the surgery to settle the expenses; and, in the mean time, my friend was left alone with the stiff 'un. It seems that a neighbour, suspecting that the surgeon now and then got a subject for his experiments, saw the cart stop at the door, and immediately understood what was going on. He went into his garden, which joins the yard where the dissecting-house stands, and seeing a light in the window of the dissecting-house, he felt sure that his suspicions were well founded, although he could not see into the place, because there was a dark blind drawn down over the window. However, the neighbour was resolved to clear up his doubts; so he took up a brick-bat, and threw it as hard as he could against the window. The glass was broken, and the light extinguished. My friend, who was left alone with the stiff 'un, was somewhat startled at this occurrence; but how much more was he alarmed when he suddenly felt the body stretch out its hand and catch hold of one of his?"

"Then Michael Martin was not dead?" ejaculated Tomlinson, in a tone which expressed alike the tenderness of deep emotion and also the bitterness of disappointment; for, perhaps, all circumstances considered, the ex-banker would rather have heard a confirmation of the death, than an account of the resuscitation of his late clerk. — Chapter 109, “The Stock-Broker” [1.338]

Bibliography

Reynolds, George W. M. The Mysteries of London. vol 1. London: George Vickers, 1846. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Web. 6 October 2016.

Last modified 6 October 2016