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Cholmondeley discovering the body of Alexia in the Devlin Tower
George Cruikshank
June 1840
Steel-engraving
9 cm high by 9.2 cm wide, framed
Illustration for Book II, Ch. XI, of William Harrison Ainsworth's The Tower of London, p. 158.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Scarcely knowing whither to shape his course, and fully aware of the extent of the dungeons he should have to explore, Cholmondeley resolved to leave no cell unvisited, until he discovered the object of his search. For some time, he proceeded along a narrow arched passage, which brought him to a stone staircase, and descending it, his further progress was stopped by an iron door. Unlocking it, he entered another passage, on the right of which was a range of low cells, all of which he examined, but they were untenanted, except one, in which he found a man whom he recognized as one of the Duke of Northumberland’s followers. He did not, however, dare to liberate him, but with a few words of commiseration passed on.
Turning off on the left, he proceeded for some distance, until being convinced by the hollow sound of the floor that there were vaults beneath, he held his torch downwards, and presently discovered an iron ring in one of the stones. Raising it, he beheld a flight of steps, and descending them, found himself in a lower passage about two feet wide, and apparently of considerable length. Hastily tracking it, he gradually descended until he came to a level, where both the floor and ceiling were damp and humid. His torch now began to burn feebly, and threw a ghastly light upon the slimy walls and dripping roof.
While he was thus pursuing his way, a long and fearful shriek broke upon his ear, and thinking it might proceed from the captive Alexia, he hastened forward as quickly as the slippery path would allow him. It was evident, from the increasing humidity of the atmosphere, that he was approaching the river. As he advanced the cries grew louder, and he became aware, from the noise around, that legions of rats were fleeing before him. These loathsome animals were in such numbers, that Cholmondeley, half-fearing an attack from them, drew his sword.
After proceeding about fifty yards, the passage he was traversing terminated in a low wide vault, in the centre of which was a deep pit. From the bottom of this abyss the cries resounded, and hurrying to its edge, he held down the torch, and discovered, at the depth of some twenty feet, a miserable half-naked object up to his knees in water, and defending himself from hundreds of rats that were swarming around him. While he was considering how he could accomplish the poor wretch’s deliverance, who continued his shrieks more loudly than ever, asserting that the rats were devouring him, Cholmondeley perceived a ladder in a corner of the vault, and lowering it into the pit, the sides of which were perpendicular and flagged, instantly descended. . . . .
At the further end of the vault Cholmondeley discovered a short flight of steps, and mounting them unlocked a door, which admitted him to another narrow winding stone staircase. Ascending it, he presently came to a door on the left, shaped like the arched entrance in which it was placed. It was of strong oak, studded with nails, and secured by a couple of bolts.
Drawing back the fastenings, he unsheathed his sword, and pushing aside the door with the blade, raised his torch, and beheld a spectacle that Idled him with horror. At one side of the cell, which was about six feet long and three wide, and contrived in the thickness of the wall, upon a stone seat rested the dead body of a woman, reduced almost to a skeleton. The face was turned from the door, but rushing forward he instantly recognised its rigid features. On the wall close to where she lay, and evidently carved by her own hand, was traced her name — ALEXIA. [Chapter XI. — "How Cuthbert Cholmondeley Revisited the Stone Kitchen; and How He Went in Search of Cicely," p. 189-192]
Having stolen Nightgall's keys, Xit presents them to Cholmondeley, who then goes in search of Cicely, Mistress Potentia's adopted daughter, whom Nightgall has locked up in a dungeon. Xit and the young esquire leave the precincts of the Byward Tower and its Stone Kitchen in order to search the maze of dungeons beneath the Devereux Tower, which Ainsworth initially calls "The Devlin Tower," although the two are entirely different. After all those well-appointed towers suitable for lodging prisoners of state such as the Dudleys and Lady Jane Grey, Ainsworth introduces readers to a more lurid and Gothic aspect of the Tower of London, torture chambers, oubliettes, and dungeons. Ainsworth seems to have conflated the north-westerly Devereux and the south-easterly Devlin Tower, the tower furthest removed from the western fortifications at the eastern end of Tower Wharf, in order to produce a horrific scene in which Cholmondeley saves another of Northumberland's adherents.
When the young esquire opens a trapdoor and descends to the lowest level, he discovers the poor wretch, naked and up to his knees in moat-water, being devoured by rats. Cholmondeley rescues the prisoner from the vicious creatures, and sees to his comfort in an upper cell before returning to his search for Cicely.Like the mysterious Alexia, whom Cholmondeley met while imprisoned in Book One, Chapter VII, Cicely has been sequestered by the sadistic jailor, Lawrence Nightgall. Cruikshank's Alexia here is not the phantom she appears to be Cuthbert Cholmondeley surprised by the appearance of a mysterious figure in the dungeon adjoining the Devlin Tower. In her second appearance, the skeletal Alexiais white and inert in the foreground rather than an indistinct figure standing in the background. In other words, in this illustration Cruikshank confirms that Alexia is not a mere phantom, but a very real victim of Nightgall's cruelty. Her supernatural luminosity implies a connection between the former wraith haunting the galleries of the Devlin and the Bleeding Nun in Matthew G. Lewis's Gothic romance Ambrosio: or, The Monk (1796).
Ainsworth reveals that the Nightgall has held Alexia a virtual prisoner for nearly two decades in these gloomy mazes. Just recently, he has starved her todeath as he has transfered his sexual obsession to Alexia's daughter, Cicely. Nightgall has kidnapped and imprisoned the adolescent in order to prevent her forming a romantic relationship with the handsome Cuthbert Cholmondeley. As the novel's secondary heroine Cicely parallels Lewis's Gothic heroine Agnes in The Monk, just as Ainsworth's quasi-historical Cuthbert Cholmondeley parallels Lewis's romantic lead, Raymond. However, these correspondences are only approximate: the closest match between characters in the 1796 romance and the 1840 novel are Lawrence Nightgall, the sexually depraved jailor, and Ambrosio, the lustful monk.
In the tradition of "the explained supernatural" in order to evoke a suitably Gothic atmosphere and suspense, Ainsworth introduces the ghostly figure of Alexia, searching the dungeons and passageways beneath the Devlin Tower, in Book One. In Book Two, when Cholmondeley is searching for Cicely, whom Nightgall the jailer has abducted, he comes across what proves to be the corpse of Alexia, who is in fact Cicely's natural mother, imprisoned by Nightgall some seventeen years. Thus, just as Matthew G. Lewis did in The Monk, Ainsworth has explained away what was an apparent supernatural visitation with a somewhat far-fetched inset tale of lust and depravity. The most celebrated instance of "the explained supernatural" is the Bleeding Nun episode in Lewis's Gothic romance. Epitomising the sin of erotic desire, the nun is the ghost of the occupant of Lindenberg Castle who intervenes in the main plot of the novel when the hero, Raymond, attempts to elope with the heroine, Agnes, who has planned to disguise herself as the ghost. Unfortunately for the couple, the real Bleeding Nun substitutes herself for Agnes, whom the antagonist, Ambrosio, imprisons in the crypt of a monastery. Thus, Alexia, Cicely's mother, enacts a quasi-supernatural role, haunting the dungeons in which Nightgall has confined Cholmondeley, but has little significance in the plot; moreover, she is innocent of any suggestion of sexual impropriety, but is the object of the perverted Nightgall's sexual obsession, which he seeks to fulfill through abusing his powers of office to imprison the objects of his lust.
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Last modified 15 October 2017