The Sleeper by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 406. (December 1855). Steel-engraving. 9.9 cm high by 12 cm wide (3 ¾ by 4 ⅝inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, Chapter XXXIX, "How Rogues Agree!" [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Herman Merl begins his inspection of Galway for Harry Martin
Mr. Merl made no reply; but drawing a chair for his legs, and disposing his drapery gracefully around him, he closed his eyes, and before Maurice had replenished his glass, gave audible evidence of a sound sleep.
Now, worthy reader, we practise no deceptions with you; nor so far as we are able, do we allow others to do so. It is but fair, therefore, to tell you that Mr. Merl was not asleep, nor had he any tendency whatever to slumber about him. That astute gentleman, however, had detected that the port was, with the addition of a great fire, too much for him; he recognized in himself certain indications of confusion that implied wandering and uncertain faculties, and he resolved to arrest the progress of such symptoms by a little repose. He felt, in short, that if he had been engaged in play, that he should have at once “cut out,” and so he resolved to give himself the advantage of the prerogative which attaches to a tired traveller. There he lay, then, with closed eyes, — breathing heavily, — to all appearance sound asleep.
Maurice Scanlan, meanwhile, scanned the recumbent figure before him with the eye of a connoisseur. We have once before said that Mr. Scanlan's jockey experiences had marvellously aided his worldly craft, and that he scrutinized those with whom he came in contact through life, with all the shrewd acumen he would have bestowed upon a horse whose purchase he meditated. It was easy to see that the investigation puzzled him. Mr. Merl did not belong to any one category he had ever seen before. Maurice was acquainted with various ranks and conditions of men; but here was a new order, not referable to any known class. He opened Captain Martin's letter, which he carried in his pocket-book, and re-read it; but it was vague and uninstructive. He merely requested that “every attention might be paid to his friend Mr. Merl, who wanted to see something of the West, and know all about the condition of the people, and such like. He's up to everything, Master Maurice,” continued the writer, “and so just the man for you.” There was little to be gleaned from this source, and so he felt, as he folded and replaced the epistle in his pocket.
“What can he be,” thought Scanlan, “and what brings him down here?" [Chapter XXXIX, "How Rogues Agree!" pp. 402-403]
Commentary: Events since the July Revolution
The Martins, accompanied by Jack Massingbred, wounded at the barricades, and Captain Harry Martin, have escaped from France and are now recovering at Spa in Belgium. Lady Dorothea has reversed her decision to discharge her outspoken companion, Kate Henderson, for expressing Revolutionary sentiments at her Place Vendome reception, and she has received offers of marriage from both Harry and Jack. Meanwhile, the financier Herman Merl, whom Harry had despatched to Galway just prior to the Paris outbreak, arrives at the coastal resort of Kilkieran in Ireland, not only to assess the state of the Martins' lands, but also to ascertain whether the typhus and cholera epidemics are as severe as Mary Martin has stated in her recent letters to her uncle. At the "Osprey's Nest," are Merl and Scanlan. The former, as we know, has already backed Captain Harry Martin's gambling debts based on the book value of the Gallway estates. Other possibilities that Scanlan considers are whether this exotic outsider may be a Member of Parliament on fact-finding tour or even a suitor for Mary Martin. When Simmy Crow arrives, he correctly surmises that Merl is a Jewish money-man. But the little painter's news is of a wealthy Mr. Barry who has just arrived from abroad, and is now upstairs in the inn. Little do Simmy or Scanlan know that the wealthy "Englishman" is in fact Martin's brother and the father of Mary. She has, reports Simmy, recently been making the rounds of the cottiers' hovels, "nursing typhus fever and cholera" (406).
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
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Created 6 October 2022