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They then took off their boots, and crept stealthily up stairs, treading upon the point of their toes so cautiously, that not a board creaked beneath their weight. Pausing at each door on the landing, Jack placed his ear to the keyhole, and listened intently. Having ascertained by the breathing which room Thames occupied, he speedily contrived to fasten him in. He then tried the door of Mr. Wood's bed-chamber — it was locked, with the key left in it. This occasioned a little delay; but Jack, whose skill as a workman in the particular line he had chosen was unequalled, and who laughed at difficulties, speedily cut out a panel by means of a centre-bit and knife, took the key from the other side, and unlocked the door. Covering his face with a crape mask, and taking the candle from his associate, Jack entered the room; and, pistol in hand, stepped up to the bed, and approached the light to the eyes of the sleepers. The loud noise proceeding from the couch proved that their slumbers were deep and real; and unconscious of the danger in which she stood, Mrs. Wood turned over to obtain a more comfortable position. During this movement, Jack grasped the barrel of his pistol, held in his breath, and motioned to Blueskin, who bared a long knife, to keep still. The momentary alarm over, he threw a piece of-wash leather over a bureau, so as to deaden the sound, and instantly broke it open with a small crow-bar. While he was filling his pockets with golden coin from this store, Blueskin had pulled the plate-chest from under the bed, and having forced it open, began filling a canvass bag with its contents, — silver coffee-pots, chocolate-dishes, waiters trays, tankards, goblets, and candlesticks. It might be supposed that these articles, when thrust together into the bag, would have jingled; but these skilful practitioners managed matters so well that no noise was made. After rifling the room of everything portable, including some of Mrs. Wood's ornaments and wearing apparel, they prepared to depart. Jack then intimated his intention of visiting Winifred's chamber, in which several articles of value were known to be kept; but as, notwithstanding his reckless character, he still retained a feeling of respect for the object of his boyish affections, he would not suffer Blueskin to accompany him, so he commanded him to keep watch over the sleepers — strictly enjoining him, however, to do them no injury. Again having recourse to the centre-bit, — for Winifred's door was locked, — Jack had nearly cut out a panel, when a sudden outcry was raised in the carpenter's chamber. The next moment, a struggle was heard, and Blueskin appeared at the door, followed by Mrs. Wood.

Jack instandly extinguished the light, and called to his comrade to come after him. — "Epoch the Third, 1724. The Prison-Breaker," Chapter 2, "The Burglary at Dollis Hill,"​p. 147-149.

Commentary

The impending murder of Mrs. Wood is telegraphed by the sinister atmosphere in the left-hand side of the illustration and by the drawn weapons, the dagger and pistol — and Cruikshank has added lighting above the bed to enhance in Manachaean dichotomy between the robbers and their sleeping victims.

Although John Forster derided the novel as rubbish — and poorly constructed, highly coincidental, improbable, and inconsistent rubbish at that, his focus on its anti-social message, its celebration of criminal deeds, occurs when he describes the murder of Mrs. Wood. Forster in his 3 November 1839 review of the recently released triple-decker feels that Ainsworth almost justifies the brutal murder, about to occur at this point in the narrative, immediately after Cruikshank's representation of the masked intruders in the Woods' bedroom at Dollis Hill. The brutal, neanderthal sidekick of the "Captain," Blueskin's

next appearance is as the devoted follower of the grown-up Jack, and a brace of worthies are on their way to rob the house of Mr. Owen Wood, a worthy old carpenter who had charitably reared Jack, and who has a strong penchant for Jack's mother, the unfortunate Mrs. Sheppard aforesaid; though, as a sort set-off to the latter obligations, it should be noted that during his apprenticeship Jack has had his affection refused by Mr. Wood's daughter, and his ears boxed by Mr. Wood's wife. This amiable pair journeying thus together for the amiable purpose we have described, Lieutenant Blueskin intimates a strong wish to make "short work" of Mrs. Wood, but Captain Sheppard "sternly" discountenances the vigorous notion. The burglary is committed, but poor Mrs. Wood, with the instinct of a good housewife, wakes up as the lieutenant is making off with the "Swag," and the following picturesque and forcible scene ensues. [513]

Suddenly the "romance" becomes all too real as Blueskin slits the woman's throat for a bag of silverware. For his avowed utter devotion, however, Jack foregives Blueskin. The violence of the housebreaking episode, however, excuses the coincidental reappearance of Thames, long thought dead but in fact wandering the Continent and now reappearing at his former master's place of business in London only to learn from the draper, Mr. Kneebone (running the shop rent-free), of Owen Wood's good fortune prior to the bursting of the South Sea Bubble and his subsequent retirement to tranquil, suburban Dollis Hill. By sheer chance, then, Thames is present in the house when Mrs. Wood is murdered, and is therefore available to discharge his pistols at the fleeing thieves — apparently to no effect.

The crape masks (presumably, mourning headgear) as described by Ainsworth and realised by Cruikshank in the illustration give the burglars a particularly sinister appearance, appropriate to the terrible blood-letting which occurs over the page. Shrew though she was, the essentially comic figure of Mrs. Wood suffers an all-too-probable fate at the brutal Blueskin's hands, influencing for the negative the reader's appraisal of both the man and his master, and rendering the "roaring trade" less than a jolly past-time for young apprentices in search of a little excitement. If this novel does not encourage crime and violence through this scene, argues Forster in his Examiner review, it at least condones or excuses them by Jack's continuing to defend Blueskin as his loyal henchman. Significantly, in this quasi-dark plate set in the Woods' bedchamber, Cruikshank does not distinguish between the pair, although presumably Blueskin is the taller of the two, holding the knife, and Jack is the shorter figure beside the bed, holding the candle in his left hand and the pistol as a club in his right. Somewhat artificially, Cruikshank has placed the two burglars in the dark area by the extremely narrow open door (left) in order to focus on the sleepers in the intensely illuminated area occupied by the canopied bed. Surprisingly, Cruikshank shows none of the customary bedroom furnishings as described by Ainsworth (a bureau, a plate-chest under the bed and has clothes piled haphazardly on a chair at the foot of the bed, also in shadow. The canopy above the bed is credible, but one wonders about the enormous woven hat hanging on the wall. But, most of all, one wonders about the juxtaposition of the figures, since Blueskin should be close to the sleeping Mrs. Wood, who is on the extreme right of the composition while Blueskin is on the extreme left. Furthermore, neither robber carries a swag-bag made of canvas or burglary tools such as the centre-bit, wash leather, and crow-bar. In other words, Cruikshank has deliberately suppressed certain realia as described in the text in order to focus on the burglars and their prey.

Bibliography

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. A Romance. With 28 illustrations by George Cruikshank. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley, 1839.

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. Edited by Edward Jacobs and Manuela Mourao. With 31 illustrations. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2007.

Clark, Kenneth. Chapter 10, "The Smile of Reason." Civilisation. London: BBC and John Murray, 1969, rpt. 1975. Pp. 244-267.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1846.

Forster, John. "Review." The Examiner, 1657 (3 November 1839): 691-693; rpt., William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, ed. Edward Jacobs and Manuela Mourao. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2007, pp. 509-519.

Meisel, Martin. Chapter 13, "Novels in Epitome." Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial, and Theatrical Arts in Nineteenth-Century England. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. Pp. 247-282.

Sutherland, John. "Jack Sheppard" in The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 19893. Pp. 323-324.

Vann, J. Don. "Jack Sheppard in Bentley's Miscellany, January 1839 — February 1840." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Page 19.

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