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Oliver Twist: Monks

Again the lad is sought out by Fagin, aided by a mysterious man who has shown great emotion at a chance sight of Oliver in the street, and who now plots with Fagin, not merely for the possession of the boy, but for his moral ruin, which seems to be desired especially by this so-called Monks. Their whispered plottings are overheard by Nancy, who atones for her former kidnapping of Oliver by risking her life to inform his new friends of his true parentage.

The interview between this scorned street-girl and the beautiful Rose Maylie, adopted niece of Oliver's protectress, gives Dickens a splendid opportunity to which he does not fail to do full justice. "Coldly and harshly treated by Mrs. Maylie's self-righteous servants, the girl is in a defiant mood when finally admitted, and remarks, with a toss of the head, It's a hard matter to get to see you, lady. If I had taken offense and gone away, as many would have done, you'd have been sorry for it one day, and not without reason.'" But "the kind tone of the answer she received, the sweet voice, the gentle manner, the absence of any accent of haughtiness or displeasure, took the girl completely by surprise and she burst into tears. 'Oh, lady, lady,' she said, clasping her hands passionately before her face, 'if there was more like you, there would be fewer like me, there would, there would!'" Then comes the startling account of what Nancy had overheard: Monks has secured, by clever inquiry and bribery, the locket and the ring; he recognized Oliver; he alludes to his father's will and speaks of the gratification it will be to him (Monks) to make a common felon of his young brother, Oliver. He also says with a laugh that there is some comfort in the fact that his identity has been kept from his latest friends, "since how many thousands and hundreds of thousands of pounds they would give to know who their two-legged spaniel is."

Rejecting all Rose's efforts to place her in some safe refuge from her horrible associates, and refusing all rewards, the weeping girl returns to the only life she has ever known, arranging to repeat her evidence to some discreet man whom Rose is to bring to London Bridge. Nancy keeps the appointment with Rose and Mr. Brownlow, but it costs her her life, as suspicious Fagin has had her followed and watched. Sikes, insane with rage, brutally disregards her protestations that she has shielded him and has remained faithful to him. Disbelieving her, he beats her to death with a club, then flees vainly from the terrors of his own memory of the deed, and dies by an accident as he is trying to escape arrest.

The gang is broken up by evidence in Mr. Brownlow's hands. Fagin is tried and hanged.