Miss Cheyne of Essilmont, Volume 3

Miss Cheyne of Essilmont, Volume 3, by James Grant continues the intertwined stories of the Ashantee (Ashanti) War of 1873–74 and the fortunes of the Cheyne, Wilmot, Dalton, and Chevenix families back in Britain and Belgium. The volume opens on the Gold Coast campaign, following Lieutenant Jerry Wilmot and Captain Tony Dalton through the eerie portents at Coomassie (fetish omens, the fallen sacred tree), the bloody battle of Amoaful, and the fighting advance of the Black Watch and Rifle Brigade to Coomassie itself, which falls and is burned after King Koffee flees. Dalton wrenches a golden scarabæus—a royal fetish—from the abandoned palace, provoking two vengeful Ashantee warriors to stalk him and Jerry. During the chaotic, flood-hampered retreat, the pair are ambushed; Dalton is wounded and carried off by the retreating column, while Jerry is knocked senseless and left behind, alone in the hostile bush. Meanwhile in Europe, Alison Cheyne, having collapsed from exposure after a night of terror in Antwerp, is nursed back to health by the Beguine nun Sister Lisette in the city's Beguinage. Lisette shares her own tragic history: a fatal "American duel" between her brother and her husband Lucien, born of a jealous misunderstanding, which left her widowed and led her to the convent. Alison and her ailing father, Sir Ranald, return to England at Chilcote, where Sir Ranald's health continues to fail and Lord Cadbury persists in his unwelcome courtship, while Alison pines for her true love, Bevil Goring, unaware he has been searching for her. Back in England, false news of Jerry's death reaches his cold, self-absorbed mother, Lady Julia Wilmot, and devastates Bella Chevenix, who loves him despite her father's foreclosure threats over the Wilmothurst mortgages. Jerry, however, is rescued from the wilderness by Captain Sartorius's daring ride and reunites with the returning troops, eventually sailing home with Dalton to a hero's welcome at Portsmouth, witnessed by Laura Dalton and Goring. Domestic complications resume: Jerry's homecoming is soured by jealousy over rumors of Bella and Lord Twesildown, while Sir Ranald dies, leaving Alison an orphan who must support herself as a governess in the vulgar, nouveau-riche De Jobbyns household in London. There she is harassed by the caddish Sir Jasper Dehorsey ("Captain Smith") and glimpses Goring—now unexpectedly wealthy—driving in the park, deepening her fear that he has forgotten her, even as the narrative makes clear their separation is due to misunderstanding and thwarted correspondence rather than true estrangement. `★ Insight ───────────────────────────────────── This task was pure literary synthesis with no code involved, so I answered directly rather than reaching for any tools — a good example of matching effort to the actual nature of the request rather than defaulting to tool use. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────`

By James Grant · First published 1883 · Genre: romance, novel, victorian literature · 21 chapters · 60,153 words

First lines

The firing proved a mistake -- the result of a false alarm -- so the night passed without any other _alerte_ or disturbance, and all remained quiet during the temporary halt at Prahsu; but the troops heard of many strange things as occurring at Coomassie, all deemed by the natives portentous of its coming fate.

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What this Textopian page supports

Miss Cheyne of Essilmont, Volume 3 is listed on Textopian as a novel by James Grant, dated 1883 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Novel
• Author: James Grant
• Date: 1883 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: romance, novel, victorian literature, domestic fiction, historical fiction
• Length: 60,153 words
• Structure: 21 chapters, 1,275 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for Miss Cheyne of Essilmont, Volume 3 by James Grant
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

Genres

• romance — Alison Cheyne's thwarted love and its sorrows are the volume's emotional centre.
• novel — This is the closing volume of an extended work of prose fiction.
• victorian literature — The book is a characteristic three-volume novel of the 1880s.
• domestic fiction — Poverty, family circumstance, and household reversal shape Alison's fate.

Tags

Victorian fiction · Scottish literature · romance · historical fiction · society novel · domestic drama · aristocracy · family secrets · inheritance · love and marriage · social class · honor

Contents

• The Battle of Amoaful
• The Scarabœus
• The Lost One
• A Year of Joy
• In Hampshire again
• 'Thoughts that Often Lie too Deep for Tears.'
• 'Oh, for a Horse with Wings!'
• A Birthday Gift
• Cadbury Redivivus
• At Cape Coast
• The Old Warning
• 'Ashes to Ashes.'
• Events Progress
• Bella's Dot
• In Bayswater
• The Four-In-Hand Club
• Humiliation
• Miss De Jobbyns' Admirer
• The Foreclosure Effected
• Homeless
• Conclusion

More by James Grant

• The Scots Brigade (1890)
• The Story of the Cid Rodrigo of Bivar (1890)
• The Boy-General (1890)
• The Bugle-Boy of Badajoz (1890)
• The Voyage of the 'Bon Accord. ' (1890)
• A Tale of the Retreat from Cabul (1890)
• Dick Staples of the 'Queen's own. ' (1890)
• The Story of Lieutenant James Moody of Barton's Regiment (1890)
• All works by James Grant