Wilkie Collins

Armadale Wilkie Collins

In the Swiss town of Wildbad during 1832, Allan Armadale makes a deathbed confession of murder, written down by the only other British visitor, Mr Neal. The document is sent to Armadale's executors, to be given to his son when he comes of age, warning him never to contact people connected with the confession. The dying man was born in Barbados and inherited the estate of his godfather, his father's cousin, on condition he changed his name to that of Allan Armadale, his godfather's disgraced natural son. After receiving the inheritance, Armadale had fallen in love with the portrait of Jane Blanchard, daughter of a family friend then staying in Madeira. But before he could sail to meet her, he was poisoned by his clerk, Fergus Ingleby. By the time he reached Jane she had married Ingleby, deceiving her father with a letter forged by her young maid. Ingleby was really the disgraced Allan Armadale, marrying Jane in revenge for the loss of his birthright. The married couple escaped on a timber-ship, ironically called La Grace de Dieu, but Armadale followed them disguised as a crew member. The ship was partially wrecked during a hurricane and although Armadale saved Jane, he locked her husband in a cabin, leaving him to drown. Armadale departed for Trinidad where he married a half-cast woman who named their son Allan. Just before coming to Wildbad for his rapidly failing health, Armadale learned that Jane also had an infant son called Allan Armadale.