Magwitch’s escape attempt and arrest is the climactic failure of the plan to take him out of England, and the moment when Pip’s private loyalty collides with the law’s claim over a returned transport. On the Thames, an approaching steamer seems to offer a route to safety; instead, a pursuing galley identifies Magwitch, brings his former partner Compeyson back into the story, and ends the flight. Magwitch survives the encounter but is captured, while Compeyson drowns.## Causes and Background Magwitch has returned to England despite having been transported for life. When he first disclosed himself as Pip’s benefactor, Mr. Jaggers had warned that he was unlikely to receive a pardon and that returning to England would be a felony carrying the extreme penalty of the law. Magwitch had nevertheless risked coming back to see Pip, and Pip, now committed to his safety, set out with Herbert and Startop to get him out of the country.

The escape plan depended on the river, its tides, and a narrow chance to board a foreign steamer. Pip and Herbert prepared their boat and left the Temple stairs at about half-past eight, near high water. They meant to use the ebb tide until three, continue rowing against it until dark, and rest below Gravesend, where the river was broad and relatively solitary. On Thursday morning they hoped to hail either the Hamburg or Rotterdam steamer, keeping the second vessel as a fallback if the first opportunity failed. Pip carried only a bag of necessities; his attention was fixed on Magwitch’s safety rather than on what might happen to his own rooms or belongings.

This route made the attempt an exposed passage rather than a concealed escape. The men had to remain on the river, watch for the steamers, and present themselves where a vessel might take them abroad. The plan’s practical precision could not remove the legal danger: if Magwitch were recognized, the same journey intended to deliver him from England could become evidence of his return and flight.

The Interception on the Thames

The escape party waited for the first steamer, with Herbert and Startop helping row while Pip steered. When the Hamburg vessel appeared, they prepared their bags and said goodbye to the two friends. Before they could reach safety, a four-oared galley emerged from beneath the bank and drew alongside. Its occupants watched the boat closely, while the second, cloaked figure in the galley appeared to be giving instructions to the steersman.

The man holding the galley’s rudder lines declared that there was a returned transport aboard Pip’s boat and identified him as Abel Magwitch, otherwise known as Provis. He called upon Magwitch to surrender and ordered the others to assist. The galley then ran across the escape boat and held on to its gunwale. The maneuver caused confusion as the steamer approached; its paddles were stopped, but the vessel continued forward with the river’s momentum, and the boats swung in the tide.

Magwitch started up and pulled the cloak from the other passenger in the galley. The face revealed was Compeyson’s, the other convict from long before. The discovery changed the interception into a confrontation between the two men whose criminal history had already shaped Magwitch’s life. In the turmoil, both went overboard, and Pip’s boat sank beneath him. Herbert and Startop were taken aboard the galley; Magwitch and Compeyson were initially missing.

Capture and Immediate Aftermath

The galley’s crew searched the water. Magwitch was eventually seen swimming toward them, taken aboard, and immediately manacled at the wrists and ankles. The Rotterdam steamer arrived after the opportunity to escape had passed. Once it had been stopped, the boats continued searching, but those aboard understood that the attempt to get Magwitch abroad had failed.

The party returned to a nearby tavern. Magwitch, no longer concealed under the name Provis, had sustained injuries in the collision and fall, and Pip obtained comforts for him. Magwitch believed he had gone beneath the steamer’s keel and been struck while surfacing; he thought his chest had been hurt against the galley. He said that when he seized Compeyson’s cloak to identify him, Compeyson staggered and both went overboard together. Magwitch believed they struggled underwater before he freed himself and swam away. The officer steering the galley gave the same account of their going into the water.

The river encounter thus ended in two sharply different outcomes. Magwitch was recovered alive and delivered into custody; Compeyson drowned. Pip was permitted to accompany Magwitch to London, but Herbert and Startop were not allowed to go with them. The pocketbook that Pip had once held passed into the officer’s keeping with the other things taken from the prisoner.

Legal Consequences and Significance

Magwitch was taken to the Police Court the next day. He could not be committed for trial immediately because an old officer from the prison ship he had escaped from had to be summoned to establish his identity. The authorities did not doubt who he was, but Compeyson, who had intended to testify against him, was dead, and no prison officer able to provide the required evidence was then in London. Mr. Jaggers, whom Pip had contacted for assistance, would admit nothing on the prisoner’s behalf; he regarded the eventual result as certain once the witness arrived.

Magwitch’s arrest also made the fate of his wealth unavoidable. Under the law as explained in the story, his property was liable to forfeiture, and Pip had no recognized legal connection to him or prior written settlement that could support a claim. Pip resolved not to pursue the money. He also decided to keep Magwitch from learning that the inheritance intended for him had been lost, leaving the prisoner with the belief that Pip’s prospects remained secure.

At the later sentencing, Magwitch was singled out among thirty-two prisoners. The court described his history of repeated offences, imprisonment, escape, transportation, and return to England, and imposed the death sentence prescribed for his return. The failed attempt on the river therefore connects the practical end of Pip’s rescue plan to the legal end of Magwitch’s freedom: the passage toward Hamburg becomes the scene of recognition, capture, and the beginning of the proceedings that condemn him. It also brings Compeyson, the hidden figure in the pursuing galley, into the open, while making Pip’s loyalty to Magwitch more consequential than the wealth that had first bound their fates.