Growltiger’s Last Stand

Growltiger’s Last Stand turns the feared barge-raider Growltiger into the victim of the very kind of fatal fall he had imposed on others. The attackers approach in silence, overwhelm his vessel, and surround him; Lady Griddlebone vanishes, and Growltiger is forced to walk the plank. The abrupt reversal ends not in a private escape but in public rejoicing along the river.

Background and Stakes

Growltiger is introduced as a Bravo Cat who travels on a barge and pursues what the narration calls his evil aims between Gravesend and Oxford. He takes pride in the title The Terror of the Thames. Those details make the river his territory and establish the reputation that the attack will overturn: he has been a danger to others, not a figure accustomed to facing an enemy at close quarters.

The account gives the scale of his past violence a pointed measure at the end. Growltiger is said to have driven a hundred victims to the drop; now he himself is made to walk the plank. The contrast gives the defeat its moral force without requiring a separate explanation of his crimes. The old threat returns in a changed direction, and the feared cat becomes the one exposed to the consequence.

The Attack on the Barge

The Siamese Cats advance by water. Their sampans circle closer and closer, yet the approaching enemy makes no sound. This quiet encirclement delays the open assault while making the danger unmistakable: the attackers are already near, but Growltiger and Lady Griddlebone do not initially meet them in a direct clash. The scene’s stillness stands against the violence that follows.

Growltiger and Lady Griddlebone sing their last duet while their lives are in danger. The account underscores the mismatch between the lovers’ situation and the weapons brought against them: the foe carries toasting forks and carving knives. Then Gilbert gives the signal, and the attack breaks out in a burst of fireworks as the assailants swarm aboard. The shift from silent approach to sudden boarding makes the signal the decisive turn in the encounter.

Once aboard, the attackers abandon their sampans and other vessels and batten down the hatches over the crew in their bunks. The action closes off the crew below while the fight above reaches its conclusion. A serried ring of flashing steel surrounds Growltiger, and the attackers press forward in stubborn ranks. His surprise at being forced to walk the plank marks how completely the balance has shifted: the cat who had sent others to that drop is now compelled toward it himself.

Lady Griddlebone and Growltiger’s Fall

Lady Griddlebone reacts to the assault with a screech and disappears. The narration does not show her escape or establish precisely how she gets away; instead, it qualifies the account with the suggestion that she probably escaped easily and was not drowned. Her fate is therefore left less firmly resolved than Growltiger’s. The contrast matters: the lovers began the attack together in a final duet, but the narrative separates their outcomes once the danger reaches them.

Growltiger’s defeat is stated more decisively. Surrounded by flashing steel and pressed by ranks of attackers, he is forced to walk the plank, ending the power that had made him a terror on the Thames. The account follows the fall with a grimly comic sound, ker-flip, ker-flop. That light, tumbling cadence does not undo the violence; it sharpens the reversal by giving the notorious cat’s final forced movement a brisk, almost theatrical finish.

Aftermath and Significance

News of the defeat brings joy to Wapping, while dancing takes place on the strand at Maidenhead and Henley. The reaction extends the event beyond the barge: Growltiger’s downfall is welcomed in several riverside communities named by the account. The celebrations serve as a measure of the fear and hostility attached to his earlier reputation, even though the narrative does not describe the communities’ individual experiences of his rule.

The event’s central reversal is expressed through the repeated image of the drop. Growltiger had driven a hundred victims toward it; at the end of his crimes, he is made to go over it himself. The swift progression from the lovers’ duet to the silent encirclement, sudden boarding, and public celebrations gives the episode the shape of a compact comeuppance. Its ending is conclusive for Growltiger, while Lady Griddlebone’s disappearance remains qualified and unresolved.