Compeyson

Compeyson is a smooth-talking criminal operator who uses his education, genteel appearance, and superior intellect to orchestrate elaborate swindles and forgeries while keeping himself positioned above direct culpability. Encountered by Abel Magwitch (Mr. Provis) at Epsom races two decades before the novel opens, he recruits Abel Magwitch (Mr. Provis) as his tool and partner in crimes involving handwriting forgery, stolen bank-note passing, and confidence schemes. His intelligence and refined manner make him invaluable in the planning stages—he designs the traps while others spring them and face the legal consequences. Years before meeting Abel Magwitch (Mr. Provis), he was involved in 'a bad thing with a rich lady' (Miss Havisham), which netted considerable money but left her devastated and abandoned. Compeyson married, though he treats his wife with callous indifference, using her mainly as a servant to others. His partnership with Abel Magwitch (Mr. Provis) proves almost unbearably oppressive for the latter: always in debt, always under his thumb, always working and always in danger—while Compeyson's craft and learning keep him one step removed from direct accountability. When both are tried for felony, the contrasts work entirely in Compeyson's favor. He presents himself as a victim of bad company, receives mercy from the bench, and is sentenced to only seven years while Abel Magwitch (Mr. Provis) gets fourteen. He vanishes from prison under obscure circumstances, possibly escaping when Abel Magwitch (Mr. Provis)'s rage toward him reached murderous intensity.