“Single-handed I got clear of the prison-ship; I made a dash and I done it. I could ha’ got clear of these death-cold flats likewise – look at my leg: you won’t find much iron on it – if I hadn’t made the discovery that he was here. Let him go free? Let him profit by the means as I found out? Let him make a tool of me afresh and again? Once more? No, no, no. If I had died at the bottom there,” and he made an emphatic swing at the ditch with his manacled hands, “I’d have held to him with that grip, that you should have been safe to find him in my hold.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 5. When soldiers find escaped convict Magwitch fighting with Compeyson in a muddy marsh ditch, he shouts this to them. We find the themes of revenge and justice here, with Magwitch willing to sacrifice his own freedom as long as Compeyson is arrested and pays for his crimes. There is clearly bad blood between the two with Magwitch regarding his former partner in crime as an enemy. Making Compeyson pay is more important to Magwitch than being caught himself and returned to prison.