The Court of Cacus

Part 1

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THE COURT OF CACUS;

Or, The Story of Burke and Hare.

ALEXANDER LEIGHTON,

Author of "Curious Storied Traditions of Scottish Life," etc.

London: Houlston and Wright, Paternoster Row. Edinburgh: W. P. Nimmo, St David Street. 1861.

Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Company, Paul's Work.

PREFACE.

I have not written this book,--narrating a series of tragedies unprecedented in the history of mankind, as well for the number of victims and the depth of their sufferings as for the sordid temptation of the actors,--without a proper consideration of what is due to the public and myself. If I had thought I was to contribute to the increase of a taste for moral stimulants, said to be peculiarly incident to our age--and yet, I suspect, as strong in all bygone times--and without any countervailing advantage to morals and the welfare of society, I would have desisted from my labours. But, being satisfied that what has really occurred on the stage of the world, however involving the dignity of our nature or revolting to human feelings, must and will be known in some way, wherever there are eyes to read or ears to hear, nay, was intended to be known by Him through whose permission it was allowed to be, I consider it a benefaction that the knowledge which kills shall be accompanied by the knowledge which cures. Nay, were it possible, which it is not, to keep from succeeding generations cases of great depravity punished for example, and atoned for by penitence, the man who tried to conceal them would be acting neither in obedience to God's providence nor for the good of the people. We know what the Bible records of the doings of depraved men, and we know also for what purpose; and may we not follow in the steps of the inspired?

But a slight survey of the nature of the mind may satisfy any one, not necessarily a philosopher, that it requires as its natural food examples of evil with the punishment and the cure. If it had been so ordered that there were not in the soil of the heart congenital germs of wickedness ready to spring up and branch into crimes under favouring circumstances, which the complications of society are eternally producing, and that, consequently, all evil was sheer imitation, something might be said for concealing the thing to be imitated, even at the expense of losing the antidote. Even in that case the "huddlers-up" would not be very philosophical or very sensible; religious they could not be, because the supposition is adverse to the most fundamental truth of Christianity--for, as the imitation must of necessity be admitted to be catching, where so many are caught, the deterring influences would be more necessary. But as all must admit that the evil comes of itself and the antidote from man, those who would conceal the latter must allow to the former its full sway.

In all this, I do not overlook the benefits of abstract representations of the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice. These belong to the department of the imagination, where no principle of action resides; and every one knows that the images must be embodied, in particular instances taken from the real world of flesh and blood, so that the historian of real occurrences must still work as an adjunct even to the fancy. If it be said that he narrates stories that are revolting, the answer would seem to be that, as the law still justifies example, and society calls for it, the objection that the interest of a story is too deep can only be used by those who view the records of wickedness as a stimulant and not as a terror, or those who, amidst the still-recurring daily murders, consider society as beyond the need of amendment. The objection is thus an adjection. Fortunately, none of us are acquainted with amiable enormities, and the longer these remain unknown to us, the better for us and mankind; so that it seems to follow, that he who can render the acted crimes of history as disagreeable and hateful as they can be made, even with the aid of the dark shadows of his fancy, performs an act favourable to the interests of society. Yet I have done my best to save from revolt the feelings of the virtuous, as far as is consistent with the moral effect intended by Providence to be produced on the vicious.

YORK LODGE, TRINITY, September 1861.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

FIRST APPEARANCE IN SURGEON'S SQUARE, 1

INTERCALARY, 8

THE YOUNG AMATEURS, 22

THE REGULAR STAFF, 42

SYMPATHISING SEXTONS, DOCTORS, AND RELATIVES, 53

PREYING ON EACH OTHER, 66

RESUMPTION OF THE GREAT DRAMA, 77

THE QUATERNION, 90

THE OPENING OF THE COURT--THE OLD WOMAN OF GILMERTON, 107

THE MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, 119

THE GRANDMOTHER AND THE DUMB BOY, 132

THE STRAY WAIFS, 145

THE RELATIVE, 154

THE STUDY FOR THE ARTIST, 163

Part 2

DAFT JAMIE, 179

THE BRISK LITTLE OLD WOMAN, 194

THE DISCOVERY, 202

THE COMPLICITY OF THE DOCTORS, 216

THE TRIAL, 230

THE JAIL, 251

VEJOVE, 259

THE EXHIBITION, 271

THE PROSECUTION AGAINST HARE, 283

THE HUNT OUT, 292

THE FINAL CAUSE, 306

First Appearance in Surgeon's Square.

When the gloaming was setting in of an evening in the autumn of 1827, and when the young students of Dr Knox's class had covered up those remains of their own kind from which they had been trying to extract nature's secrets, one was looking listlessly from the window into the Square. The place was as quiet as usual, silent and sad enough to gratify a fancy that there existed some connexion between the stillness and the work carried on from day to day and night to night in these mysterious recesses; for, strange enough, whatever curiosity might be felt by the inhabitants as to what was done there, few were ever seen within that area except those in some way connected with the rooms. So was it the more likely that our young student's eye should have been attracted by the figure of a man moving stealthily under the shade of the houses. Then he looked more intently to ascertain whether he was not one of the regular staff of body-snatchers who supplied "the thing," as they called it. But no; the stranger, whoever he might be, was neither "Merryandrew," nor "the Spune," nor "the Captain," nor any other of the gouls,--some half-dozen,--yet he would have done no discredit to the fraternity either as to dress or manner: little and thick-set, with a firm round face, small eyes, and Irish nose, a down-looking sleazy dog, who, as he furtively turned his eye up to the window, seemed to think he had no right to direct his vision beyond the parallel of a man's pocket.

The student, who could dissect living character no less than he could dead tissue, immediately suspected that this meditative "worshipper of the sweets of eve" was there upon business, but, being probably new to the calling, he was timid, if not bashful. Yes, bashful; we do not retract the word, comely as it is, for where, in all this wide world of sin and shamelessness, could we suppose it possible to find a man who lives upon it, and is shone on by its sun, and cheered by its flowers, capable of selling the body of his fellow-creature for gold without having his face suffused with blood, cast up by the indignant heart, at least for the first time? And perhaps it was the first time to this new-comer. But in whatever condition the strange man might be, the student had got over his weakness, that is, nature's strength, and, resolving to test the lounger, he went down, and, shewing himself at the door, beckoned the bashful one forward.

"Were you looking for any one?" said he, as he peered into the down-looking face, where there never had been a blush.

"'Mph!--are you Dr Knox?"

"No; but I am one of his students," was the reply of the young man, who was now nearly satisfied of the intention of the stranger.

"And, sure, I'm not far wrong thin, afther all."

"And I may suit your purpose as well, perhaps."

"Perhaps."

"Well, speak out; don't be afraid. Have you got 'the thing?'"

"Doun't know what you mean."

"Ah! not an old hand, I perceive. You were never here before?"

"No."

"And don't know what to say?"

"No."

And the bashful man again turned his gloomy eyes to the ground, and didn't know what to do with those hands of his, which were not made for kid--perhaps for skin of another kind. And shouldn't this hardened student have been sorry for a man in such confusion; but he wasn't--nay, he had no sympathy with his refinement.

"Why, man, don't you speak out?" he said impatiently.

Part 3

"There's some one coming through the Square there," was the reply, as the man looked furtively to a side.

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