Part 17

She had been once a lodger in Log's house.

On examining the animal, the knackers found that many old sores become hollows had been filled up with tow, and then plastered over with a thin skin.

They are fully described, for the first time we believe, in "Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh."

We adopt this version in preference to another, which substitutes Burke.

It was never believed that the cases confessed to by Burke exhausted the real list. One in particular, that of a little Italian boy, Ludovico, who went about with white mice, was a favourite story which could not be doubted, when it was known that the people of Tanner's Close saw, for years afterwards, the two little animals haunting the dark recesses, where their young master had been sacrificed. And many other visions were seen there besides those of the white mice. But, apart from these superstitions, it is certain that there was found in Hare's house a cage with the mice's turning-wheel in it, which clearly had belonged to one of these Italian wanderers. The silence of Burke on the subject is of no importance, for his confessions did not agree, and, besides, it was properly asked, might not poor Ludovico have been the subject which Hare managed "on his own hook" unknown to Burke? Like the others, he would be mourned, but it would be far away in some little hamlet among the Apennines.

A subscription was raised for Gray. He had saved the lives of probably a score of men and women; but so poorly was he remunerated, that he did not get a pound a head for these lives, or a tenth of that got by Burke for his bodies.

The fury against the doctors ran so high not only in Edinburgh, but in Dumfries, that they were exposed to the risk of the fate they experienced under Cato the Censor:--"Romani quondam, sub Catone Censorio, medicos omnes et urbe tota et tota Italia pepulerunt eorum funesta mendacia crudelitatemque aversati."--Agrippa de Van. Scien. cap. 83. See, too, Montaigne:--"Les Romains avaient este six cens ans avant que de recevoir la médecine; mais après l'avoir essayée, ils la chassèrent de leur ville par entremise de Caton le Censeur." This proscription of doctors lasted to the time of the first emperors; but even if they had been tolerated, the national reverence for the dead would have been an effectual bar to such practices as Scotland groaned under for centuries. We are not left to wonder how they contrived to keep the body right in these ancient times, for we know that Cato purged his household; and Horace lets us up to the knowledge the old women had of simples.

The allusion is to Knox. His house was afterwards surrounded by a furious mob, who smashed his windows, and he was obliged to secrete himself for a time.

The entire Parliament Square rang as by the echoes of a jubilee.

The story that the cancerous affection arose from the saliva of Daft Jamie, communicated by a bite, was resolutely held to by the people.

"He struggled a good deal," says an eye-witness, who was very near, "and put out his legs as if to catch something with his feet; but some of the undertaker's men, who were below the drop, took him by the feet, and sent him spinning round,--a motion which was continued until he was drawn up above the level of the scaffold."

An eye-witness, whose notes we have, says, "He (Burke) was one of the most symmetrical men I ever saw, finely-developed muscles, and finely-formed, of the athlete class."

"After this exhibition," says an eye-witness, "Burke was cut up and put in pickle for the lecture-table. He was cut up in quarters, or rather portions, and salted, and, with a strange aptness of poetical justice, put into barrels. At that time an early acquaintance and school-fellow was assistant to the professor, and with him I frequently visited the dissecting-room, when calling on him at his apartments at the College. He is now a physician in the Carse of Gowrie. He shewed me Burke's remains, and gave me the skin of his neck and of the right arm. These I had tanned--the neck brown, and the arm white. The white was as pure as white kid, but as thick as white sheepskin; and the brown was like brown tanned sheepskin. It was curious that the mark of the rope remained on the leather after being tanned. Of that neck-leather I had a tobacco-doss made; and on the white leather of the right arm I got Johnston to print the portraits of Burke and his wife, and Hare, which I gave to the noted antiquarian and collector of curiosities, Mr Fraser, jeweller, and it was in one of his cases for many years--may be still, if he is alive."

The portraits of Burke and M'Dougal were got by the artist's having been introduced into the judges' private room, behind the bench. To complete the group, Mr Johnston, the engraver, managed through the governor to get an artist into the passage between the airing-grounds, when Hare was taking his walk. Hare saw the party sketching, came right up to the iron grating, and stood like a soldier at attention, until the sketch was completed. He then said, "Now, sir, peetch me a shilling for that."

For much of what follows of Hare's flight we are indebted to the pencil-pen of Mr M'Diarmid of the Dumfries Courier.

We might, perhaps, say, except till now. Not long ago, we were told by a lady, who was in Paris about the year 1859, that, having occasion for a nurse, she employed a woman, apparently between sixty and seventy years of age. She gave her name as Mrs Hare, and upon being questioned whether she had been ever in Scotland, she denied it, stating that she came from Ireland. Yet she often sung Scotch songs; and what brings out the suspicion that she was the real Mrs Hare the more is, that she had a daughter, whose age, over thirty, agrees perfectly with that of the infant she had in her arms when in court. In addition to all this, the woman's face was just that of the picture published at the time.

After Burke's execution, M'Dougal is said to have made a wonderful revelation. One night, when the two men were deep in an orgy, Burke put the question, "What they would do when they could get no more bodies?" to which Hare answered, "That they could never be absolutely at a loss while their two wives remained, but that would only be when they were hard up." The conversation had been overheard by one of the women.

POPULAR WORKS BY ALEXANDER LEIGHTON,

AUTHOR OF "THE COURT OF CACUS," &C.

Second Edition, crown 8vo, cloth extra, price 3s. 6d.,

CURIOUS STORIED TRADITIONS OF SCOTTISH LIFE.

BY ALEXANDER LEIGHTON.

CONTENTS:--

The White Scalp. The Ten of Diamonds. Sergeant Davies' Ghost. The Chance Question. The Woman with the White Mice. The Knife-thrust in the Dark. The Scored Back. The Long Slipper. The Diamond Eyes. The Lord Advocate's Warrant.

"Mr Leighton, in this volume, has collected nine or ten stories, and has told them very clearly and effectively.... Some of the stories relate incidents of a curious kind, that have formed the subject of inquiry in criminal courts of justice.... The volume makes an excellent whole."--The Saturday Review.

"In the story of the 'Woman with the White Mice,' we have a graphic account of the extraordinary trial of Mrs S----of D----; a case of murder in which Jeffrey performed his greatest feat of oratory and power over a jury.... Besides being characterised by variety of incident, vigorous thought, and simplicity of expression, these tales have a noble purpose to serve."--The Literary Gazette.

"All the tales are remarkably well told, and, in some instances, wrought up to a climax of no ordinary excitement."--The Leader.

"An admirable book for the fireside; and those who love excitement will find it in these pages without stint."--The Weekly Dispatch.