The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-SeersCrowe, Catherine
Religion
The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Crowe, Catherine
Ghosts; Parapsychology
After a fortnight’s incarceration, the former of these was liberated;
and he then declared to the advocate his intention of bringing an action
of damages for false imprisonment. He was advised not to do it. “Leave
well alone,” said the lawyer; “and if you’ll take my advice, make off
while you can.” The man, however, refused to fly: he declared that he
really did not know what had occasioned the death of his comrade. The
latter had been at one end of the boat, and he at the other; when he
looked round, he was gone; but whether he had fallen overboard, and cut
his head as he fell, or whether he had been struck and pushed into the
water, he did not know. The advocate became finally satisfied of this
man’s innocence; but the authorities, thinking it absurd to try one and
not the other, again laid hands on him: and it fell to Mr. A—— F——
to be the defender of both. The difficulty was, not to separate their
cases in his pleading; for, however morally convinced of the different
ground on which they stood, his duty, professionally, was to obtain the
acquittal of both, in which he finally succeeded, as regarded the charge
of murder. They were, therefore, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment;
and, so far as the dream is concerned, here ends the story. There
remains, however, a curious sequel to it.
A few years afterward, the same gentleman being in a boat on Loch Fyne,
in company with Sir T—— D—— L——, happened to be mentioning these
curious circumstances, when one of the boatmen said that he “knew well
about those two men; and that a very strange thing had occurred in
regard to one of them.” This one, on inquiry, proved to be the subject
of the dream; and the strange thing was this: On being liberated, he had
quitted that part of the country, and in process of time had gone to
Greenock, and thence embarked in a vessel for Cork. But the vessel
seemed fated never to reach its destination; one misfortune happened
after another, till at length the sailors said: “This won’t do; there
must be a murderer on board with us!” As is usual, when such a
persuasion exists, they drew lots three times, and each time it fell on
that man! He was consequently put on shore, and the vessel went on its
way without him. What had become of him afterward was not known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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