The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1 of 2): Being Facts, Records, and Traditions Relating to Dreams, Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.
Religion
The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1 of 2): Being Facts, Records, and Traditions Relating to Dreams, Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.
Spiritualism; Supernatural
“About an hour after they left Portlaw, in a lonely part of the mountain,
just near the place observed by Rogers in his dream, Caulfield took the
opportunity of murdering his companion. It appeared afterwards from his
own account of the horrid transaction, that as they were getting over a
ditch he struck Hickey on the back part of the head with a stone, and when
he fell down into the trench in consequence of the blow, Caulfield gave
him several stabs with a knife, and cut his throat so deeply that the head
was observed to be almost severed from his body. He then rifled Hickey’s
pockets of all the money in them, took part of his clothes and everything
else of value about him, and afterwards proceeded on his way to Carrick.
He had not been long gone when the body, still warm, was discovered by
some labourers who were returning to their work from dinner.
“The report of the murder soon reached Portlaw. Rogers and his wife went
to the place and instantly knew the body of him whom they had in vain
endeavoured to dissuade from going on with his treacherous companion. They
at once spoke out their suspicions that the murder was perpetrated by the
fellow-traveller of the deceased. An immediate search was made, and
Caulfield was apprehended at Waterford the second day after.
“He was brought to trial at the ensuing assizes and convicted of the fact.
It appeared amongst other circumstances that when he went to Carrick he
hired a horse and a boy to conduct him--not by the usual road, but by that
which runs on the north side of the river Suir--to Waterford, intending to
take his passage in the first ship from thence to Newfoundland. The boy
took notice of some blood on his shirt, and Caulfield gave him a
half-crown to promise not to speak of it.
“Rogers proved not only that Hickey was last seen in company with
Caulfield, but that a pair of new shoes which Hickey wore had been found
on the feet of Caulfield when he was apprehended; and that a pair of old
shoes which he had on at Rogers’s house were upon Hickey’s feet when the
body was found. He described with great exactness every article of their
clothes. Caulfield on the cross-examination, shrewdly asked him from the
dock whether it was not very extraordinary that he, who kept a
public-house, should take such particular notice of the dress of a
stranger accidentally calling there? Rogers in his answer said he had a
very particular reason, but he was ashamed to mention it. The court and
the prisoner insisted on his declaring it. He gave a circumstantial
narrative of his dream, called upon Mr. Browne, the priest, then in
court, to corroborate his testimony, and said that his wife had severely
reproached him for permitting Hickey to leave their house, when he knew
that in the short footway to Carrick they must necessarily pass by the
green spot in the mountain which had appeared in his dream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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