The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
Robert Burke, of Campbelltown, constable, deposed to having apprehended
Worrall. We may now give in full the evidence as to the search for
Fisher’s body on October 20, 1826.
Here let us first remark that Fisher’s body was not easily found. A
reward for its discovery was offered by Government on September 27,
1826, when Fisher had been dead for three months, and this may
have stimulated all that was immortal of Fisher to perch on his own
paddock-rail, and so draw attention to the position of his body. But on
this point we have no information, and we proceed to real evidence. From
this it appears that though a reward was offered on September 27, the
local magistrates (to whom the ghost-seer went, in the yarn) did not
bid their constable make SPECIAL researches till October 20, apparently
after the seer told his tale.
‘George Leonard, a constable at Campbelltown, stated that by order of
the bench of the magistrates he commenced a search for the body of the
deceased on the 20th of October last: witness WENT TO A PLACE WHERE SOME
BLOOD WAS SAID TO HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED, and saw traces of it on several
rails of a fence at the corner of the deceased’s paddock adjoining
the fence of Mr. Bradbury, and about fifty rods from prisoner’s house:
witness proceeded to search with an iron rod over the ground, when two
black natives came up and joined in the search till they came to a creek
where one of them saw something on the water: a man named Gilbert, a
black native, went into the water, and scumming some of the top with a
leaf, which he afterwards tasted, called out that “there was the fat of
a white man” [of which he was clearly an amateur]: they then proceeded
to another creek about forty or fifty yards farther up, STILL LED BY
THE NATIVES, when one of them struck the rod into some marshy ground
and called out that “there was something there:” a spade was immediately
found, and the place dug, when the first thing that presented itself
was the left hand of a man lying on his side, which witness, from a long
acquaintance with him, immediately declared to be the hand of Frederick
Fisher: the body was decayed a little, particularly the under-jaw:
witness immediately informed Mr. William Howe and the Rev. Mr. Reddall,
and obtained a warrant to apprehend the parties who were supposed to be
concerned in the murder; the coroner was sent for, and, the body being
taken out of the earth the next morning, several fractures were found
in the head: an inquest was held, and a verdict of wilful murder against
some person or persons unknown was returned: witness particularly
examined the fence: there appeared to have been a fire made under the
lower rail, as if to burn out the mark: the blood seemed as if it were
sprinkled over the rails....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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