CHAPTER X But see, his face is black and full of blood; His eye-balls farther out than when he lived, Staring full ghastly like a strangled man, His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch d with struggling, His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdued
Henry VI, Part II
The Sheriff-depute of the county arrived at Ellangowan next morning bydaybreak. To this provincial magistrate the law of Scotland assignsjudicial powers of considerable extent, and the task of inquiring intoall crimes committed within his jurisdiction, the apprehension andcommitment of suspected persons, and so forth. [Footnote: The Scottishsheriff discharges, on such occasions as that now mentioned, pretty muchthe same duty as a coroner.]
The gentleman who held the office in the shire of---at the time of thiscatastrophe was well born and well educated; and, though somewhatpedantic and professional in his habits, he enjoyed general respect as anactive and intelligent magistrate. His first employment was to examineall witnesses whose evidence could throw light upon this mysteriousevent, and make up the written report, proces verbal, or precognition, asit is technically called, which the practice of Scotland has substitutedfor a coroner's inquest. Under the Sheriff's minute and skilful inquiry,many circumstances appeared which seemed incompatible with the originalopinion that Kennedy had accidentally fallen from the cliffs. We shallbriefly detail some of these.
The body had been deposited in a neighbouring fisher-hut, but withoutaltering the condition in which it was found. This was the first objectof the Sheriff's examination. Though fearfully crushed and mangled by thefall from such a height, the corpse was found to exhibit a deep cut inthe head, which, in the opinion of a skilful surgeon, must have beeninflicted by a broadsword or cutlass. The experience of this gentlemandiscovered other suspicious indications. The face was much blackened, theeyes distorted, and the veins of the neck swelled. A colouredhandkerchief, which the unfortunate man had worn round his neck, did notpresent the usual appearance, but was much loosened, and the knotdisplaced and dragged extremely tight; the folds were also compressed, asif it had been used as a means of grappling the deceased, and dragginghim perhaps to the precipice.
On the other hand, poor Kennedy's purse was found untouched; and, whatseemed yet more extraordinary, the pistols which he usually carried whenabout to encounter any hazardous adventure were found in his pocketsloaded. This appeared particularly strange, for he was known and dreadedby the contraband traders as a man equally fearless and dexterous in theuse of his weapons, of which he had given many signal proofs. The Sheriffinquired whether Kennedy was not in the practice of carrying any otherarms? Most of Mr. Bertram's servants recollected that he generally had acouteau de chasse, or short hanger, but none such was found upon the deadbody; nor could those who had seen him on the morning of the fatal daytake it upon them to assert whether he then carried that weapon or not.
The corpse afforded no other indicia respecting the fate of Kennedy; for,though the clothes were much displaced and the limbs dreadfullyfractured, the one seemed the probable, the other the certain,consequences of such a fall. The hands of the deceased were clenchedfast, and full of turf and earth; but this also seemed equivocal.
The magistrate then proceeded to the place where the corpse was firstdiscovered, and made those who had found it give, upon the spot, aparticular and detailed account of the manner in which it was lying. Alarge fragment of the rock appeared to have accompanied, or followed, thefall of the victim from the cliff above. It was of so solid and compact asubstance that it had fallen without any great diminution by splintering;so that the Sheriff was enabled, first, to estimate the weight bymeasurement, and then to calculate, from the appearance of the fragment,what portion of it had been bedded into the cliff from which it haddescended. This was easily detected by the raw appearance of the stonewhere it had not been exposed to the atmosphere. They then ascended thecliff, and surveyed the place from whence the stony fragment had fallen.It seemed plain, from the appearance of the bed, that the mere weight ofone man standing upon the projecting part of the fragment, supposing itin its original situation, could not have destroyed its balance andprecipitated it, with himself, from the cliff. At the same time, itappeared to have lain so loose that the use of a lever, or the combinedstrength of three or four men, might easily have hurled it from itsposition. The short turf about the brink of the precipice was muchtrampled, as if stamped by the heels of men in a mortal struggle, or inthe act of some violent exertion. Traces of the same kind, less visiblymarked, guided the sagacious investigator to the verge of the copsewood,which in that place crept high up the bank towards the top of theprecipice.
With patience and perseverance they traced these marks into the thickestpart of the copse, a route which no person would have voluntarilyadopted, unless for the purpose of concealment. Here they found plainvestiges of violence and struggling, from space to space. Small boughswere torn down, as if grasped by some resisting wretch who was draggedforcibly along; the ground, where in the least degree soft or marshy,showed the print of many feet; there were vestiges also which might bethose of human blood. At any rate it was certain that several personsmust have forced their passage among the oaks, hazels, and underwood withwhich they were mingled; and in some places appeared traces as if a sackfull of grain, a dead body, or something of that heavy and soliddescription, had been dragged along the ground. In one part of thethicket there was a small swamp, the clay of which was whitish, beingprobably mixed with marl. The back of Kennedy's coat appeared besmearedwith stains of the same colour.
At length, about a quarter of a mile from the brink of the fatalprecipice, the traces conducted them to a small open space of ground,very much trampled, and plainly stained with blood, although witheredleaves had been strewed upon the spot, and other means hastily taken toefface the marks, which seemed obviously to have been derived from adesperate affray. On one side of this patch of open ground was found thesufferer's naked hanger, which seemed to have been thrown into thethicket; on the other, the belt and sheath, which appeared to have beenhidden with more leisurely care and precaution.
The magistrate caused the footprints which marked this spot to becarefully measured and examined. Some corresponded to the foot of theunhappy victim; some were larger, some less; indicating that at leastfour or five men had been busy around him. Above all, here, and hereonly, were observed the vestiges of a child's foot; and as it could beseen nowhere else, and the hard horse-track which traversed the wood ofWarroch was contiguous to the spot, it was natural to think that the boymight have escaped in that direction during the confusion. But, as he wasnever heard of, the Sheriff, who made a careful entry of all thesememoranda, did not suppress his opinion, that the deceased had met withfoul play, and that the murderers, whoever they were, had possessedthemselves of the person of the child Harry Bertram.
Every exertion was now made to discover the criminals. Suspicionhesitated between the smugglers and the gipsies. The fate of DirkHatteraick's vessel was certain. Two men from the opposite side ofWarroch Bay (so the inlet on the southern side of the Point of Warroch iscalled) had seen, though at a great distance, the lugger drive eastward,after doubling the headland, and, as they judged from her manoeuvres, ina disabled state. Shortly after, they perceived that she grounded,smoked, and finally took fire. She was, as one of them expressed himself,'in a light low' (bright flame) when they observed a king's ship, withher colours up, heave in sight from behind the cape. The guns of theburning vessel discharged themselves as the fire reached them; and theysaw her at length blow up with a great explosion. The sloop of war keptaloof for her own safety; and, after hovering till the other exploded,stood away southward under a press of sail. The Sheriff anxiouslyinterrogated these men whether any boats had left the vessel. They couldnot say, they had seen none; but they might have put off in such adirection as placed the burning vessel, and the thick smoke which floatedlandward from it, between their course and the witnesses'
observation.
That the ship destroyed was Dirk Hatteraick's no one doubted. His luggerwas well known on the coast, and had been expected just at this time. Aletter from the commander of the king's sloop, to whom the Sheriff madeapplication, put the matter beyond doubt; he sent also an extract fromhis log-book of the transactions of the day, which intimated their beingon the outlook for a smuggling lugger, Dirk Hatteraick master, upon theinformation and requisition of Francis Kennedy, of his Majesty's exciseservice; and that Kennedy was to be upon the outlook on the shore, incase Hatteraick, who was known to be a desperate fellow, and had beenrepeatedly outlawed, should attempt to run his sloop aground. About nineo'clock A.M. they discovered a sail which answered the description ofHatteraick's vessel, chased her, and, after repeated signals to her toshow colours and bring-to, fired upon her. The chase then showed Hamburghcolours and returned the fire; and a running fight was maintained forthree hours, when, just as the lugger was doubling the Point of Warroch,they observed that the main-yard was shot in the slings, and that thevessel was disabled. It was not in the power of the man-of-war's men forsome time to profit by this circumstance, owing to their having kept toomuch in shore for doubling the headland. After two tacks, theyaccomplished this, and observed the chase on fire and apparentlydeserted. The fire having reached some casks of spirits, which wereplaced on the deck, with other combustibles, probably on purpose, burntwith such fury that no boats durst approach the vessel, especially as hershotted guns were discharging one after another by the heat. The captainhad no doubt whatever that the crew had set the vessel on fire andescaped in their boats. After watching the conflagration till the shipblew up, his Majesty's sloop, the Shark, stood towards the Isle of Man,with the purpose of intercepting the retreat of the smugglers, who,though they might conceal themselves in the woods for a day or two, wouldprobably take the first opportunity of endeavouring to make for thisasylum. But they never saw more of them than is above narrated.
Such was the account given by William Pritchard, master and commander ofhis Majesty's sloop of war, Shark, who concluded by regretting deeplythat he had not had the happiness to fall in with the scoundrels who hadhad the impudence to fire on his Majesty's flag, and with an assurancethat, should he meet Mr. Dirk Hatteraick in any future cruise, he wouldnot fail to bring him into port under his stern, to answer whatever mightbe alleged against him.
As, therefore, it seemed tolerably certain that the men on board thelugger had escaped, the death of Kennedy, if he fell in with them in thewoods, when irritated by the loss of their vessel and by the share he hadin it, was easily to be accounted for. And it was not improbable that tosuch brutal tempers, rendered desperate by their own circumstances, eventhe murder of the child, against whose father, as having become suddenlyactive in the prosecution of smugglers, Hatteraick was known to haveuttered deep threats, would not appear a very heinous crime.
Against this hypothesis it was urged that a crew of fifteen or twenty mencould not have lain hidden upon the coast, when so close a search tookplace immediately after the destruction of their vessel; or, at least,that if they had hid themselves in the woods, their boats must have beenseen on the beach; that in such precarious circumstances, and when allretreat must have seemed difficult if not impossible, it was not to bethought that they would have all united to commit a useless murder forthe mere sake of revenge. Those who held this opinion supposed eitherthat the boats of the lugger had stood out to sea without being observedby those who were intent upon gazing at the burning vessel, and so gainedsafe distance before the sloop got round the headland; or else that, theboats being staved or destroyed by the fire of the Shark during thechase, the crew had obstinately determined to perish with the vessel.What gave some countenance to this supposed act of desperation was, thatneither Dirk Hatteraick nor any of his sailors, all well-known men in thefair trade, were again seen upon that coast, or heard of in the Isle ofMan, where strict inquiry was made. On the other hand, only one deadbody, apparently that of a seaman killed by a cannon-shot, driftedashore. So all that could be done was to register the names, description,and appearance of the individuals belonging to the ship's company, andoffer a reward for the apprehension of them, or any one of them,extending also to any person, not the actual murderer, who should giveevidence tending to convict those who had murdered Francis Kennedy.
Another opinion, which was also plausibly supported, went to charge thishorrid crime upon the late tenants of Derncleugh. They were known to haveresented highly the conduct of the Laird of Ellangowan towards them, andto have used threatening expressions, which every one supposed themcapable of carrying into effect. The kidnapping the child was a crimemuch more consistent with their habits than with those of smugglers, andhis temporary guardian might have fallen in an attempt to protect him.Besides, it was remembered that Kennedy had been an active agent, two orthree days before, in the forcible expulsion of these people fromDerncleugh, and that harsh and menacing language had been exchangedbetween him and some of the Egyptian patriarchs on that memorableoccasion.
The Sheriff received also the depositions of the unfortunate father andhis servant, concerning what had passed at their meeting the caravan ofgipsies as they left the estate of Ellangowan. The speech of MegMerrilies seemed particularly suspicious. There was, as the magistrateobserved in his law language, damnum minatum--a damage, or evil turn,threatened--and malum secutum--an evil of the very kind predicted shortlyafterwards following. A young woman, who had been gathering nuts inWarroch wood upon the fatal day, was also strongly of opinion, though shedeclined to make positive oath, that she had seen Meg Merrilies--at leasta woman of her remarkable size and appearance--start suddenly out of athicket; she said she had called to her by name, but, as the figureturned from her and made no answer, she was uncertain if it were thegipsy or her wraith, and was afraid to go nearer to one who was alwaysreckoned, in the vulgar phrase, 'no canny.' This vague story receivedsome corroboration from the circumstance of a fire being that eveningfound in the gipsy's deserted cottage. To this fact Ellangowan and hisgardener bore evidence. Yet it seemed extravagant to suppose that, hadthis woman been accessory to such a dreadful crime, she would havereturned, that very evening on which it was committed, to the place ofall others where she was most likely to be sought after.
Meg Merrilies was, however, apprehended and examined. She denied stronglyhaving been either at Derncleugh or in the wood of Warroch upon the dayof Kennedy's death; and several of her tribe made oath in her behalf,that she had never quitted their encampment, which was in a glen aboutten miles distant from Ellangowan. Their oaths were indeed little to betrusted to; but what other evidence could be had in the circumstances?There was one remarkable fact, and only one, which arose from herexamination. Her arm appeared to be slightly wounded by the cut of asharp weapon, and was tied up with a handkerchief of Harry Bertram's. Butthe chief of the horde acknowledged he had 'corrected her' that day withhis whinger; she herself, and others, gave the same account of her hurt;and for the handkerchief, the quantity of linen stolen from Ellangowanduring the last months of their residence on the estate easily accountedfor it, without charging Meg with a more heinous crime.
It was observed upon her examination that she treated the questionsrespecting the death of Kennedy, or 'the gauger,' as she called him, withindifference; but expressed great and emphatic scorn and indignation atbeing supposed capable of injuring little Harry Bertram. She was longconfined in jail, under the hope that something might yet be discoveredto throw light upon this dark and bloody transaction. Nothing, however,occurred; and Meg was at length liberated, but under sentence ofbanishment from the county as a vagrant, common thief, and disorderlyperson. No traces of the boy could ever be discovered; and at length thestory, after making much noise, was gradually given up as altogetherinexplicable, and only perpetuated by the name of 'The Gauger's Loup,'which was generally bestowed on the cliff from which the unfortunate manhad fallen or been precipitated.