CALLOUS MEDICOS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 172, 4 June 1862, Page 6

CALLOUS MEDICOS.

(from the court op c-vcus ; on, the story of ISUUKI-: AND HAKE. HY AI.EX.IXDKR LUIGIITON'.)

On this occasion he and his friends had made uso of a boat, specially hired for the purpose—a inoda of conveyance, which subsequently passed into a custom, before the Limekilns peoplu were roused from their apathy, and became next to frantic under drenmstanees win h left it in doubt whether any one of them, hnsb.ind, wife, father, mother, or lover, could say that their relations had not been stolen away from their cherished Rosyth. The adventurers studied their time so well that their boat would get alongside of the dike under the sliade of -night, and they could wi'e away an hour or two while they watched the opportunity of ii descent. They wore favored by fciat inspis a'ed moonlight, which was enough f>r their keen eyes, and not less keen hands, and yet might suffice to enable them to escape observation. 15ut just as they were about to land they observed the figure of a young woman sitting near one of the head stones. The stillness pf a)l about enabled them to hear deep sobs, as if thp heart had been convulsed, and tried by these efforts to throw off the weight of a deep grief. T.ie story was readable enough, even by gouls, but so intent were they on their prey that they felt no response to those offerings of the stricken heart to Him who, for His own purposes, had struck it. The scene continued beyond the esiduxunce of the r patience, and science, as usual, murmured against Nature's decrees; but at length she who was thought an intruder rose, nnd after some movement of the arms, which came afterwards to be understood, slowly left the spot. The coast, as the saying goes, was now at last clear, and with a bound tiie myrmidons overleaped the wall. They were presently on the spot where the female had been seated, and even in their hurry observed that the heart broken creature had been occupied as her last act by throwing some silly bits of flowers over the grave,—signs which as' little physicnjly as morally interfered with their designs of sppliafion. in a few minutes the object they sought was jn thejr possession, and if their wug any care more than ordinary obr served in putting all matters to right on the surr f ice, it was the selfish wish to kiep so convenient a'place free from those suspicions which might bar another visit. Nay, so heartless were they, that one of the party, whether Liston himself we cannot say, though it would not have, been unlike him, decorated his jacket by sticking one of the slips of offering into the button hole. They now hurried wiih their burden to the boat and pushed off, but they had scarcely got beyond a few yards

when they saw the same figure hurrying to the tliko. The light of the moon wus now brighter, and they could easily observe the figure as it passed hurriedly, as if in great excitement, backwards and forwards, occasionally holding out this arms, mid uttering the most melancholy sounds that eve?'came from the human heart. It might -be.that as yet she had hope in mere adjuration, but us the boat moved further auti further away, there came a shrill ' wail, so piercing that it might have been heard even at the distance of the village. But heedless of sn appeal," which nature responded to faithfully by an echo, they rowed away, still hearing, in spit-j of the splash of the oars, the same wail as it gradually became faint in their increasing distance. At length they could hear nothing but the sweltciing of the waters, and llosyth, with its soliary mourner, bade fair to be forgotten under the Jjatheofthcfla.sk, which, on such occasions, was never awanting. This story was very soon made readable to Liston and others by the concatenation of certain very simple circumstances. A newspaper report which Liston had seen some 'lavs before hud announced the death, by drowning, "of a young' sailor belonging to Limekilns. The account was sufficiently lugubrious for any renders ; the editor, as usual, had mixed up with it, whether truly or not, the old story of love and impending marriage;; the object, too, being, of course, young, brave, virtuous, and comely. Then' came the account of tha funeral, also touching!v given, liut it seemed that all tin's poetry had been thrown away upon the ardent anatomist ; nor even when afterwards, in the hall, he became satisfied that he had secured the right object, would he in his heart admit that he had in this adventure done anything more than would be justified by the use he could make of his knowledge in ameliorating physical evils in his fellowmen, however dearly that advantage might have been acquired in the agony of that figure lie had left wailing at llosyth. Yet it is but fair to say that Liston himself admitted that the sound of that cry, the sight of those wringing hauds,and the rapid goings to and fro of the shade on the shore, never passed from his memory. liobert Liston, beyond all the others, carried so much o the spirit of chivalry into his adventures of body snatching, that he thought it as noble an act to cai ry off a corpse as an ancient knight errant did to bear off a prisoner ; but his followers were more like mimallons than myrmidons, and required more of the flask to keep up their spirits. Some of these youths once made a mistake at Rosyth. Having run up their boat, they proceeded to the little death's croft to take up the body of a woman who had died in childbed. The night was dark and gusty, and the \-. md whistled through the long grass as if Necnia had been presiding there to hear her own doleful music ; but our youths cared little for these things, and after twenty minutes' work they pulled up the " tall beauty," as they called her, after they got home. Away they hurried her to the dike, upon which they laid her, till two got over to place her in the boat. AH seemed fair, but just at the moment some ill-mannered tyke set lip, without the excuse of a moon, —for she was far enough away beyond the shadows—a deep howl, so prolonged and mournful that even all the potency of the flask could not save them from being struck with awe, as well as a fear of detection. But they had more to be afraid of, for almost immediately after one.of them called out, " There's a lantern among the graves;" and thus flurried, yet, determined not to lose their prize, they lugged, the body from the top of the rubble dike so roughly, if not violently, that a great portion of the long hair which had got entangled among thu stones, was, along with a piece of the scalp, torn away, and left hanging on the other side. Safe on board, they lost no time in pushing off, in spite of the surly breakers that threatened to detain them; nor did they now care for the'dog or the lantern, the latter of which they saw, through the dark medium, dodging towards the very spot they had left, ami the.i remain stationary there, as if tho bearer had been strayed and petrified by the relict they had left. Up to not a very late period, the story went in the neighbourhood that he who, bore the lantern was the husband of " the tall beauty," and that he discovered the hair, and knew from the color, which nearly approachef? flaxen, that it was that of his wife, whose un r timely death had rendered him frantic. There was no loss in that case, but 'smother which was current among the classfSijiot^Mfc after was less fortunate, though not less trueT^Tr indeed maybe verified by the brother, still living, of the young student who figured in it. Somcr where "about Gilmerton or Liberton, we are unj] certain which, a small farmer who had lost his wife went out one morning very early, probably because he could not rest in his bed for the dreary blank that was there,—that negative sq much more appalling to love than the dead positive. On going along the Edinburgh wart, he observed some white figure lying p'.ose by the. footpath, and making up to see what it was,"he came upon the corpse of a woman, dressed in her scolloped dead-clothes, and lying extended upon her back, with the "Starr pyes'? op-jn, glazed, and fixed. On lqoking more nafe rowly. he discovered that it was his own wife, and/all dismayed and wild as he became, he could still have the power to think that she had come bank to life, after haying been buried and lain in the grave ft>r three days, and had thus far struggled to get to her beloved home. Frenzy knows nothing of logic, and was he to think how she could have thrown oft'a ton of earth and got up again to the light of the sun ? The idea took him by force, and, throwing himself upon the body, he looked into the dead orbs, and watched the cold stiff lips, and listened for a breath. Vain heart, with all its hopes and tumults | no sign in return for all this madness. Yet he persevered, and (rave up, and resumed, and, as the hope died to come back again, he writhed his strong body in an agony tenfold more acute than his first griefj nor would he in all probability have renounced the insane hope for a much longer time, if the Penicuiek carrier had not come up, and, hearing the wonderful tale, hinted the explanation of an interrupted bodjv.snatching. The light flushed upon him in an instant, and, in pursuance of a desire to keep the occurrence secret for the sake of her friends ,'ic prevailed upon the man to fcike the body in the cart and remove it to his house. It was buried again privately on the following night, and tew ever heard of the occur, rence. And now comes the explanation of a .stoiy which may seem altogether incredib'e. A young student of.the name of F y, belonging to Monro's c'ass, entered with two others into an adventure of body-snatching, in imitation of those whose exploits had produced in them an cntl usiasm nntemperid by prudence, and not directed by experience. They fixed upon their ground, and hired a pig. and the hour was rcgnlatud by an obituary. Away, accordingly, they set, with uo more knowledge of the secrets of the art than what they could get from the regular purveyors c f the class, but provided with the necessary instruments. They soon got to their destination, and, leaving the gig in the charge of one of them, the'two other's got Qvcr the Ipvv \ya]l, ftncl, ]iy the aid of the moon, discovered the last laid turf, Going to work vigorously, they succeeded in. raising the body of a woman, but not having brought from the gig the indispensable sack, and, being fluttered and hurried, they bethought themselves of carrying the object to the side of the road, just as it was with the dead-clothes, and then running along by the side of the hedge to where their companions waited. F y accordingly, with the aid of his friend, got the white burden hoisted on his back, holding it as firmly as he could by the linen. So far all was well, and they were fortunate, moreover, in getting out by a gate which they could open ; but just as F y got to the road, along which he had to go a considerable space, the grasp he had of the shroud began lo give way, perhaps almost unknown to,himself, the effect of which was that the body slipped so far down that the feet touched the ground. The consequence was altogether peculiar ;as F y bent and dod.t>:cd in the hurry of getting forward, the feet of t j*?<^fe|j|o|- coming always to the ground, resiled ag.iriv?i'th sonic; thing like elasticity, so that jt appeared to him as if it trotted or leaped behind him. Fear is the mother of suspicion, and the id<a took hold of hini that the body was alive. He uttered n. roar, threw his burden off, and crying out to his friend, " By G , she's alive ?" jumped into the gig. His friend was taken by the same terror, and away they gnlloj ed, leaving the corpse in the place, where it was found next morning by tha husband.