SPECULATION ON GHOSTS. 431 



they came to some planks and brick-work closely cemented. A pick- 

 axe, however, being procured, this obstruction was soon removed, 

 and the aperture was distinctly seen. * I thought that must be the 

 spot, or I was much mistaken/ said the old informant, as she moved 

 away, thinking, doubtless, it was merely some caprice of the owner 

 in having the well re-opened : ' he was a cursed old fool for blocking 

 it up, and thus give himself the trouble of trudging a quarter of a 

 mile every day for fresh water/ It was some considerable time be- 

 fore they could fix the apparatus for a descent ; but when the grap- 

 pling irons were fastened, and the rope let down, there was a breath- 

 less silence in the interval ; the line was drawn up several times 

 without any thing but rubbish attached to it. At length, however, 

 something heavier than usual was laid hold on by the grapplers an 

 uncouth box, or trunk, was drawn up, scarcely held together by 

 reason of its damp and rotten state. They managed, notwithstand- 

 ing, to land it ; but when it was broken open, a sight presented itself 

 that filled the by-standers, who were not prepared for the spectacle, 

 with horror it proved to be the skeleton of a child ! 



" The sensations of my brother cannot be described. f This is a 

 foul deed, neighbours/ observed one of the constables watch the 

 body a few minutes, and we will return/ They instantly darted 

 into the cottage, secured the old man, who, although past eighty years 

 of age, made an obstinate defence. They succeeded, however, in 

 binding his hands, and, leaving him to the charge of two men, recom- 

 menced their search in the apartment. Jn a little time they had re- 

 moved a pile of faggots, and other lumber that lay heaped up against 

 the wall, and here they found, crouching like a hunted cat, a woman 

 about sixty, of wretched appearance, the daughter of the old pri- 

 soner. It seems that at first sight of the officers she had, from a con- 

 sciousness of guilt, thus secreted herself. The whole village was by 

 this time gathered round the house, each one having something to 

 say, and withal declaring they always entertained a suspicion that all 

 was not right. The prisoners were brought before the same magis- 

 trate whom my brother had met in the morning. On their examina- 

 tion, although the older culprit maintained a dogged silence, yet the 

 woman, overcome by a sense of her situation, confessed the child to 

 have been her's by her own father ; that shortly after its birth they 

 conspired to destroy it ; and, to prevent detection, secured it in a 

 strong box, and threw it down the well then, by way of further pre- 

 caution against any accidental discovery, they closed its mouth with 

 boards, and bricks, and garden-earth. They had lived together 

 ever since like two proscribed spirits, shut out from all intercourse 

 with their fellow-men. A crime so dark and revolting, accompanied 

 with so many extraordinary circumstances which led to its disclosure, 

 created a strong sensation at the time among the inhabitants of the 

 little town, who looked up to it as a special instance of the finger of 

 Providence, in appointing a stranger to become the discoverer of a 

 crime that had been committed among them nearly forty years pre- 

 vious. It remains only to be said that the guilty parties were tried 

 and executed at the county town shortly after ; the house was pulled 

 down, and the well being filled up, the whole premises was laid out 



