214 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



" On the 28th day of September the sergeant set forth, 

 along with a party which was to communicate with a 

 separate party of English soldiers at Glenshee ; but when 

 Davies's men came to the place of rendezvous, their com- 

 mander was not with them, and the privates could only say 

 that they had heard the report of his gun after he had 

 parted from them on his solitary sport. In short, Sergeant 

 Arthur Davies was seen no more in this life, and his remains 

 were long sought for in vain. At length a native of the 

 country, named M'Pherson, made it known to more than one 

 person, that the spirit of the unfortunate huntsman had 

 appeared to him, and told him he had been murdered by 

 two Highlanders, natives of the country, named Duncan 

 Terig, alias Clerk, and Alexander Bain Macdonald. Proofs 

 accumulated ; and a person was even found to bear witness, 

 that lying in concealment upon the hill of Christie (the 

 spot where poor Davies was killed), he and another man, 

 now dead, saw the crime committed with their own eyes. 

 A girl, whom Clerk afterwards married, was nearly at the 

 same time seen in possession of two valuable rings, which 

 the sergeant used to have about his person. Lastly, the 

 counsel and agents of the prisoners were convinced of their 

 guilt. Yet, notwithstanding all these suspicious circum- 

 stances, the panels were ultimately acquitted by the jury. 



" This was chiefly owing to the ridicule thrown upon the 

 story by the incident of the ghost, which was enhanced 

 seemingly, if not in reality, by the ghost-seer stating the 

 spirit to have spoken as good Gaelic as he had ever heard 

 in Lochaber. 



" ' Pretty well,' answered Mr. Macintosh, ' for the ghost 

 of an English sergeant !' This was, indeed, no sound jest, 

 for there was nothing more ridiculous in a ghost speaking a 

 language which he did not understand when in the body, 

 than there was in his appearing at all. But still the counsel 

 had a right to seize upon whatever could benefit his client ; 

 and there is no doubt that this observation rendered the 

 evidence of the spectre yet more ridiculous ; in short, it is 

 probable that the ghost of Sergeant Davies, had he actually 

 been to devise how to prevent these two men from being 

 executed for his own murder, could hardly have contrived 



