Ivan the Terrible; or, Dark Deeds of Night — page 108: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

104 of raiment, twenty-six guineas in money, a gold watch, not in repair, and the rl stata which he had shown while at Joel Spackman’s camp fire; but with this difference, that the stock of one was broken off short just above the grasp, and the butt was entirely gone. It was not found among his chattels. A careful examination of the articles in his trunk did not result in anything calculated to strengthen the charge of his criminality; but there was not a single person present who did not feel as morally certain of his guilt as if the jury had already declared the fact. That night he slept—if he slept at all—in the common gaol of the city. His accuser, the warm-hearted and resolute James Gray, did not sleep. The excitement, arising from mingling and contradictory emotions—sorrow for his brave young commander’s fate, and the natural exultation of a generous spirit at the consciousness of having performed, with signal success, an arduous and painful task, combined to drive all pleasant slumbers from his eyes; and with the dawn he was again up and stirring, with his mind still full of the awful business in which he had been engaged. We do not care to pursue his course in the ordinary walks of the city, nor account for his employments during the few days which ensued, until, in consequence of a legal examination into the circumstances which anticipated the regular work of the sessions, the extreme excitement of the young accuser had been renewed. Macnab or Macleod—and it is possible that both names were fictitious—as soon as he recovered from his first terrors, sought the aid of an attorney—one of those acute, small, chopping lawyers, to be found in almost every community, who are willing to serve with equal zeal the sinner and the suint, provided that they can pay with equal liberality. The prisoner was brouglit before the court under habeas corpus, and several grounds submitted by his counsel with the view to obtaining his discharge. It became necessary to ascertain, among the first duties of the state, whether Major Spencer, (the alleged victim, was really dead. Until it could ‘be established, that a man should be imprisoned, tried, and punished for a crime, it was necessary to show thut acrime had been com- tnitted, and the attorney made himself exceedingly merry with the ghost story of young Gray. The venerable judge, however, was one of those good men who had a decent respect for the faith and Opinions of his ancestors; and though he certainly would not have consented to the hanging of Macleod under the sort of testimony which had been adduced, he yet saw enough in all the circum- stances to justify his present detention. In the meantime efforts were to be made to ascertain the whereabouts of Major Spencer ; though were he even missing—so the counsel for Mucleod con- tended—his death could be by no means assumed in consequence. To this the jadge shook his head doubtfully. James Gray, how- ever, was not satisfied to wait the slow processes which were suggested for coming at the truth; while the ridicule of the culprit’s lawyer stung him to the quick, and he muttered to himself, more than once, a determination “ to lick the sauce out of that impudent chap’s leather.” But this was not his only resolve. There was one which he proceeded to put into instant execution, and that was to seek the body of his murdered friesd on the spot where he fancied it might be found—namely, the dark and dismal bay where the spectre had made his appearance to his eyes. The suggestion was approved—though he did not need this to rompt hia resolution—hby his mother and uncle, Spackman. The atter determined to be his companion, and he was also accompanied by the sheriff's officer who had arrested the suspected felon. Before daylight, on the morning after the examination before the judge had taken place, and when Macleod had been remanded to prison, James Gray started on his journey. His fiery zeal received ad- ditional force at every added moment of delay, and his eager spur- ring brought him at an early hour after noon to the neighbourhood of the spot through which his search was to be made. When his companions and himself drew nigh, they were all at a loss in which direction first to proceed. The bay Was one of those massed forests. whose walls of thorns, vines, and close tenacious shrubs, seemed to defy invasion. To the eye of the townsman it was so forbidding that he pronounced it absolutely impenetratable. But James was not to be bafied. He led them round it, taking the very course which he had Pureues the night when the revelation was made him ; he showed them the very tree at whose foot he had sunk when the supernatural torpor began to fall upon him > he then pointed out the spot, some twenty steps distant, at which the spectre made his appearance. To this pel they proceeded in a body, and essayed an entrance, but were so discouraged by the difficultes at the outset that all, James not excepted, ednelude nor his victim could possibly have found entrance there, But lo! while they stood confounded and indecisive, undeter- mined in which way to move, a sudden flight of wings was heard from the centre of the bay, at a little distance above the spot where they had striven for’entrance. They looked up, and beheld about fifty buzzards—those notorious domestic vultures of the south— ascending from the interior of the Way, and perching along upon that neither the murderer THE BUZZARD’S FEAST; OR, THE SECRET MURDER. the branches of the loftier trees by which it was overhung. Even-. were the character of these birds less known, the particular busi- ness in which they had just then been engaged was betrayed by huge gobbets of flesh which some of them had borne aloft in their flight, and still continned to rend with beak and bill, as they tottered upon the branches where they stood. A piercing scream issued from the lips of James Gray as he beheld this sight, and strove to scare the offensive birds from their repast. | ‘The poor major! the poor major!’’ was the involuntary and agonised exclamation of the youth. ‘* Did I ever think he would have come to this ?’’ , The search, thus guided and encouraged, was pressed with re- newed diligence and spirit; and, at length, an opening was found through which it was evident that a body of considerable size had but recently gone. The branches were broken from the small shrub trees, and the undergrowth trodden into the earth. They followed this path, and, as is the case commonly with waste tracks of this description, the density of the growth diminished sensibly at every step they took, till they reached a little pond, which, though circumscribed in area, and full of cypresses, yet proved to be singularly deep. Indeed it was an alligator-hole, where, in all probability, a numerous tribe of these reptiles had their dwelling. - Here, on the edge of the pond, they discovered the object which had drawn the keen-sighted vultures to their feast, in the body of a horse, which James Gray-at once identified as that of Major Spencer. The carcase of the animal was already very much torn and lacerated. The eyes were plucked out and the animal completely disembowelled. Yet, on ex- amination, it was not difficult to discover the manner of his death. This had been effected by fire-arms.' Two bullets had passed through his skull, just above the eyes, either of whieh must have been fatal. The murderer had led the horse to the spot, anit committed the cruel deed where his body was found. The search was now continued for that of the owner, but for some time it proved ineffectual. Atlength the keen eyes of James Gray detected, amidst a heap of moss and green sedge that rested beside an overthrown tree, whose branches jutted into the pond, a whitish, but discoloured object, that did not seem native to the place. Bestriding the fallen tree, he was enabled to reach this object, which, with a burst of grief, he announced to thedistant party was the hand and arm of is unfortunate friend, the wristband of the shirt being the con- spicuous object which had first caught his eye. Grasping this, he drew the corse, which had been thrust beneath the branches of the tree, to the surface ; and, with the assistance of his uncle, it was finally brought to the dry land. Here it underwent a careful e&- amination. The head was very much disfigured ; the skull was fractured in several places by repeated blows of some hard instru- ment, inflicted chiefly from behind. A closer inspection revealed a bullet-hole in the abdomen, the first wound, in all probability, which the unfortunate gentleman received, and by which he was, perhaps, tumbled from his horse. The blows on the head would seem to have been unnecessary, unless the murderer—whose»pro- ceedings seemed to have been singularly deliberate—was resolved upon making ‘‘ assurance doubly gure.”’ But, as if the watchful Providence had meant that nothing should be left doubtful which might tend to the complete conyiction of the criminal, the con- stablestumbled upon the butt of the broken pistol which had been found in Macleod’s trunk. This he picked up on the edge of the pond in which the corse had been discovered, and while James Gray, and his uncle, Spackman, were engaged in drawing it from the water. The place where the fragment was discovered at once denoted the pistol as the instrument by which the final blows were inflicted. “Fore God,” said the judge, as these proofs were sub- mitted on the trial, ‘‘ you may be a very innocent man, prisoner, after all, as, by my faith, I do not think there have been many murderers before you; but you ought, nevertheless, to be hung as an example to all other persons who suffer such strong prools of guilt to follow their innocent misdoings. Gentleman of the jury, if this person, Macleod or Macnab, didn’t murder Major Spencer, either you or I did ; and you must now decide which of us it is The jury brought in a verdict of ** Guilty,’ without leaving the panel ; and Macnab, alias Macleod, was hung at White Point, \ Charleston, somewhere about the year 178 ; also confessing on the scaffold to be the murderer of Lieutenaut Raymond, the friend of Major Spencer. ~~ NOTIOH.—In our next Number will be commenced a new and interesting Story, entitled, THE RED HOUSE AT ST. PETERSBURGH. Order No, 1 of the “BOY PIRATE, or, LIFE ON THE OCEAN ;* receive, GRATIS, No. 2 and a LARGE ENGRAVING, PRINTED ma ebooke com and