228 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [West Port.
had sent so many others ; and his skeleton now
hangs in the Museum of the University. The
Parliament Square rang with reiterated cheers as if
thecity held jubilee, when sentence was pronounced;
but the people were greatly dissatisfied with the
verdict of ? not proven ?? in the case of M?Dougal ;
and had Hare not effected his escape secretly by
the mail home to Ireland, the people would infallibly
have tom him limb from limb. In prison,
and with death before him, Burke?s thoughts were
ever recurring to earth. Once he was observed
(says Alexander Leighton) to be silent and mediviously
he had been unaccustomed to. The fact
is,? continues the editor of the Week@ JournaZ,
? that the wretch, when awake, by means of ardent
spirits steeped his senses in forgetfulness. . . . At
night he had short fits of sleep, during which he
raved, but his expressions were inarticulate, and
he ground his teeth in the most fearful manner.?
In the morning he was removed to the Calton
gaol, and secured by a chain to the massive iron
gaud. On the 27th January he was unchained and
conveyed to the lock-up in Liberton?s Wynd, at the
heap of which the gallows was erected. He was
THE GRASSMARKET IN 1646. (Afl~r Gwah ofRothicmay.)
15, The Horse Market Street ; Y, St. Mary Magdalen?s Chapel.
tative, and a pious attendant took it as a sign of
contrition ; but Burke said suddenly-? I think .I
am entitled to and ought to get that five pounds
from Dr. Knox, which is still unpaid, on the body
of the woman Docherty.?
? Why,?<? replied the astonished pietist, ? Dr.
Knox lost by the transaction, as the body was
taken from him.?
?That was not my business,? said Burke ; ? I
delivered the subject, and he ought to have kept it.?
He confessed in the lock-up house that he ? had
participated in many more murders than those he
had been indicted for j and said that after his mind
was composed he would make disclosures, which
would implicate several others, besides Hare and
his wife, in the same crimes for which he was
doomed to die. He was asked how did he feel
when pursuing his horrible avocation 7 He replied,
that in his waking moments he had no feeling, but
that when he slept he had frightfuldreams, whichpreattended
by two Catholic priests and two Presby.
tenan ministers, for his ideas of religion were some.
what vague and cloudy. When his heavy fetters
were removed and they fell with a clank on the
floor, ? So may all earthly chains fall from me ! ?
he exclaimed, but went to die evidently with
the hopeless secret feeling ?that he was too
deeply sunk in crime even to think of the infinite
mercy of Heaven.? Yet was he eager to be dead,
and ascended the scaffold with his eyes half closed,
as if anxious to be beyond the roar of the
vast assemblage that thronged the great thoroughfare
far as the eye could reach, and filled every
window, roof, and foot of vantage ground. The deep
hoarse roar of- voices rose into a terrible and
prolonged yell, on which he threw around him a
fierce glance of desperate defiance and hatred ; and
again rose the prolonged yell of disgust and halfglutted
vengeance when, after hanging the usual
time, the body was conveyed to the College.
229 - West Port.] BURKE AND HARE.
The sight of the execution instead of allaying
the passions of the justly-excited people, inflamed
them with a desire to drag his body out and
tear it to pieces; but a grand public exhibition
was arranged for the morrow, and the white,
naked corpse, so loathed, was laid on the black
narrow escape from an infuriated mob, according
to the Weekly]ournaZ. ?In the den of murder
occupied by Burke,? continues the paper, ?several
objects strengthen the general persuasion that
many other wretches had fallen a sacrifice under
the same root The bloody straw in the corner, a
BALLANTYNE?S CLOSE, GRASSMARKET, 1850. ( F m a JY Jfl chmw-.)
marble table of the theatre, and displayed to
thousands who streamed through the entire day.
Burke was cut up and put in strong pickle and
in small barrels for the dissecting-table, and part
of his skin was tanned.
The woman MkDougal after the execution had
the daring effrontery to present herself in Tanner?s
Close again; but the people of the Portsburgh
rose, and she only found in the watch-house a
heap of bloody clothes on the floor, and a pile of
old boots and shoes, chiefly those of females,
amounting to several dozens, for which the
pretended trade of a shoemaker never can account,
furnish ample food for suspicion ! The idea
suggests itself that the clothes and shoes belonged
to the unfortunate girls whom this monster
decoyed to his house, intoxicated, and murdered,
as he did the poor old wanderer. . . . The two
