CHAPTER VI.

_Death of Donald the Pensioner--Hare's Debt--Negotiations with the Doctors--A Bargain Struck--Sale of Donald's Body._

The beginning of the connection of the persons whose career, up till 1827, we have endeavoured to describe in the preceding chapter, with the resurrectionist movement, may be said to have been to a certain extent accidental.

In Hare's house in Tanner's Close there resided for some time an old pensioner named Donald. About Christmas, 1827, he died, owing his landlord about £4, but as a set off against this his quarter's pension was about due, though, of course, it was more likely this would go to some relative who might be unwilling to pay the debt to Hare. The funeral arrangements were made, and everything was in readiness for consigning the remains of the old veteran to their kindred dust, when it occurred to Hare that by selling the body to the doctors he might be able to save himself from making a bad debt through the inconvenient death of his lodger before the pension was due. Burke, in his confession, stated that Hare made the proposition to him, promising a share of the proceeds. After some hesitation Burke agreed to the scheme; the coffin, which had been "screwed down," was opened, and tanners' bark substituted for the body, which was concealed in the bed. Thereafter the coffin and its contents were carefully buried. In the evening the two men visited Surgeon's Square, Hare remaining near at hand, while Burke went towards the door of Dr. Knox's class-rooms. He was noticed by one of the students; and the following strange conversation, founded on the record of it by Leighton, took place between them:--

"Were you looking for any one?" the student said, as he peered into the dour-looking face of the stranger, where perhaps there had never even once been seen a blush.

"Umph! Are you Dr. Knox?"

"No; but I am one of his students," was the reply of the young man, who was now nearly pretty well satisfied as to the intention of the stranger whom he had accosted.

"And sure," observed the latter, "I'm not far wrong thin, afther all."

"And I may suit your purpose as well, perhaps."

"Perhaps," answered the strange man; "perhaps you may, sir."

"Well," said our friend, the young student, "don't be at all afraid to speak out. Tell me your business, although I have myself an idea as to what it may be. Have you got '_The Thing_?'"

"Doun't know, sir, what you mean."

"Ah! not an old hand at the trade, I perceive. You were never here before, perhaps?"

"No," said the stranger.

"And don't know what to say?"

"No," said the stranger. And the bashful man again turned his gloomy downcast optics to the ground, and appeared also as if he didn't very well know or to be able to make up his mind as to what he should do with those hands of his, which were not made for kid gloves--perhaps for skin of another kind rather.

And shouldn't this hardened and callous-hearted student have been sorry for a man in such confusion? But he wasn't; nay, he evidently had no sympathy whatever with his refinement.

"Why, man, don't you speak out?" he said somewhat impatiently.

"There's somebody coming through the Square there," was the reply, as the man looked furtively to a side.

"Come in here, then," said the student, as he pulled the man into a large room where there were already three other young men, who also acted as assistants of Dr. Knox. And there now they were, in the midst of a great number of coarse tables, with one in the middle, whereon were deposited--each having its portion--masses or lumps of some matter which could not be seen by reason of all of them being covered with pieces of cloth--once white, but now dirty gray, as if they had been soiled with clammy hands for weeks or months....

"Sure, and I'm among the dead," said the man, ... "and I have something ov that kind to----"

"Sell," added an assistant sharply, as, in his scientific ardour, he anticipated the merchant.

"Yes."...

"And what do you give for _wun_?" he answered, as he sidled up to the ear of the young anatomist who had been speaking to him.

"Sometimes as high as £10."...

"And wouldn't you give a pound more for a fresh one?" said he, with that intoxication of hope which sometimes makes a beggar play with a new-born fortune.

"Sometimes more and sometimes less," replied the other; "but 'the thing' must always be seen."

"And by my sowl it is a good thing, and worth the money any how."

"Where is it?"

"At home."

"Then if you will bring it here about ten it will be examined, and you will get your money; and since you are a beginner, I may tell you, you had better bring it in a box."

"And have we not a tea-chest all ready, which howlds it nate, and will not my friend help me to bring it?"

"Well, mind the hour, and be upon your guard that no one sees you."

The young students who had this conversation with Burke were two men who afterwards became famous in their profession--Sir William Ferguson, F.R.S., the author of a _System of Practical Surgery_; and Thos. Wharton Jones, one of the most eminent physiologists of the country. So that the training they obtained in these troublous times has proved highly beneficial to medical science, and through it to humanity.

But to continue the story of the disposal of old Donald's body. Having come to this agreement with the students, Burke joined his companion, and went home. They put the body into a sack, and carried it to Surgeons' Square. When they arrived there they were in doubt as to what they should do with it. They laid it down at the door of a cellar, and then went to the room, where they saw the students again. By their instructions they carried the corpse into the room, took it out of the sack, and placed it on a dissecting table. A shirt which was on the body they removed at the request of the students, and Dr. Knox, having examined it, proposed they should get £7 10s. The money was paid by Jones, Hare receiving £4 5s., and Burke £3 5s., the paymaster saying he would be glad to see them again when they had any other body to dispose of. This is Burke's account of the transaction, as made in his confession on the 3rd January, 1829, and it substantially agrees with the fuller account given by Leighton.

This was the first transaction these two men had with the doctors, and it is curious to notice how an incident of so little moment in itself should be to them the first step in a long and terrible course of crime--long in the sense that, considering its nature, they should have for such a length of time kept out of the reach of the law, or, indeed, of any suspicion of being anything worse than pitiful creatures of resurrectionists, who were willing to rob graves of their mouldering contents for a few paltry pounds. That step, however, was enough.