Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 03.pdf/514

Rh der touches the neck of the victim with the index-finger of the left hand, blood will flow from the place where the finger rests, in evi dence of guilt. It was doubtless this belief that prompted the conscience-stricken Macbeth, after he had murdered Duncan, to exclaim : " Blood will have blood! Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak. Auguries and un derstood relations have by magpies, ravens, and rooks brought forth the secreted man of blood." This ordeal or test McKay proposed should be tried at the inquest by his sister-in-law, alleging that it would decide who was the guilty person; but she declined. He then insisted upon trying it himself. " I insist," he said, "upon being permitted to subject my self to the test of blood; for it will, I hope, convince the public that I am an innocent man, for if I am guilty, my wife's blood will follow the touch of my finger." The coroner gave his consent, and in the presence of the multitude, amid profound and ominous silence, the suspected man ap proached the dead body of his wife and placed his finger on her neck. When he withdrew it, a dark, bloody spot marked the place where it had rested. There indeed was the " gout of blood which was not there before," the aveng ing spot " pleading trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of her taking off." McKay had resorted to the test of blood, and it pronounced against him in the blood of his victim. In an instant a ghastly pal lor overspread his face. Cold perspiration stood in great drops on his forehead; his heart almost ceased to beat, and, tottering half fainting into a chair, he exclaimed, — .' Oh, oh! there's the blood! there's the blood, the blood, the blood! Oh, my God, my God! there 's the blood! But I — I did not do it! I did not do it, I did not, I did not! Hut oh, how shall I escape, for there 's the blood!" Burying his face in his hands, his frame shook and trembled with emotions that were terrible to behold. Any attempt to describe

the effect of this scene upon the spectators would be useless. Had an accusing angel spoken from the skies, or the lips of the dead woman suddenly become voluble, the people could not have been more astonished and startled. To the superstitious this cir cumstance established the guilt of McKay by proof " as strong as holy writ." But to the more enlightened, to the physicians present, there was a natural cause for this apparently supernatural occurrence. The corpse had been in the grave two days at least. The part touched by McKay was swollen and tinged with a miliary erup tion which rendered the skin soft and yielding to the touch. The man undoubtedly pressed his finger upon the part with some force, causing it to slip from the side of the neck, removing the skin, thus revealing a bloody matter that had gathered under it. This was the explanation reason gave; but it was useless to urge it in explanation to the ex cited people present. They had heard the prisoner appeal to the awful test, had witnessed the bloody proof of his guilt, and the Touch of Death — the Ordeal of Blood — ran like wildfire through the country. Soon after this event McKay was indicted for murder; and in June, 1820, his trial took place at Angelica, New York, before the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Ambrose Spencer, then Chief-Justice of the State, presided. The career of Judge Spencer as a judge places his name among the great judi cial officers of the nation. On the bench he was grave, dignified, impartial, though often almost imperious. He held counsel to a close consideration of the case under argu ment, permitted few of those light efforts that strive after effect alone; none of those excursions which produce sensation by a smart antithesis or theatrical flourish. The prosecution was conducted by John A. Collier, — a name that has added lustre to the legal history of the State of New York. Vincent Matthews, of Rochester, New York, and John W. Hurlbert, appeared for