Vid. Histor. Thuan. l. 32.
12. We have also a punctual History to this purpose, related by Hollingshead, Stow, and Sir Richard Baker, from Roger of Winchester, of King Henry the second, which is this: “This King, when he was carried forth to be buried was first apparelled in his Princely Robes, having his Crown on his Head, Gloves on his Hands, and Shoes on his Feet wrought with Gold, Spurs on his Heels, a Ring of Gold on his Finger, a Scepter in his Hand, a Sword by his Side, and so was laid uncovered having a pleasant countenance: which when it was told to his Son Richard, he came with all speed to see him, and as soon as he came near him, the blood gushed out of the nose of the dead Corps in great plenty, even as if the spirit of the dead King had disdained and abhorred the presence of him, who was thought to be the chief cause of his death. Which thing caused the said Richard to weep bitterly, and he caused his Fathers body to be honourably buried at Fonteverard.”
Hist. 13.
13. The last story that we shall relate of this nature, is from a Minister that is learned, sincere and of great veracity, who had it from those that were eye-witnesses, and is this: “In the year of our Lord God, 1661. January 30th on Saturday at night about nine of the Clock, did John How of Bruzlington-Bank, at the foot of an Hill (which is about two miles distant from Bishop-Awkland) murther Ralph Gawkley, who was a Glover in Bishop-Awkland: This How was the next day apprehended and brought to touch Gawkleys Corps, the lips and nostrils of the dead body wrought and opened as he touched (which made him afraid to touch the second time) then presently the Corps bled abundantly at the nostrils in the sight of Mr. Robert Harrison the Coroner (now Tenant at Bishop-Awkland to Mr. Franckland, from whom I had the relation) of Anthony Cummin and his Brother, &c. of the Jury, and of a great many towns people, who were then present. So How was Executed the next Assizes after at Durham: Witnesses against him were Anne Wall, whom he also wounded, yet she escaped with her life, and How’s own Wife, at the motion of her own Father (a very honest Man) who bid her tell the truth, and she should never want help.”
Some may think that I have been too large and tedious in heaping so many stories concerning the bleeding of the bodies of those that have been murthered; but I did it for this reason, because there are many that think it but to be a Fable of the credulous vulgar, and others think that it is but an ordinary matter that happens to any bodies that are dead, and no extraordinary or supernatural thing in it at all. But whosoever shall but use so much patience, as seriously to read and consider these select Histories that we have recited, may easily be satisfied, both that such bleeding is absolutely true de facto, and also that there is something more than ordinary in it, and therefore we shall inlarge in these observations.
Observ. 1.
1. It will not be found to hold touch upon diligent observation and strict inquiry, that all dead bodies do bleed fresh and rosie blood, especially after the third or fourth day, or after some weeks, as divers of the instances above given do manifestly prove; and therefore is an accident incident to some dead bodies and not to all. And it will as far fail, that wounded bodies, that have been slain in the wars, after the natural heat be gone, will upon motion bleed any fresh or crimson blood at all; for we our selves in the late times of Rebellion have seen some thousands of dead bodies, that have had divers wounds, and lying naked and being turned over and over, and by ten or twelve thrown into one pit, and yet not one of them have issued any fresh and pure blood: Only from some of their wounds, some sanious matter would have flowed, putrefaction beginning by reason of the moisture and acidity in the air, but no pure blood, and therefore is not a common accident to all humane bodies that die naturally or violently, but only is peculiar to some, and especially to those that are murthered by prepensed malice, as appeareth in the Histories recited above.
Observ. 2.
2. We shall acknowledge with Gregorius Horstius, Sperlingius and Gothofredus Voigtius, that sometimes the bodies of those that have been murthered do bleed, when the murtherer is not present, as is manifest from the sixth History recited from Horstius of the young Man of twenty five years old, that bled so long and so often, though the murtherer was not present; from whence they conclude that the presence of the murtherer, is not a necessary cause of the bleeding of the murthered body; and therefore that the bleeding of the body is not always a certain and infallible sign of discovering the murtherer? To which we reply, that the issuing of fresh and crimson blood from the wound or the nostrils of the persons body that hath been murthered, is always a certain sign that the Corps that doth so bleed was murthered, because those that die naturally or violently by chance, man-slaughter or in the war, do not bleed, as hath been proved before. Again, if the murtherer be certainly known, or have confessed the crime, in regard of the final cause which is discovery, there is no reason why the Corps should bleed: And though the presence of the murtherer may not be the efficient cause why the Corps doth bleed, yet is it the occasional, as is manifest undeniably by sundry of the Histories that we have related, where the murtherers had not been certainly known but by the bleeding of the body murthered.
Observ. 3.