Nou l’i en feraït autant!”
(Shear! shear! the sheep,
Of the great Bonamy,
Were he here before us,
We would do as much to him).
They crept up the avenue unobserved to the house, for Helier was afraid to confront all these men who had evidently been drinking heavily, alone and unarmed. The next day his herdsman came to him with a long face, and said that robbers had broken into the sheepfold in the night and killed all the sheep, and brought up the other men as witnesses. Mr. Bonamy said nothing, except that he would like all these men to accompany him down to the Court to there testify to the robbery. This they did, and when they got there and told their story, Mr. Bonamy and his daughter then turned round and denounced them. They were taken into custody, and hanged shortly afterwards at St. Andrew’s.[349]
There are several stories illustrating the re-appearance of people whose dying wishes had been disregarded by their survivors, and also of people wishing to tell their heirs where their treasure had been hid.
At the King’s Mills, a Mrs. Marquand died, and left instructions with her husband that her clothes were to be given to her sister Judith. After her death the widower did not do it, so every night her ghost came and knocked at her husband’s door. One night she rapped so loudly that all the neighbours opened their windows, and heard her say:—
“Jean, combien de temps que tu me feras donc souffrir, donne donc mes hardes à ma sœur Judi.”
(John, how much longer wilt thou make me suffer, give then my clothes to my sister Judy).