The herald., 1895-12-22
THE SERGEANT'S GHOST

at Culloden, the whole of the north of
Scotland was in disturbed state, and,
it was necessary to keep large force
of troops there in order to stamp out
the last sparks of rebellion. Among
the regiments to which this stern duty
was intrusted was one commanded and
to large extent, raised by Lieutenant
General Guise, which was generally
known as Guise's regiment. 1t WAS
quartered in the wild and remote high
land district of Braemar, at the south
western corner of Aberdeenshire. The
sympsthies of the Highlanders Of that
portion of the country were warmly
Jacobite, and the sight of the English
soldiers was hateful to the great bulk
of the population who, cherished fierce
feelings of vengeance against the
butchers of Culloden." Time, however,
to some degree modified these hostile
sentiments, and the Highlanders De-
came used to the presence Of the red
coats, when they found them, after all.
not to be such monsters of cruelty as
they had at one time imagined, and out
of whom, if civilly treated, they dis
covered there was money to be made.
In Guise's regiment there was Ser
geant Arthur Davies, who was p puiar
with his comrades. He was superior,
in birth and education, to the ordinary
run of noncomissioned officers, and
was, besides, remarkable for his great
stature, his immense physical strength
and his handsome personal appearance.
He had been active in obtaining re-
cruits for the regiment, and in conse-
qusnce received greater part of pay
and enjoyed better position than
others nominally OF the same rank. A
frank, manly, fearless English soldier,
he had ingratiated himself even among
the dour and sullen Highlanders, and
was regarded by them with less ami
mostly, probably, than any other SOL
der in the regiment. The sergeant
was an enthusiastic sportsman, and 80
little did he fear any treachery on the
| part of the mountaineers that he fre-
| quently set out on shooting excursions
over the wild mOOrs alone or attended
by single gilly.
On the morning of Sept. %, 1749, Ser
| geant Davies started off alone with his
fowling piece to shoot over moor not
far distant from Braemar. When night
fell he did not return to his quarters,
and the next day passed without any
tidings Of him. On the third day q
search party was sent out to scour the
was unable to find the slightest trace OF
him. A week passed, month, and still
no Sign Of the lost sergeant of Gmse's.
Five years passed, and the mysterious
disappearance of Sergeant Davies had
1 N NJ oonanntad for EuaY hia NOm-
rades had ceased to speculate over it..
Nor would it probably ever have been
| solved but for one man, who had sworn
never to cease his inquiries and in
vestigations until the murderers of
Sergeant Davies we're brought to JUS
tice. This man was James Small, for
merly an ensign in the Earl of London's
regiment, and now steward Of the estate
of Strowan, which had been forfeited
to the crown through the attainder of
the laird as rebel. Small had known
Sergeant Davies we'll; they had fought
at Culloden together, and had subse-
| quently met often while Guises regi-
ment was quartered in Braemar. The
new steward of Strawan was deter
mined and consequential man. He
thought it was a siur upon the govern
ment he served that it should be I'M
able to discover and bring to justice
| the murderers of an officer of the army,
and he deemed 1t incumbent upon
| himself to remove that slur. With
patient, logged perseverance, and the
keen instinct of born detective, he
set himself to the task of discovering
| the perpetrators of the crime, and at
last succeeded. Bit by bit he joined TO-
gether stray pieces of evidence until
he had a case sufficiently strong to
| Justify him securing the arrest of two
Highlanders - Duncan Terig, alias
Clerk, and Alexander Balm Macdonald.
The fowling piece belonging to the
murdered man had been found in the
house of one of them, and trinkets and
valuables, known to have been the
property of Sergeant Davies, had been
seen in the possession of both men.
The prisoners we're arraigned before
the lords of session at 7 o'clock on the
morning of June II, 1884. Then there
was made public the strange story of
the manner in which the crime and its
perpetrators had been discovered.
Alexander Macpherson, of Inverey,
a farm servant, aged 26, deposed that
one night in the summer of 1850, while
in bed in shealing (the long turf
matched clubhouse in which Highland
farm servants slept, in beds ranged
along the walD, several others being
at the same time in the said shealing,
there entered q man dressed in bit o,
whom he took to be the brother of a
neighbor, Donald Farquharson, of
Glendee, who came to his bedside and
beckoned him to come out. Macpher-
son rose and followed the figure out
side the door, whereupon the person
turned and said:
II am Sergeant Davies" then, point
ing to moss, or tract of swampy land,
known as Christie's Hill, added: "You
will find my bones there; go and bury
them at once, for can have no peace,
nor will give you any, until my bones
are buried, and you may get Donald
Farquharson to help you"
Having spoken these words, solemn
ly and earnestly, the apparition van
ished. Early next morning Macpher-
son went alone to the spot indicated
by the wrath, and so exactly had been
the instructions given by the mysteri-
Gus visitant that before he had searched
five minutes he came upon human
body Undecided in the moss. The flesh
was gone, but the coat of blue cloth,
which had been worn by the dead man,
was pretty nearly entire. By using his
staff as probe and lever Macpherson
drew out the body and laid it on the
upper soil, but did not attempt to
h,1rv IL