The Ghosts & Family Legends. Catherine Crowe
neighbourhood, where the carrier was so well known. Till the spring assizes at E——, where he was to be tried, it furnished the staple of conversation, and every fresh bit of evidence, for or against him, was eagerly repeated and canvassed. My father was summoned as a witness to the hour at which Healy had been at our house that night, and also to the recognising the foot of Mr. Gould's mare. The evidence was entirely circumstantial, as nobody had witnessed the murder, though murder there certainly had been; nor was there anybody else to whom suspicion could attach. As for the tramps Healy said he had met, no trace of them could be found, nor did anyone appear to have seen such a party.
"When all the evidence had been heard, my father said he felt considerable doubt what the verdict would be, and he really believed the jury were greatly perplexed; but when Healy stood up, and in the most solemn manner said, 'I am innocent, my Lord! I call God to witness, I am innocent! May this right arm wither if I murdered the man!' So great an impression was made on the court, that, added to the prisoner's previous good character, every body saw he would be acquitted.
"He was; Healy went forth a free man, and we were all too glad to believe in his innocence, to dispute the justice of the verdict; but lo! the hand of the Lord was on him. He had called upon God to bear witness to his words; and he did. In three days from that time, Richard Healy's stalwart right arm was withered! The muscles shrunk; the skin dried up; and it looked like the limb of a mummy!
"Though a voice from Heaven testified against him, he could not be arraigned again for the same crime, and he remained at liberty. He attempted for a short time to carry on his business, but people ceased to employ him; and his feeble arm could no longer lift the boxes and hampers with which his cart was wont to be loaded. He went about, avoided by every one but his own immediate connexions. I often met him, but he never looked me in the face; indeed, he rarely, if ever, raised his eyes; his round shoulders grew rounder, till he came to stoop like an old man. He seemed to move under a heavy burthen that weighed him to the earth.
"After an interval, however, he bought some property; and in his old age—for he survived his trial several years—he was in prosperous circumstances. But everybody said, 'Where did he get the money?'
"We were all deeply interested in this singular story; and in reference to the withered arm, Colonel C. said, that he should certainly not have believed it had he not seen it himself.
"I think, said I, that it was not so difficult to account for the phenomenon as at first appears. Had he been innocent, the solemn adjuration he uttered in court would have been justifiable in the eyes of God and man, and would have occasioned him no concern afterwards; but he was guilty; he had called upon God to bear witness to a lie, and, doubtless, the consciousness of this sacrilegious appeal filled him with horror and alarm. He would tremble lest his prayer should be heard and the curse fall upon him. These terrors would direct all his thoughts to his arm, and produce the very thing he feared; for Sir Henry Holland asserts that the mind is capable of acting upon the body to such a degree, as sometimes to create disease in a particular part on which the attention is too intently fixed."
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