The Court of Cacus Part 11

[21] We might, perhaps, say, except till now. Not long ago, we were told by a lady, who was in Paris about the year 1859, that, having occasion for a nurse, she employed a woman, apparently between sixty and seventy years of age. She gave her name as Mrs Hare, and upon being questioned whether she had been ever in Scotland, she denied it, stating that she came from Ireland. Yet she often sung Scotch songs; and what brings out the suspicion that she was the real Mrs Hare the more is, that she had a daughter, whose age, over thirty, agrees perfectly with that of the infant she had in her arms when in court. In addition to all this, the woman's face was just that of the picture published at the time.

[22] After Burke's execution, M'Dougal is said to have made a wonderful revelation. One night, when the two men were deep in an orgy, Burke put the question, "What they would do when they could get no more bodies?" to which Hare answered, "That they could never be absolutely at a loss while their two wives remained, but that would only be when they were hard up."

The conversation had been overheard by one of the women.