Free Eat Thy Neighbour by Daniel Diehl Page B

shocked husband could react.
    As she fell to the ground struggling, some of the clan members slit her throat, lapping at the blood as it gushed from her jugular vein, while others slit open her belly, pulling out her entrails as though they were field-dressing a dead animal. While the poor woman lay on the road, thrashing out her life, the stronger members of the Beane clan tried to pull the man from his horse. In terror, he jerked back on the reins, using the horse’s hooves as weapons, scattering the Beanes and wounding some of them horribly in the process. In the confusion the man managed to draw his sword, slashing to the left and right,driving back his attackers. Eventually, the man would have succumbed or escaped but, as it happened, while the struggle still raged, another group of fair-goers – more than twenty in number – came along the road, causing the Beanes to scurry in all directions.
    Shaken and terrified, the man babbled out his incredible tale, taking his rescuers to the spot near the edge of the road where the horribly torn remains of his wife lay in a pool of blood. Having no doubt that they had witnessed an encounter with the Galloway cannibals, the group escorted the sobbing man to Glasgow where he repeated his story to the local magistrates, his companions attesting to the truth of his statements.
    The incredulous Chief Magistrate immediately sent a courier to the king at Edinburgh who, in turn, assembled a guard of 400 soldiers and set out for Glasgow. Four days later, King James I and his men arrived to hear the tale of murder and mayhem repeated yet again and asked the man to lead them to the spot of the attack.
    For days on end the king, his soldiers and a pack of tracker dogs scoured the roads and lanes between Lindalfoot and Ballantree and all through the surrounding area, but to no avail. Finally, as they were tramping up and down the beach running along the base of Bennane Head cliff, some of the dogs made a dash for a narrow opening in the rock face and set up an unholy, howling racket. Seeing how narrow the opening was, and how far the water ran into the cave, the guards tried to drag the dogs back to the beach, but they refused to budge.
    Finally, King James called for torches and ordered some of the men to investigate the entrance of the cave – at least as far as they could. Through the twists and turns of the cavern the men wandered, peering into one dark hole after another until they came upon a stench-filled room piled high with human bones. Some of the remains were obviously old, but others were fresh enough for bits of flesh still to be clinging to them. Sending arunner back to the mouth of the cave, as many of the party as could scrambled inside, swords and halberds at the ready.
    Room after room now yielded up their terrible secrets. In some were piles of half-rotted clothes, in others were stacks of swords, purses of money and other trinkets while in still others were human arms, legs and trunks hung from the ceilings and pickling in casks. It looked like a butcher’s warehouse.
    Once the horrified men composed themselves, they made their way deeper and deeper into the dank darkness until they encountered the Beane clan – shrieking and growling like trapped animals. The struggle was short and brutal, but the king’s men eventually dragged twenty-seven savage men and twenty-one women out of the cave where they were securely chained for their return to Edinburgh.
    While the prisoners were held under heavy guard, the soldiers removed the bones and body parts, burying them in a pit above the tide line where they were given as near to a Christian burial as was possible under the circumstances. Finally, with the small treasures culled from the piles of debris in the cave securely crated up, the party began working its way back to the capital.
    The news of what had happened spread before them, and all along the way crowds of people, some fiercely angry, others gawping with curiosity,