Note 73 — Chapter V · Trial by Ordeal.
Reading edition
Richard III., Act I., Scene II.
Sir Walter Scott uses the ordeal of the bier in the “Fair Maid of Perth,” in connection with the killing of Oliver Proudfute, who was killed with a lochabar axe. On the principle that “murder will out,” while the body lay in state at the High Church of St. John, in Perth, the servants of Sir John Ramorny were required to pass by the corpse and touch it, but when Bonthron, the person who had really slain the deceased, came to the body, he refused to touch it and claimed the right of trial by battle. (“Fair Maid of Perth,” Chapter XXIII.)