stained from coming forward; but that as I did not like the idea of
his being rudely interred by the authorities, I had come forward to ask
for the body, after the execution should have taken place, in order that
I might, at all events, bestow upon it, in some sequestered spot, a
decent burial, with all the rites of the church.

"The sheriff was a man not overburthened with penetration. He applauded
my pious feelings, and actually gave me, without any inquiry, a written
order to receive the body from the hands of the hangman, after it had
hung the hour prescribed by the law.

"I did not, as you may well suppose, wish to appear more in the business
than was absolutely necessary; but I gave the executioner the sheriff's
order for the body, and he promised that he would get a shell ready to
place it in, and four stout men to carry it at once to his house, when
he should cut it down.

"'Good!' I said; 'and now as I am not a little anxious for the success
of my experiment, do you not think that you can manage so that the fall
of the criminal shall not be so sudden as to break his neck?'

"'I have thought of that,' he said, 'and I believe that I can manage to
let him down gently, so that he shall die of suffocation, instead of
having his neck put out of joint. I will do my best."

"'If you can but succeed in that,' said I, for I was quite in a state of
mania upon the subject, 'I shall be much indebted to you, and will
double the amount of money which I have already promised.'

"This was, as I believed it would be, a powerful stimulus to him to do
all in his power to meet my wishes, and he took, no doubt, active
measures to accomplish all that I desired.

"You can imagine with what intense impatience I waited the result. He
resided in an old ruinous looking house, a short distance on the Surrey
side of the river, and there I had arranged all my apparatus for making
experiments upon the dead man, in an apartment the windows of which
commanded a view of the entrance."

[Illustration]

"I was completely ready by half-past eight, although a moment's
consideration of course told me that at least another hour must elapse
before there could be the least chance of my seeing him arrive, for whom
I so anxiously longed.

"I can safely say so infatuated was I upon the subject, that no fond
lover ever looked with more nervous anxiety for the arrival of the
chosen object of his heart, than I did for that dead body, upon which I