d, such as you yourself are, I
should not believe it.'
"I am not surprised to hear you say that," replied the doctor; "nor
should I be offended even now if you were to entertain a belief that I
might, after all, be mistaken."
"No, no; you would not be so positive upon the subject, I well know, if
there was the slightest possibility of an error."
"Indeed I should not."
"Let us have the sequel, then."
"It is this. I was most anxious to effect an immediate resuscitation, if
it were possible, of the hanged man. A little manipulation soon
convinced me that the neck was not broken, which left me at once every
thing to hope for. The hangman was more prudent than I was, and before I
commenced my experiments, he said,--
"'Doctor, have you duly considered what you mean to do with this fellow,
in case you should be successful in restoring him to life?'
"'Not I,' said I.
"'Well,' he said, 'you can do as you like; but I consider that it is
really worth thinking of.'
"I was headstrong on the matter, and could think of nothing but the
success or the non-success, in a physiological point of view, of my plan
for restoring the dead to life; so I set about my experiments without
any delay, and with a completeness and a vigour that promised the most
completely successful results, if success could at all be an ingredient
in what sober judgment would doubtless have denominated a mad-headed and
wild scheme.
"For more than half an hour I tried in vain, by the assistance of the
hangman, who acted under my directions. Not the least symptom of
vitality presented itself; and he had a smile upon his countenance, as
he said in a bantering tone,--
"'I am afraid, sir, it is much easier to kill than to restore their
patients with doctors.'
"Before I could make him any reply, for I felt that his observation had
a good amount of truth in it, joined to its sarcasm the hanged man
uttered a loud scream, and opened his eyes.
"I must own I was myself rather startled; but I for some moments longer
continued the same means which had produced such an effect, when
suddenly he sprang up and laid hold of me, at the same time
exclaiming,--
"'Death, death, where is the treasure?'
"I had fully succeeded--too fully; and while the executioner looked on
with horror depicted in his countenance, I fled from the room and the
house, taking my way home as fast as I possibly could.
"A dread came over me, that the restored man would follow
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