nry; "we have been awaiting your return with some anxiety
and curiosity. What is the meaning of all this? I am, as we are all, in
perfect ignorance of the meaning of what took place."

"I will tell you. The person whom you have had here, and goes by the
name of Varney, is named Francis Beauchamp."

"Indeed! Are you assured of this?"

"Yes, perfectly assured of it; I have it in my warrant to apprehend him
by either name."

"What crime had he been guilty of?"

"I will tell you: he has been _hanged_."

"Hanged!" exclaimed all present.

"What do you mean by that?" added Henry; "I am at a loss to understand
what you can mean by saying he was hanged."

"What I say is literally true."

"Pray tell us all about it. We are much interested in the fact; go on,
sir."

"Well, sir, then I believe it was for murder that Francis Beauchamp was
hanged--yes, hanged; a common execution, before a multitude of people,
collected to witness such an exhibition."

"Good God!" exclaimed Henry Bannerworth. "And was--but that is
impossible. A dead man come to life again! You must be amusing yourself
at our expense."

"Not I," replied the officer. "Here is my warrant; they don't make these
out in a joke."

And, as he spoke, he produced the warrant, when it was evident the
officer spoke the truth.

"How was this?"

"I will tell you, sir. You see that this Varney was a regular scamp,
gamester, rogue, and murderer. He was hanged, and hung about the usual
time; he was cut down and the body was given to some one for dissection,
when a surgeon, with the hangman, one Montgomery, succeeded in restoring
the criminal to life."

"But I always thought they broke the neck when they were hanged; the
weight of the body would alone do that."

"Oh, dear, no, sir," said the officer; "that is one of the common every
day mistakes; they don't break the neck once in twenty times."

"Indeed!"

"No; they die of suffocation only; this man, Beauchamp, was hanged thus,
but they contrived to restore him, and then he assumed a new name, and
left London."

"But how came you to know all this?"

"Oh! it came to us, as many things usually do, in a very extraordinary
manner, and in a manner that appears most singular and out of the way;
but such it was.

"The executioner who was the means of his being restored, or one of
them, wished to turn him to account, and used to draw a yearly sum of
money from him, as hush money, to induce them to keep the secret