or no chance," he cried, as I proceeded with my assistant, who now
entered, to apply the remedies; "I would yet live the two hours! I had no
sooner swallowed the drug, than I thought I had intercepted the mercy of
heaven; life seemed--and, oh, it even now seems--sweeter than ever, and
death still more dreadful! Quick--quick--quick! The poison is busy with my
heart. I would give a world for even these two hours of life and
hope--small, small as that is!"

I proceeded with the application of the usual remedies. A portion, but only
a portion of the laudanum, had been taken off; and the next efficient
remedy was motion, to keep off the sleepy lethargy that drinks up the
fountain of life. Two men were got to drag him as violently as possible
along the floor, leaving him enough of his own weight to force him to use
his limbs. I noticed that he struggled with terrible energy against the
onset of the subtle agent; exhibiting the most signal instance I ever
beheld of the power of that hope which seems to be consistent with life
itself. Already an eighth part of the apparent period of his sojourn upon
earth had passed. Seven quarters more would, in all likelihood, bring him
to the scaffold, and, by resisting my energies to counteract the effects of
the poison, he might have eluded the grim arm of the law, by a death a
thousand times less dreadful. Every now and then, as the men dragged him
along, he turned his eyes to me, and asked the hour. Sometimes he repeated
the question within two minutes of my answer. As often was his ear directed
to the street, to try to catch the sounds of a coach, or the feet of a
horse; and then he redoubled his energies to keep off the onset of the
lethargy, which I told him was most to be feared. The operation was
persevered in; but the men informed me they thought he was gradually
getting heavier on their hands, and I noticed his eye, at times, get so
dull that he seemed to be on the eve of falling asleep and sinking. Another
quarter of an hour soon passed; and in a little further time, the bailies
and chaplain would find it their duty to come and prepare him for his
fate--alas! now indeed so certain, that no reasonable thought could suggest
even the shadow of a hope; a reprieve, so near the time of execution, would
not have been trusted to the mail, and a messenger would have arrived, by
quick stages, long before; unless there had, indeed, been any fault in the
government authorities, in tampering wi