signs of life on which I could rely: the very slight warmth I could detect in the forehead on laying my cheek against it being as likely to arise from the transmission of heat from the sand as from the returning vital force; nevertheless, I determined to persevere till there was no room left for hope. By-and-by I imagined I could detect a slight clamminess on the skin, the sand no longer slipped away from it as from a piece of marble. Hardly daring to hope that this indicated that life was not yet extinct, and yet almost trembling with excitement, I controlled myself, and continued my efforts with the same steadiness. After many minutes of that intense anxiety which few beside the experimental chemist ever experience, I had no longer any doubt—a faint, a very faint, but distinctly perceptible movement of the heart was evident. By slow degrees it increased in force, and I thought it prudent to abandon the use of the ammoniacal gas for a time and substitute for it atmospheric air. The immediate result was a diminution in the strength of the pulsation, but by assisting the action of the lungs mechanically, this was restored again, and henceforward I only resorted to the gas occasionally, and then only for a few instants at a time. I no longer regarded the time; I continued my efforts; my whole mind was so absorbed in what I was doing that I felt no bodily sensation, neither fatigue, hunger, nor thirst; it must however have been several hours before there was the least sign that the patient had recovered consciousness. The first symptom was a twitching of the nostrils, followed by a similar movement of the corners of the mouth. The next indication I perceived was an attempt to raise the eyelids, and after many ineffectual efforts he succeeded. The instant he raised the lids I looked eagerly into his eyes to see their expression, and note his sensations on returning to life from death, as far as it was possible to read them therein. You have seen him, and have probably remarked the extraordinary depth and mystery of his look. Well, that same unfathomable look met mine then; it never changes, never varies.
“As soon as he was able to move his tongue, I raised his head slightly and dropped a little brandy and water on it. After a prolonged administration of this stimulant, other symptoms of a return to life were exhibited, the relation of which can only be interesting to medical men; let it suffice to say, that I had no longer any doubt of the ultimate recovery of my patient.
“My first questions, when he had slept and eaten, had reference to his bodily sensations at the instant of and after his suspension. He describes them as merely a sharp pricking over his body from head to foot, which was the last thing of which he was conscious: his return to life was like a long nightmare. But beyond this, I am convinced he was conscious of something which has no earthly connection. I am not influenced in this opinion by anything he has said, for whenever I have questioned him, he is as silent as a statue: it is from that unearthly, never-changing look of his, accompanied by an absence of animation, and apparently utter insensibility to everything we regard as painful or annoying.
“His execution took place eleven months ago, as you no doubt remember. For several weeks afterwards he remained locked up in my laboratory, till I thought it safe to send him here, to New Orleans, to my brother, who is as thoroughly satisfied of his innocence of the murder as I am; for I am convinced that he would not have denied his guilt to me on his restoration to life, if he had committed the deed.”
I did not see the doctor again after this, but I presume he returned to the place whence he had come. You know how men whose time is fully occupied go on year after year without seeing an acquaintance living in the same city, unless they meet by accident. This was my case and that of Mr. Dampier, the doctor’s brother. About five or six years ago he called on me, to ask me to take proceedings to enforce payment of an insurance on his brother’s life; not the doctor’s, but another brother who was a travelling preacher, or something of that kind. The mention of his brother’s name, caused me to ask if Samuel Calcraft was with him still, when he told me that his innocence had been established years before; “but,” he added, “it was such an extraordinary business altogether, that I will, if you wish it, write to my brother, and ask him to send you a full account of the affair!” Here is the letter I received, you can read it. It relates one of those remarkable cases which have given rise to the saying that murder will out; one of the greatest fallacies ever uttered, as I can testify from my own experience.
“My dear Mr. Hensman,
“At my brother’s desire I send you an account of my discovery of the actual murderer of poor Exton, indeed I should have done so at the time, if I had not supposed that you would see an account of it in the newspapers.
“Shortly after I saw you last, I had occasion to visit a friend named Penton, who, it turned out, occupied a considerable extent of land joining that belonging to old Sangster, Mary Exton’s father, though I was not aware of it till afterwards. One day, while strolling about, I got on this man’s estate at no great distance from his house. You are aware of my habit of studying every manifestation of life. Well, on this day, I was looking for objects near a ditch, when I chanced to see some pieces of charred bone lying about among the grass. Without the most distant idea of the discovery this was destined to lead to, I picked up one piece, then another, and another; in short, I became satisfied that the bones were fragments of a human being. I now got interested in the matter, and jumped into the ditch, which happened to be dry just then, and stirring up the dry dirt at the bottom with my heel, I found other things which had passed through the fire, viz.: teeth, buttons, and, most important of all, a belt clasp of a very peculiar design, which said more for the maker’s mythological knowledge, than for the delicacy or purity of his taste. Putting the latter in my pocket, with as many of the teeth, and buttons, and charred bones as I thought necessary to establish the fact of their having formed part of a human
