"Dec. 9th. Wm. Duell (p. 570.) ordered to be transported for life."
Other instances will be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. i. p.
172., and vol. xxxvii. p. 90; and in vol. lxx. pt. i. p. 107. is the very
curious case of Anne Green of Oxford, quoted from Dr. Plot's _Natural
History of Oxfordshire_, p. 197., which is well worth reading. Also, in
vol. lvii. pt. i. p. 33., is a letter, containing the two following
quotations from Cardan, in explanation of the phenomenon of surviving death
by hanging:
"Is qui diu suspensus Bononiæ jacuit, vivus inventus est, quod asperam
arteriam non cartilagineam sed osseam habuit."--_Cardanus_, lib. ii.
tr. 2. contr. 7.
"Constat quendam bis suspensum servatum miraculi specie; inde cum
tertio Judicis solertiâ periisset, {282} inventam osseam asperam
arteriam."--_Cardanus_, lib. xiv., De rerum variet., cap. 76.
In the _Newgate Calendar, or Malefactors' Bloody Register_, vol. ii. p.
233., is the account of Margaret Dickson, who was executed for child-murder
at Edinburgh, June 19, 1728, with an engraving of her "rising from her
coffin near Edinburgh, as she was carrying from the place of execution in
order for interment."
"By the Scottish law," says the author, "every person on whom the
judgment of the court has been executed has no more to suffer, but must
be for ever discharged; and the executed person is dead at law, so that
the marriage is dissolved. This was exactly the case with Margaret
Dickson, for the king's advocate could not pursue her any farther, but
filed a bill in the High Court of Justiciary against the sheriff for
not seeing the judgment executed. And her husband being a good-natured
man, was publicly married to her within a few days after the affair
happened."