(Vol. ix., pp. 174. 280.)
The copious Notes of your correspondents on this subject have only left the
opportunity for a few stray gleanings in the field of their researches,
which may, however, not prove uninteresting.
The compiler of a curious 12mo. (_A Memorial for the Learned_, by J. D.,
Gent., London, 1686) records, among "Notable Events in the Reign of Henry
VI.," that,--
"Soon after the good Duke of Gloucester was secretly murthered, five of
his menial servants, viz. Sir Roger Chamberlain, Knt., Middleton,
Herber, {454} Artzis, Esq., and John Needham, Gent., were condemned to
be hanged, drawn, and quartered; and hanged they were at Tyburn, let
down quick, stript naked, marked with a knife to be quartered; and then
the Marquess of Suffolk brought their pardon, and delivered it at the
place of execution, and so their lives were saved."--P. 77.
The following document from the Patent Rolls of the forty-eighth year of
the reign of King Henry III. (skin 5.) affords conclusive evidence of the
affirmative:
"Rex omnibus, etc. salutem. Quia Inetta de Balsham pro receptamento
latronum et imposito nuper per considerationem curie nostre suspendio
adjudicata, et ab hora nona diei Iune usque post ortum solis diei
martis sequen. suspensa, viva evasit, sicut ex testimonio fide dignorum
accipimus. Nos, divinae charitatis intuitu, pardonavimus eidem Inetta
sectam pacis nostre que ad nos pertinet pro receptamento predicto, et
firmam pacem nostrum ei inde concedimus. In cujus, etc. Teste Rege apud
Cantuar. XVI^o. die Augusti.
"Convenit cum recordo LAUR. HALSTED, Deput. Algern. May. mil."
Plot, in his _Natural History of Staffordshire_, p. 292., quotes this
pardon, and suggests that possibly
"She could not be hanged, upon account that the larynx, or upper part
of her windpipe, was turned to bone, as Fallopius (_Oper._, tom. i.,
_Obs. Anat._, tract. 6.) tells us he has sometimes found it, which
possibly might be so strong, that the weight of her body could not
compress it, as it happened in the case of a Swiss, who, as I am told
by the Rev. Mr. Obadiah Walker, Master of University College, was
attempted to be hanged no less than thirteen times, yet lived
notwithstanding, by the benefit of his windpipe, that after his death
was found to have turned into a bone; which yet is still wonderful,
since the circulation of the blood must be stopt, however, unless his
veins and arteries were likewise turned to bone, or the rope not slipt
close."
Besides the account of Anne Green, Denham, in the 4th book of his
_Physico-Theology_, quotes the following instance from Rechelin (_De Aere
et Alim. defect._, cap. vii.),--
"Of a certain woman hang'd, and in all appearance dead, who was
nevertheless restored to life by a physician accidentally coming in,
and ordering a plentiful administration of the spirit of sal ammoniac."
(See also _The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death, and the Danger of
precipitate Interments and Dissections demonstrated_, 12mo., London, 1751.)
A paragraph, stating that Fauntleroy, the notorious forger, had survived
his execution, and was living abroad, has more than once gone the round of
the newspapers. It is sometimes added that his evidence was required in a
Chancery suit,--absurdly enough, as, if not _actually_, he was at least
_legally_ dead.
The story of Brodie, executed October, 1788, for an excise robbery at
Edinburgh, is probably familiar to most. The self-possession and firmness
with which he met his fate was the result of a belief in the possibility of
his resuscitation:
"It is a curious fact, that an attempt was made to resuscitate Brodie
immediately after the execution. The operator was Degravers, whom
Brodie himself had employed. His efforts, however, were utterly
abortive. A person who witnessed the scene, accounted for the failure
by saying that the hangman, having been bargained with for a short
fall, his excess of caution made him shorten the rope too much at
first, and when he afterwards lengthened it, he made it too long, which
consequently proved fatal to the experiment."--_Curiosities of
Biography_, 8vo., Glasgow, 1845.
There is a powerfully-written story in _Blackwood's Magazine_, April, 1827,
entitled "Le Revenant," in which a resuscitated felon is supposed to
describe his feelings and experience. The author, in his motto, makes a
sweeping division of mankind:--"There are but two classes in the
world--those who are _hanged_, and those who are _not hanged_; and it has
been my lot to belong to the former." Many well-authenticated cases might
still be adduced; but enough at least has now probably been said upon the
subject, to show the possibility of surviving the tender mercies of
Professor Calcraft and his fraternity.