16. CHAPTER XVI.
In which it is related what became of the Author after being
hanged.
Here, it would seem, that my history should
find its natural close; but I hope to convince the
world that a man may live to record his own death
and burial. I say burial; for, from all I have
heard, I judge that I was buried as well as hanged,
and that I lay in the earth in a coarse deal coffin,
from two o'clock in the afternoon of a November
day, until nine at night; when certain young doctors
of the village, who were desirous to show
their skill in anatomy, came to the place of execution,
and dug up the three best bodies, of which, as
my good luck would have it, my own was one—
Zip the fiddler's being another, while the third was
that of a young fellow named Sam, notorious for
nothing so much as a great passion he had for
butting with his head against brick walls, or even
stone ones, provided they were smooth enough.
The young anatomists, previous to hacking us,
resolved to try some galvanic experiments on us,
having procured a battery for that purpose; and
they invited a dozen or more respectable gentlemen
to be present, and witness the effects of that
extraordinary fluid, galvanism, on our lifeless bodies.
The first essayed was that of the unfortunate
Scipio, who, being well charged, began, to the admiration
of all present, to raise first one arm, and
then the other, then to twist the fingers of his left
hand in a peculiar way, as if turning a screw, inclining
his head the while towards his left shoulder,
and then to saw the air, sweeping his right hand to
and fro across his breast, with great briskness and
energy, the fingers of his left titillating at the air
all the while, so as to present the lively spectacle
of a man playing the fiddle; and, indeed, it was
judged, so natural was every motion, that had the
party been provided with a fiddle and bow to put
into his hands, they would have played such a jig
as would have set all present dancing.
The next experiment tried was upon the body of
Sam, whose muscles were speedily excited to exercise
themselves in the way to which they had
been most accustomed, though not in one so agreeable
to the chief operator; for, in this case, the
lifeless corse suddenly lifting up its head, bestowed
it, with a jerk of propulsion equal in force to the
but of a battering-ram, full against the stomach of
the operator, whereby he was tumbled head over
heels, and all the breath beaten out of his body.
The reader may suppose, as it was proved to be
the virtue of galvanism to set the dead muscles
doing those acts to which the living ones had been
longest habituated, that I, upon being charged,
could do nothing less than throw myself upon my
hands and knees, and go galloping about the table,
as I had been used to do over the lawn, when master
Tommy was mounted upon my back.
Such, however, was not the fact. The first
thing I did upon feeling the magical fluid penetrate
my nerves, was to open my eyes and snap
them twice or thrice; the second to utter a horrible
groan, which greatly disconcerted the spectators;
and the third to start bolt upright on my feet, and
ask them “what the devil they were after?” In a
word, I was suddenly resuscitated, and to the great
horror of all present, doctors and lookers-on, who,
fetching a yell, that caused me to think I had got
among condemned spirits in purgatory, fled from the
room, exclaiming that I “was the devil, and no niggur!”
What was particularly lamentable, though I
was far from so esteeming it, one of them, a young
gentleman who had come to the exhibition out of
curiosity, being invited by one of the doctors, was so
overcome with terror, that before he reached the
door of the room he fell down in a fit, and being
neglected by the others, none of whom stopped to
give him help, expired on the spot.
As for me, the cause of all the alarm, I believe I
was ten times more frightened than any of the
spectators, especially when I came to recollect that
I had just been hanged, and that I would, in all
probability, be hanged again, unless I now succeeded
in making my escape. As for the cause of my
resuscitation, and the events that accompanied it, I
was then entirely ignorant of them; and, indeed, I
must confess I learned them afterward out of the
newspapers. I knew, however, that I had been
hanged, and that I had been, by some extraordinary
means or other, brought to life again; and I
perceived that if I did not make my escape without
delay, I should certainly be recaptured by the returning
doctors.
I ran towards the door, and then, for the first
time, beheld that unfortunate spectator who had
fallen dead, as I mentioned before, and lay upon
the floor with his face turned up. I recollected
him on the instant, as being a young gentleman
whom I had once or twice seen at my late master's
house. All that I knew of him was, that his
name was Megrim, that he was reputed to be
very wealthy, and a great genius, or, as some said,
eccentric, and that he was admired by the ladies,
and, doubtless, because he
was a genius.
As I looked him in the face, I heard in the distance
the uproar of voices, which had succeeded
the flight of the doctors, suddenly burst out afresh,
with the sound of returning footsteps; and a loud
bully-like voice, which I thought very much like
that of the under-turnkey at the prison—a man
whom I had learned to fear—cried out, “Let me see
your devil; for may I be cussed up hill and down
hill if I ever seed a bigger one than myself.”
Horrible as was the voice, I was not dismayed.
I saw at my feet a city of refuge, into which my
enemies could not pursue me. My escape was
within my own power.
“Master,” said I, touching my head (for I had
no hat) to the corpse, “if it is all the same to you,
I beg you'll let me take possession of your body.”
As I pronounced the words the translation was
effected, and that so rapidly, that just as I drew my
first breath in the body of Mr. Megrim, it was
knocked out of me by the fall of my old one, which
—I not having taken the precaution to stand a little
to one side—fell down like a thunderbolt upon me,
bruising me very considerably about the precordia.
In this state, being half suffocated, and somewhat
frightened, I was picked up and carried away by
my new friends, and put to bed, where, having
swallowed an anodyne, I fell directly sound asleep.
And here, before proceeding farther, I will say,
that the doctors and their friends were greatly surprised
to discover my late body lying dead, having
expected to find it as animated as when they left it.
But by-and-by, having reflected that the galvanism,
or artificial life, infused into its nerves had been
naturally exhausted at last, whereupon it as naturally
followed that the body should return to its
lifeless condition, they began to aver that the most
surprising part of the business was, that it had kept
me alive so long, and enabled me, after groaning
and speaking as I had actually done, to walk so far
from the table on which I had been lying.
On the whole, the phenomenon was considered
curious and wonderful; and an account of it having
been drawn up by the doctors, and headed “Extraordinary
Case of the Effects of Galvanism on a
Dead Body,” it was printed for the benefit of scientific
men throughout the world, in a medical journal,
where, I doubt not, it may be found at this day.
