lowing is his own relation:--

"Not one hesitating thought now remained, but I fell greedily to the
execution of my purpose. My garter was made of a broad piece of scarlet
binding, with a sliding buckle, being sewn together at the ends. By the
help of the buckle I formed a noose, and fixed it about my neck,
straining it so tight that I hardly left a passage for my breath, or for
the blood to circulate. The tongue of the buckle held it fast. At each
corner of the bed was placed a wreath of carved work fastened by an iron
pin, which passed up through the midst of it; the other part of the
garter, which made a loop, I slipped over one of them, and hung by it
some seconds, drawing up my feet under me, that they might not touch the
floor; but the iron bent, and the carved work slipped off, and the
garter with it. I then fastened it to the frame of the tester, winding
it round and tying it in a strong knot. The frame broke short, and let
me down again.

"The third effort was more likely to succeed. I set the door open,
which reached to within a foot of the ceiling. By the help of a chair I
could command the top of it, and the loop being large enough to admit a
large angle of the door, was easily fixed, so as not to slip off again.
I pushed away the chair with my feet; and hung at my whole length. While
I hung there I distinctly heard a voice say three times, 'Tis over!'
Though I am sure of the fact, and was so at the time, yet it did not at
all alarm me or affect my resolution. I hung so long that I lost all
sense, all consciousness of existence.

"When I came to myself again I thought I was in hell; the sound of my
own dreadful groans was all that I heard, and a feeling like that
produced by a flash of lightning just beginning to seize upon me, passed
over my whole body. In a few seconds I found myself fallen on my face to
the floor. In about half a minute I recovered my feet, and reeling and
struggling, stumbled into bed again.

"By the blessed providence of God, the garter which had held me till the
bitterness of temporal death was past broke just before eternal death
had taken place upon me. The stagnation of the blood under one eye in a
broad crimson spot, and a red circle round my neck, showed plainly that
I had been on the brink of eternity. The latter, indeed, might have been
occasioned by the pressure of the garter, but the former was certainly
the effect of strangulation, for it was not attended with the sensatio