mly
in his hands, got down with difficulty and at intervals, the entire
draught. When he found it totally exhausted, the glass fell from his hands;
but he seized and held one of mine with a grasp so firm and iron-like that
the contrast startled me. He seemed to be involved in a confused whirl of
sensations. He stared round the cell with a wildness of purpose that was
appalling; and after a time, I began to see with deep remorse, that the
wine I had unguardedly given was, as is always the case, adding keenness
to his agony and strength to his despair. He half rose once or twice and
listened; all was silent--when, after the pause of a minute or two, a
sudden fit of desperation seemed to seize upon him. He rushed to the
window, and hurriedly surveying the grates, wrenched at them with a
strength demoniac and superhuman, till the iron bars shook in their
embedments.

From this period my recollections are vague and indistinct. I remember
strongly remonstrating with the poor creature, and being pushed away by
hands which were now bleeding profusely with the intense efforts of his
awful delirium. I remember attempting to stop him, and hanging upon him,
until the insane wretch clutched me by the throat, and a struggle ensued,
during which I suppose I must at length have fainted or become insensible;
for the contest was long, and while consciousness remained, terrible and
appalling. My fainting, I presume, saved my life, for the felon was in
that state of maniacal desperation which nothing but a perfect
unresistingness could have evaded.

After this, the first sensation I can recall is that of awakening out of
that state of stupor into which exhaustion and agitation had thrown me.
Shall I ever forget it? The anxiety of some of my friends had brought them
early to the gaol; and the unusual noises which had been heard by some of
its miserable inmates occasioned, I believe, the door of the cell in which
we were, to be unlocked before the intended hour. Keenly do I recollect
the struggling again into painful consciousness, the sudden sense of
cheering daylight, the sound of friendly voices, the changed room, and the
strange looks of all around me. The passage was terrible to me; but I had
yet more to undergo. I was recovered just in time to witness the poor
wretch, whose prop and consolation I had undertaken to be, carried,
exhausted and in nerveless horror, to the ignominious tree--his head
drooping on his breast, his eyes opening