The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-07-09
BURIED ALIVE.
Strange Authentic stories of Persons
EnIOmbed While Living.
We select the following as cases we'll
authenticated


. Victorine Lafourcade, young, beauti
: full, and accomplished, had a grea
! number of admirers. Among them wa
, a journalist named James Bossouet
4 4 whose chances of being the successful
suitor seemed to be the best, wheI
: suddenly Victorine, contrary to all ex
pectation, accepted the hand of ricl
banker named Renelle Bossouet wal
inconsolable, and his honest heart acheC
all the more when he learned that the
/ marriage of his lady-lOve was unhappy
= Renelle neglected his wife in every
T possible way, and finally began to NAL
, treat her.
This state of things lasted two years
I when Victorine died-at least so it was
, thought. She was entOmbed in a vault
of the cemetery of her native town.
Jules BossOuet assisted at the ceremony.
Still true to his love, and well nigh
beside himself with grief, he conceived
the romantic idea of breaking open the
vault and securing lock of the de-
ceased's hair. That night, therefore,
when all was still, he scaled the wall OF
the cemetery, and, by circuitOus route,
approached the vault. When he had
broken open the door and entered the
vault he lighted a candle and proceeded
to
OPEN THE COFFIN.
At the moment when he bent over the
supposed corpse, scissors in hand, Vic
tOrine opened her eyes and stared him
full in the face. He uttered a cry and
sprang back and Immediately recover
ing his self f-possession, he returned to
the coffin, covered its occupants lips with
kisses, and soon had the satisfaction of
seeing her in full possession of all her
faculties. When VictOrine was suffi-
GENTLY recovered, they lSft the church
yard and went to Bossouet's residence,
where a physician administered such
| remedies as were nece ssary to effect the
complete recovery of the unfortunate
woman. This proof of BossOuet's love
naturally made q deep impression on
Victorine. She repented her past tickle
ness, and resolved to fiy with the ro-
mantle Jules to America. There they
lived happily together. without, how
ever, being able to fully overcome their
longing to return to their native land.
Finally their desire become so strong to
revisit the seems of their youth that
they decided to brave the danger at
tendant on n return and embarked at
New York for Havre, where they ar
rived in July, 1889. Victorine, in the
| interim, had naturally changed very
| greatly, and Jules felt confident that her
| former husband would not recognize
| her. In this hope he was disappointed.
RenelIe had the keen eye of inancier,
and recognized VictOrine at the first
glance. This strange drama ended with
a suit brought by the banker for the
recovery of his wife, which was decided
against him on the ground that his
claim was Outlawed.
The scene of the following two cases,
with which we shall end our review, is
in England One Edward Stapleton
died-as was supposed-of typhus
fever. The disease had been attended
by such strange phenomena throughout
that the physicians were desirOus to
make post mortem examination of the
case. The relatives, however, positively
refused their consent. The physicians
consequently decided to steal the body
not an unusual thing in Engiand-in
| order to satisfy their curiosity. They
| communicated with band of rascals
who at that time made a business of
stealing bodies, aud three days after the
funeral had the body of StapletOn
brought to the dissectng room of a
neighboring clinic. When they made
the first incisiOn, which was across the
abdomen, they were struck with the
fresh appearance of the flesh, and the
clearness and limpidlty of the blood.
One of the physicians proposed that they
should subject the body to the action of
a galvanic battery. This they did, and
obtained ABNORMAL results; the move
ments and attractions of the muscles
were more powerful than are usually OBJ
served. Toward evening a young stu-
dent suggested that they should make
an incisiOn in the pectOral muscles, and
introduce the poles of the battery into
the wound. This was done, when, to
their amazemeut the body rolled from
the table, remained a second or two on
its feet, stammered out two or three
unintelligible words and thenf fell heavily
to the floor. For a moment the learned
doctors were cOnfounded, but soon re-
gaining their presence of mind, they |
saw that StapletOn was still although |
he had again fallen INTO his former |
lethargy. They now applied themselves
to resuscltating him, III which they were |
successful. He afterward said that |
during the whole time he was fully con |
scious of his condition, and of what |
was passing around him. The words |
he attempted to utter were:
CT AM ALIVE !"
A somewhat similar experience was |
that of an English artillery officer who, !
IN a fail from his horse, had fractured |
his skull and was trepannCd. He was |
in fair way to recover, when one day
he fell into lethargy so profound that
he was thought to be dead, and, in due
f@h1C 1
beside the grave in which he had been
inferred, another citizen of London was
buried, and at last one of the assistants
chanced to stand on it. Suddenly the
man cried out that he felt the ground
move under his feet as though the Occu-
pant of the grave would find his way to
the surface. At first the man was
thought to be the victim of an halluci-
nation, bnt the earnestness with which
he persisted attracted the attention of
constable, who caused the grave to be
opened. They found that the officer
had forced the coffin lid, and had made
a partially successful effort to raise him
self up. He was entirely unconscious
when they got him out but it was evil
dent that the effort to extricate himself
had been made but a short time before.
He was carried to a hospital near by,
where the physicians, after a time,
SUCCEEDED IN REsUsCITATTNG HIM.
He stated that, for an hour before his
last swoon, he was fully conscious of
the awful situation he was in. The
grave had fortunately been very hastily
and lightly filed with clay, and here
and there the continuity of the mass
had been broken by large stones, which
allowed the air to penetrate as far down
as the coffin. He had tried in vain to
make his cries heard, and finally, partly
in consequence of having ali insufficient
supply of air, and partly in consequence
of the mental agony he suffered, he had
fallen into the unconscious state in
which he was found.
Another Englishman describes what
he experienced, while lying in a coffin
in perfectly conscious state, in the fol-
lowing words "It would he impossi-
BILE to find words that would express tins
agony and despair that [ suffered.
Every blow of the hammer with which
they nailed down my coffin-hd went
through nv brain like the echo of a !