Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-05-20
BURIED ALIVE.
singular Stories of Persons Entombed While
Living-The II omantic Story Of the Beauti-
ful Yictorine Lafourcade- II charitable Es-
cape ofThree Englishmen.

Iiving-The Romantic Story Of the Beau.i-
ful Yictorine Lafourcade- n emarkable Es-
cape ofThree Englishmen.
Excellent material for a sensation
story is furnished by the following
well-established facts: Victorine
Lafourcade, young, beautiful and ac-
compllshed, had great number of
admirers. Among them was journ-
alist named James Bossouet, whose
chances of being the successful sutton
seemed to be the best, when suddenly
Victorlne, contrary to all expectation,
accepted the hand of a rich banker,
named Renelle. Bossouet was in
consolable, and his honest heart achea
all the more when he learned that the
marriage of his lady.love was un
happy. Renelle neglected his wife
in every possible way, and finally be-
gan to maltreat her.
This state Of things lasted two
years, when Victorine died-at least
so it was thought. She was entomb
ed in 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 a lock of the deceased's hair.
That night, therefore, when all was
still, he scaled the wall of the GENE
terry, and, by a circuitous rout, APP
preached the vault. When he had
broken open the door and entered the
vault he lighted a candle and pro-
ceeded to
OPEN THE COFFIN.
At the moment when he bent over
the supposed corpse, scissors in hand,
Victorine opened her eyes and stared
him full in the face. He uttered a
cry and sprang back but immediate
ly recovering his selfposition. he re-
turned to the coffin, covered its occu-
pants lips with kisses, and soon had
the satisfaction of seeing her in full
possession of all her faculties. When
Victorine was sufficiently recovered,
they left the church yard and went to
Bossouet's residence, where a ply
stefan administered such remedies as
were necessary to effect the complete
recovery of the unfortunate woman.
This proof of Bossouet's love natural
ly made deep impression on Vic
torine. She repented her past tickle.
ness, and resolved to fly with the ro-
mantle Jules to America. There
they lived happily together, without,
however, being able to fully overcome
their longing to return to their native
land. Finally their desire became SO
strong to revisit the scenes of their
youth, that they decided to brave the
danger attendant on a return, and
embarked at New York for Havre,
where they arrived in July, 1899.
Victoiine, in the interim, had natural
ly changed very greatly, and Jules
felt confident that her former husband
would not recognize her. In this
hope he was disappointed. Renelle
had the keen eye of financier, and
recognized Victorine at the first
glance. This strange drama ended
with 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 phe.
nomena throughout, that the physic-
ians were DESTROYS to make a post
norton examination of the case. The
relatives, however, positively refused
their consent. The physicians conse-
quently decided to steal the body
not an unusual thing in England
order to satisfy their curiosity. They
communicated with band Of rascals,
who at that time made business of
stealing bodies, and three days after
the funeral had the body of Stapleton
brought to the dissecting room of
nieghboring 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 limpidity of the
blood. One of the physicians pro-
posed that they should subject the
body to the action of a galvanic bat
terry. This they did, and obtained
abnormal results; the movements and
contractions of the muscles were
more powerful than are usually OBJ
served. Toward evening a young
student suggested that they should
make an incision in the pectoraI mus
Giles, and introduce the poles of the
battery into the wound. This was
done, when, to their amazement, the
body rolled from the table, remained
for a second or two on its feet, stam-
mered out two or three unintelligible
words, and then fell heavily to the
floor. For a moment the learned
doctors were COMPOUNDED, but soon
regaining their prerence of mind, they
saw that Stapleton was still alive,
although he had again fallen into bis
former lethargy. They now applied
themselves to resuscitating him, in
which they were successful. He
afterwards said that during the whole
time he was fully conscious of his
condition, and of what was passing
around him. The words he attempt
ed to utter were:
81 AM ALIvEr'
A somewhat similar experience was
that of an English artillery officer
who, in fall from his horse, had
fractured his skull, and was ire
PANIED. He was in a fair way to re.
cover, when one day he fell into
lethargy so profound that he was
thought to be dead, and, in due time,
was buried. The following day, be-
side the grave in which he had been
inferred, another citizen of London
was buried, and at least one of the