The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-27
MARvELS FROM I The PAST.
strange Account ofthe Head and Body
Acting When Severed.
from the Philadelphia Times.

the decapitated Able Bruneau in
France, as related recently in the
Times is by no means without prece-
dent 1t is impossible to read much in
history without coming across curious
stories of apparent sensation and Thought
atter execution. Some OF them 90 bscl,
TO such remote periods that they are in
general regarded as deserving TO be
placed IN category with the wondrous
discoveries OF Marco Polo and Ferdinand
Mendez Pinto, but subsequent explorers
nave verified many things in the nara
yves OF those two which at one time were
CONSIDERED impOssibilities, and science may
yet demonstrate beyond contradiction the
possibility of many startling events par
rated as having occurred at executions
The fact remains that for centuries the
impression has prevailed among certain
scientists that the brain stiu retains its
capacity Tor thought and even action
LOT some moments after its separation
from the body, and some of them have
made experiments upon the heads of
decapltated criminals even more than an
hour after the execution, and have met
with a certain measure of success which
partially cOrroborated their theories
The curious in such matters will find
that historians relate a remarkable in
recalls the story of the head of the poet
musician, Orpheus which was said to
nave still murmured the name of his be-
loved Eurydice after il was thrown into
the waters of HeDrus. This incident oc-
CURED in the thirteenth century, when
Conradin of Swabia and Frederick of Ba-
zen were executed in the market place
in Naples. These two young princes had
invaded the kingdom with an army in
defense Of conrad's rights as heir to his
father. Having been defeated and cap
tured by the forces of Charles of Anjou,
they were held by him prisoners for a
year ana then condemned to execution.
Brantoned has given a glowing descrip-
ton of the death scene, drawn from con-
temporary accounts, the center of the
market place covered with crimson vel
vet, the king in a distant tower to see
the execution of his WILL and the crowd
OF curious and plying lookers-on. Prince
Frederick's head was the first to fall,
and the nearer spectators were electri-
fed to hear the quivering lips call twice
UPON the Virgin, Maria. Mara!' Con-
radin was moved by it to forget momen-
tarily his own coming death. Lifting
the head he kissed ii tenderly and pressed
it TO his breast. while he deplored aloud
that the youthful prince-Frederick had
not yet reached his 18th year-should have
been brought to his death through tlevO-
ton to himself.
In the sixteenth century the beheading
of the Queen of Scots gave an instance of
apparent sensation after execution. which
seems to be but little known, as it is not
mentioned by general historians. In FL
lis Letters of English History is given
a contemporaneous account from the
Lansdown manuscripts of Queen AIarys
death, which, among many other curious
details, states that the dead queens lips
stirred up and down a quarter of an
hour after her head was cut off, an eVi-
dence of emotion which the disgraceful
scenes through which she had just passed
upon the scaffold were quite sufficient to
have caused.
Not many years after this queens
death. during her sons reign. in the first
year of the seventeenth century. there
occurred that noted event in Scottish his
tory known as the GOwrie conspiracy,
which resulted nine years later in the
death of an unfortunate notary named
Sprot. This conspiracy, which has al
ways remained one of the unexplained
mysteries of history, is now supposed to
have been an attempt by the Earl of
Gowrie and his brother, Alexander Ruth
ven, to make King James a prisoner and
get him into the power of Elizabeth, in
order to avenge the fate of their father,
who had been put to death by the conn
Gil during the kings minority. Ruthven,
under frivolous preteXt, lured the king,
while on a hunting expedition, to go
with him to the mansion of his brother
in Perth. Separating the king from his
attendants he made an attack upon him,
and in the melee which then ensued be-
tween the followers of James and those
of the Ruthvens, both of the brothers
were killed; the object of the conspiracy
thus remained a mystery.
Nine years later, however the notary
Sprot, having foolishly boosted the pos
session of some letters bearing on the
subject, was arrested and put on trial
for his life.
According to Sprot's evidence and that
of the letters themselves they were writ
ten by one Logan of Kostalrig, person
of reckless disposition and dissolute hab-
it's to Gowrie and to an old man known
as Laird Bour. They spoke of the bring
ing of a prisoner of Importance to
stronghold of Logan's on the North sea,
knouw as Fastcastle, in which he boosted
of having sheltered Earl Boutwell, in his
greatest need. despite the king and his
council.
Laird Bour. having been Unable to read,
carried the letters to Sprot for interpre-
tation, under promise of secrecy, and the
latter had stolen and kept them to his own
undoing. When. nine years later, he was
so reckless as to boast of their possession,
the notary was arrested and put to the
torture. Both Logan and Bour had been
dead for some years but the bones of
I the former were eXhumed and brought
into court. where they and the notary
were adjudged guilty of misprision of
treason, and the latter condemned to
! death Sprot, finding useless all pro-
testations of lack of completely in the
plot declared that he would give convinc-
ing proof of his innocence on the scatfold-
Accordingly to his previously announced
determination, after his body was thrown
off the hands clapped together three times
in token that he had told the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.
One of the most remarkable records in
all history of action after execution is
contained in the police archives of the
Austrian capital This is the case of the
bandit Schaumburg, who, with four com
panions were condemned to death in 1850
for sundry adventures rivaling those of
Fra Diavola According to this seemingly
impossible chronicle, the chief, finding he
was to be the first to suffer, demanded
one last favor of the presiding judge.
This was that his companions should be
placed in front of him in a straight line,
several feet apart
This having been granted, he then