Page:Life, strange voyages, and uncommon adventures of Ambrose Gwinett.pdf/10

10 senses as to have a feeling of things about me; yet I had a sort of recollection of what had happened, and, in some measure, was sensible where I was.

The gibbet was placed at one corner of a small common field, where my sister's cows usually ran; and it pleased God, that about this time a lad, who took care of them, came to drive them home for evening milking. The creatures which were feeding almost under me, brought him near the gibbet; when, stopping to look on the melancholy spectacle, he perceived the cloth from off my face, and in the very moment he looked up, saw me open my eyes and move my under jaw. He immediately ran home to inform the people at his master's. At first, they made some difficulty to believe his story; at length, however, my brother came out, and, by the time he got to the field, I was so much alive, that my groans were very audible.

It was now dusk. The first thing they ran for was a ladder. One of my brother's men mounted, and putting his hand to my stomach, felt my heart beating very strongly. But it was found impossible to detach me from the gibbet, without cutting it down. A saw, therefore, was got for that purpose; and, without giving you a detail of trifling circumstances, in less than half an hour, having freed me from my irons, they got me blooded, and put into a warm bed in my brother's house.

It is an amazing thing, that, though upwards of eight persons were intrusted with this transaction, and I remained three days in the place after it happened, not a creature betrayed the secret. Early next morning, it was known that the gibbet was cut down, and it immediately occurred to