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 mechanically at intervals, and
only kept from fainting and utter insensibility by the unused and fresh
morning air, which breathed in his face, as if in cruel mockery. I looked
once, but looked no more.--* * * *