by Edgar Allan Poe

certain themes the interest is all-absorbing, but which are too entirely horrible purposes of legitimate fiction These the mere romanticist must eschew, if he wish to offend or to disgust with propriety handled only severity and majesty of Truth sanctify and sustain them We thrill, for example, most intense of "pleasurable pain" over the accounts Passage Beresina, Earthquake at Lisbon, Plague at London, Massacre of St Bartholomew, or stifling hundred and twenty-three prisoners Black Hole at Calcutta But accounts fact - -- reality - -- history which excites As inventions, regard them with simple abhorrence

mentioned some few more prominent and august calamities on record; but extent, not character calamity, which so vividly impresses the fancy not remind the reader that, long and weird catalogue of human miseries, selected many individual instances more replete with essential suffering than any vast generalities of disaster The true wretchedness, indeed -- the ultimate woe - -- is particular, not diffuse ghastly extremes of agony are endured by man the unit, and never by man the mass - -- thank merciful God !

buried while alive is, beyond question, the most terrific extremes ever fallen lot of mere mortality has frequently, very frequently, so fallen will scarcely be denied who think The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins ? diseases occur total cessations of all the apparent functions of vitality, and yet these cessations are merely suspensions, properly so called only temporary pauses incomprehensible mechanism certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions wizard wheels The silver cord was not for ever loosed, nor the golden bowl irreparably broken But where, meantime, soul ?

Apart, however, inevitable conclusion, priori that such causes must produce such effects - -- well-known occurrence cases of suspended animation must naturally give rise, , to premature interments -- apart consideration, the direct testimony of medical and ordinary experience that vast number interments have actually taken place refer at once, if necessary to hundred well authenticated instances One of very remarkable character, and the circumstances fresh memory of some readers, occurred, not very , neighboring city of Baltimore, where it occasioned painful, intense, and widely-extended excitement The wife of respectable citizens-a lawyer of eminence and member of Congress -- was seized with sudden and unaccountable illness, which completely baffled the skill of her physicians After much suffering she died, or was supposed to die No one suspected, indeed, or had reason to suspect, that she was not actually dead She presented all the ordinary appearances of death The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline The lips were usual marble pallor The eyes were lustreless no warmth Pulsation had ceased For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired stony rigidity The funeral, in short, was hastened, on account rapid advance of supposed decomposition

The lady was deposited in her family vault, which, for three subsequent years, was undisturbed expiration term opened reception of sarcophagus; - -- but, alas ! how fearful shock awaited the husband, who, personally, threw open the door ! As its portals swung outwardly back, some white-apparelled object fell rattling within his arms It skeleton wife in her yet unmoulded shroud

careful investigation rendered it evident that she had revived within two days after her entombment; that her struggles coffin had caused it from ledge, or shelf floor, where so broken permit her escape lamp which accidentally left, full of oil, tomb, was found empty; it exhausted, however, by evaporation uttermost steps which led down dread chamber was large fragment coffin, , it seemed, that she had endeavored to arrest attention by striking the iron door While thus occupied, she probably swooned, or possibly died, through sheer terror; and, in failing, her shroud became entangled in some iron -- work which projected interiorly Thus she remained, and thus she rotted, erect

year 1810, case of living inhumation happened in France, attended with circumstances which go far to warrant the assertion that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction The heroine story was Mademoiselle Victorine Lafourcade, young girl of illustrious family, of wealth, and of great personal beauty Among her numerous suitors was Julien Bossuet, poor litterateur, or journalist of Paris His talents and general amiability had recommended him notice heiress, by whom he seems truly beloved; but her pride of birth decided her, finally, to reject him, and to wed Monsieur Renelle, banker and diplomatist of some eminence After marriage, however, this gentleman neglected, and, perhaps, even more positively ill-treated her Having passed some wretched years, she died, - -- her condition so closely resembled death deceive who saw her She was buried - -- not in vault, but in an ordinary grave village of her nativity Filled with despair, and still inflamed memory of profound attachment, the lover journeys capital remote province village lies, romantic purpose of disinterring the corpse, and possessing himself luxuriant tresses He reaches the grave At midnight he unearths the coffin, opens it, act of detaching the hair, when arrested unclosing beloved eyes , the lady buried alive Vitality altogether departed, and she was aroused caresses of her lover lethargy which mistaken for death He bore her frantically lodgings village He employed certain powerful restoratives suggested by no little medical learning In fine, she revived She recognized her preserver She remained until, by slow degrees, she fully recovered her original health Her woman's heart was not adamant, and this last lesson of love sufficed to soften it She bestowed it upon Bossuet She returned no more to her husband, but, concealing her resurrection, fled with her lover to America Twenty years afterward, the two returned to France, persuasion had so greatly altered the lady's appearance that her friends unable to recognize her They were mistaken, however, for, first meeting, Monsieur Renelle did actually recognize and make claim wife This claim she resisted, and judicial tribunal sustained her in her resistance, deciding peculiar circumstances, long lapse of years, had extinguished, equitably, but legally, the authority husband

The "Chirurgical Journal" of Leipsic -- periodical of high authority and merit, which some American bookseller would do well to translate and republish, records in late number very distressing event character

An officer of artillery, man of gigantic stature and of robust health, being thrown from an unmanageable horse, received very severe contusion head, which rendered him insensible at once; the skull was slightly fractured, but no immediate danger was apprehended Trepanning was accomplished successfully bled, and ordinary means of relief were adopted Gradually, however, he fell into more and more hopeless state of stupor, and, finally, thought that he died

The weather was warm, and buried with indecent haste in public cemeteries His funeral took place on Thursday Sunday following, the grounds cemetery were, as usual, much thronged with visiters, and about noon an intense excitement was created declaration of peasant that, while sitting grave officer, he had distinctly felt commotion earth, occasioned by some one struggling beneath At first little attention was paid man's asseveration; but his evident terror, dogged obstinacy he persisted story, had their natural effect crowd Spades were hurriedly procured, grave, shamefully shallow, was thrown open head occupant appeared then seemingly dead; but he sat nearly erect within his coffin, the lid , furious struggles, he had partially uplifted

forthwith conveyed nearest hospital, and there pronounced still living, although in an asphytic condition After some hours he revived, recognized individuals acquaintance, and, in broken sentences spoke agonies grave

From what he related, clear that been conscious of life for more than an hour, while inhumed, before lapsing into insensibility The grave was carelessly and loosely filled with an exceedingly porous soil; and thus some air was necessarily admitted He heard the footsteps crowd overhead, and endeavored himself heard in turn It tumult grounds cemetery, , which appeared to awaken him from deep sleep, but no sooner was he awake than he became fully aware awful horrors position

This patient, recorded, was doing well and seemed in fair way of ultimate recovery, but fell victim quackeries of medical experiment The galvanic battery was applied, and he suddenly expired in one ecstatic paroxysms which, occasionally, it superinduces

The mention galvanic battery, nevertheless, recalls to my memory well known and very extraordinary case in point, where its action proved the means of restoring to animation young attorney of London, who interred for two days This occurred in 1831, and created, , very profound sensation wherever it the subject of converse