The North Carolinian

BURIED ALIVE.

A late number of the London Weekly Times relates the following singular story.

"An officer of artillery, a man of gigantic stature and robust health, being thrown from an unmanageable horse, received a very severe contusion upon the head, which rendered him insensible at once. The skull was slightly fractured, but no immediate danger was apprehended. Trepanning was accomplished successfully. He was bled, and many other of the ordinary means of relief were adopted. Gradually, however, he fell into a more helpless state of stupor, and finally it was thought he had died. The weather was warm, and he was buried with indecent haste, in one of the public cemeteries.

His funeral took place on Thursday.

On Sunday following, the grounds of the cemetery were, as usual, much thronged with visitors and, about noon, an immense excitement was created by the declaration of a peasant, that, while he was sitting upon the grave of the officer, he had distinctly felt a commotion of the earth, as if occasioned by some one struggling beneath. At first little attention was paid to the man's asseveration, but his evident terror, and the dogged obstinacy with which he persisted in his story had at length their natural effect upon the crowd. Spades were hurriedly procured, and the grave, which was shamefully shallow, was in a few minutes, so far thrown open that the head of its occupant appeared." He was then seemingly dead; but he sat nearly erect in his coffin, the lid of which, in his furious struggles, he had partially uplifted.

He was forthwith conveyed to the nearest hospital, and there pronounced to be still living, although in an asphytic condition. After some hours he revived, recognised individuals of his acquaintance, and, in broken sentences, spoke of his agonies in the grave.

From what he related, it was clear that he must have been conscious of life for more than an hour while inhumed, before lapsing into insensibility. The grave was carelessly and loosely filled with loose porous soil; and thus some air was necessarily admitted. He heard the footsteps of the crowd overhead, and endeavored to make himself heard in turn.

It was the tumult within the grounds of the cemetery, he said, which appeared to awaken him from a deep sleep; but no sooner was he awake than he became fully aware of the awful horrors of his position."