With these, I was myself put upon trial and adjudged to death; for although it was made apparent that I had not lifted my hand against any one, it was proved that I was more than privy to the plot--that I had been instrumental in fomenting it; and the known favour with which I had been treated, added the double die of ingratitude to my offence. I was therefore condemned, and bade to expect no mercy; nor did I expect it; for the fatal day appointed for the execution having arrived, a rope was put round my neck, and I was led to the gibbet. And now I am about to relate what will greatly surprise the reader--I was not only found guilty and condemned--I was hanged! Escape was impossible, and I perceived it. The anguish of my mind--for in anguish it may be supposed I looked forward to my fate--was increased by the consciousness--so long slumbering--that flashed on it, as I was driven to the fatal tree, that I was, in reality, _not_ Tom the slave, but Sheppard Lee the freeman, and that I possessed a power of evading the halter, or any other inconvenience, provided I were allowed but one opportunity to exercise it. But where was I now to look for a dead body? It is true, there were bodies enough by-and-by, when my accomplices were tucked up around me; but what advantage could I derive from entering any one of them, since my fate must be equally certain to be hanged? My distress, I repeat, was uncommonly great, and in the midst of it I was executed; which put an end to the quandary. 16. CHAPTER XVI. IN WHICH IT IS RELATED WHAT BECAME OF THE AUTHOR AFTER BEING HANGED. Here, it would seem, that my history should find its natural close; but I hope to convince the world that a man may live to record his own death and burial. I say _burial_; for, from all I have heard, I judge that I was buried as well as hanged, and that I lay in the earth in a coarse deal coffin, from two o'clock in the afternoon of a November day, until nine at night; when certain young doctors of the village, who were desirous to show their skill in anatomy, came to the place of execution, and dug up the three best bodies, of which, as my good luck would have it, my own was one--Zip the fiddler's being another, while the third was that of a young fellow named Sam, notorious for nothing so much as a great passion he had for butting with his head against brick walls, or even stone ones, provided they were smooth enough. The young anatomists, previous to hacking us, resolved to try some galvanic experiments on us, having procured a battery for that purpose; and they invited a dozen or more respectable gentlemen to be present, and witness the effects of that extraordinary fluid, galvanism, on our lifeless bodies.