through loss of blood, to get over the pales as well as he could.
Being over, Tapner fastened the end of the rope that was round his neck to the rail of the fence, for the well had neither lid, kirb, nor roller. The rope being fixed, they all got over and pushed him into the well ; but the rope being short, his legs only hung into it, and his body leant back towards the fence. Finding that the weight of his body was not sufficient to strangle him, Stringer, with the assistance of Cobby and Hammond, pulled his legs out of the well, and Tapner, untying the cord, they threw him, or rather let him fall into the well, head foremost.
After this they stood by the well for some time, and it being the dead of the night, and everything still, they heard him breathe or groan, and were thence assured that he was still alive. Fearing that any casual passer-by might hear him, they procured a ladder from one William Combleach, a gardener, who lived but a little way off, intending to go down into the well and dispatch him. They told Combleach that one of their companions had fallen into the well, and that they wanted the ladder to get him out ; he thinking to do a charitable action, lent them the ladder, which they carried to the well, but, whether from the confusion in which they were, or from the horror of the dreadful work in which they had been engaged, they could not, though six of them were employed in -
