Excerpt from The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel There was good reason for adopting this course, independent of that which sprang out of the respect in which Peter was held by all on board, and a desire to extend the same to his poor body. AS a dead body it was peculiar. Hours after it had lain on the bunk, with a sheet over it, it still remained limm and when a very light father was held before its lips, it was stirred - very faintly, it is true, still it was stirred - though when an ear was laid on its bosom, not the slightest pulsation of the heart could be detected; when its hand was raised from its Side, it fell down again with a dead rap against the bunk; and with impunity its eyelids might be raised, and its eyes touched with the finger. The Mangowallah did not carry a doctor, and there were one or two amongst the crew that had witnessed similar cases, and they declared that the symptoms were such as invariably accom panied sudden death; and, as before stated, had the ship been far at sea instead of nigh to land, Peter's body would inevitably have been cast overboard. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.