On the night before the day appointed for the examination before the Lords, he lay some time with the point of his penknife pressed against his heart, but without courage to drive it home.

Lastly he tried to hang himself; and on this occasion he seems to have been saved not by the love of life, or by want of resolution, but by mere accident.

He had become insensible, when the garter by which he was suspended broke, and his fall brought in the laundress, who supposed him to be in a fit.

He sent her to a friend, to whom he related all that had passed, and despatched him to his kinsman.

His kinsman arrived, listened with horror to the story, made more vivid by the sight of the broken garter, saw at once that all thought of the appointment was at end, and carried away the instrument of nomination.