Under these conditions absolutely no attempt is made to overthrow the latter.

Not the least scrape of a claw is delivered at the foot of the gibbet.

The entire work of excavation is accomplished at a distance, under the body, whose shoulders are lying on the ground.

There--and there only--a hole is dug to receive the free portion of the body, the part accessible to the sextons.
A difference of an inch in the position of the suspended animal annihilates the famous legend.

Even so, many a time, the most elementary sieve, handled with a little logic, is enough to winnow the confused mass of affirmations and to release the good grain of truth.
Yet another shake of the sieve.