County Court, the prisoner was indicted for the murder of his wife. At the trial Judge Redfield, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Vermont, presided; Orlando Stevens appeared in behalf of the State, and H. R. Beardsley and Stephen S. Brown represented the defense. All four of these names will be remembered by old Vermonters as belonging to men of high standing in the legal profession. The evidence elicited from the various witnesses was presented. The dream was not related in full, that portion of it which seemed to forecast the future punishment and treatment of the prisoner being for obvious reasons excluded, but it was found impracticable to separate it from the discovery of the shawls, and so much of it as was necessary for this was told, in spite of objection and protest, to the jury. When the witnesses had all been exam ined, the case was fully argued on both sides, the evidence commented upon, and the law concerning the case explained to the jury. Judge Redfield then delivered his charge. In speaking of Mrs. Marvin's dream, he told the jury that they should wholly disregard it; however truthful it might be, it was not evidence; and though it might have led to the discovery of the shawls worn by the deceased at the time of her death, as from the evidence it doubtless did, still it should have no more effect upon their minds in regard to the defendant's guilt than if they had been found by acci dent or ordinary search. The jury retired; and, after a long consul tation, returned into court. The foreman and the prisoner vere made to face each other, and the vital question was put : " What say you, Mr. Foreman, is the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty?" There was a moment's silence, and then came the reply, "Guilty." Clifford turned as pale as a ghost and would have dropped to the floor had he not been upheld by the sheriff and his assistants. In this insensible condition he was carried back to jail.
A day or two later he was brought into court to receive sentence. Being asked if he had anything to say why judgment of the law should not be pronounced upon him, he arose and tried to speak, but his tongue seemed paralyzed of utterance. After a few appropriate words to the prisoner, the judge pronounced sentence in accordance with the law then in force : " That you, Eugene Clifford, be taken from here to the jail from whence you came; that from thence you be taken to Windsor, in the County of Windsor, and there be committed to the State's prison, and there kept and held in solitary confinement for the -term of one year; and that you thus be held and kept within the said prison, until the Governor of the State issue a warrant under his hand and official seal for your execution; and that at the time and place mentioned there in you be hanged by the neck until you are dead." While legal interest in the case may close at this point, it is worth while to give the sequel. It will be remembered that Mrs. Marvin's dream followed Clifford to his end. Let us see how the facts accorded with the forecast. Shortly after Clifford was put in solitary confinement, his mind began to weaken, and each succeeding month found him less and less himself and less and less a man. He became possessed with the idea that the jury who tried him, instead of find ing him guilty, had declared him not guilty. So persistently did he harp upon this, that the warden of the jail was induced to write his lawyers to ascertain if there were or possibly could be any mistake about the verdict. The reply he received assured him that there was not. Clifford's mental and physical decay went rapidly on. Before a year had expired he had become a hopeless wreck in body and mind. He was trans ferred from prison to the insane asylum at Brattleboro, Vermont, and there he soon afterwards died, his career closing exactly as had been foretold in Mrs. Marvin's dream.
