Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1866-05-25

then," said he, all / had to do was TO
take the knife down with one hand, while
i seized her head with the other, and
drew it sharply across her throat---and
she bled TO death like stuck calfp
He had now fulfilled his mission, and
cheerfnlly surrendered himself to suffer
the penalty of the law. This was part
of the programme which he coveted as
much as the other performance. He
wanted to suffer for Righteousness" sake.
and thus go TO heaven as reward for
obeying the command of God. He was
Immediately arrested; the Grand Jury
found bill of indictment against him Of
murder in the first degree, and he was
brought before the full bench of the Su-
pIeme Court and arraigncd for triad
When the clerk read the indictment to
him, and at its conclusion required him to
say whether be plead guilty or not guilty
to the charge, with clear voice and an
honest face he responded, 9 GUILTY p
The Judges believing that the man was
more of monomaniac than a base mnr-
derer did not wish TO put in that plea, but
desired that he should plead mot guilty, in
order that the Jury might bring in such
verdict as would authorize the Court TO |
pronounce sentence of perpetual con-
| fnement rather than that of death, which,
as the law then was, could be obviated
only by Executive pardon, that would not
be safe in his case. And so the Chief
Justice said to him that he was not bound
10 plead guilty TO the charge; that was a
thing for the Government to pro0e and
he earnestly advised him to withdraw the
plea he had made, and instead thereof
put in the plea of Not guilty. What"
exclaimed the prisoner, McCausland,
would the Honorable Justice of the Su-
preme Court of Massachusetts advise me
to lie 10 their honors did kill the wo-
man; meant 10 kill her; | am guilty
and want to suffer the penalty!' What
could the Court do? They could not feel
it their duty to order him hung and, af-
ter consultation, directed the Sheriff to
! take the prisoner TO the Jail whence he
q came, and leave him there to await has
. sentence. And there he stayed in that
murderer's cell awaiting sentence from
t Oct. 20, 1894, to Aug. p, 1929, aperiod
y which after a year of confinement before
b trial. wanted only two months of thirty
six years, when death released him from
y a prison that had so long been his solitary
!, home, and from a world whose bright sun
and green fields he had not seen for more
thun one third of a century.
, As often as the Court sat during all
! that time, he never failed to send word to
the Judges by his Jailer, respectfully re-
questing them to explain why they neg
lected their duty in his case, and demand
e ing that they should pronounce the SEN
! tence due him, but the Court could only
q renew at every session its instruction to
y the Sheriff to keep where he was awaiting
!: sentence. .
I He was an object of great curiosity
: All the exercise he had was to pace the
: floor of his narrow cell, which he did al
! regular hours. He kept himself and hi'
a dungeon exceedingly clean. He washed
If and combed himself thrice per day, reaC
i his Bible Systematically, and by the u.s.
|. of other books and of newspapers which
e were given him, kept up with the passing
q history of the times. The narration whicl
IS he gave TO visitors, the rayers which h
IF offered to God, and the hymns which h
d so musically sang, were all well compose
,e and well expressed. His health neve
10 failed him till the last month of his exis
re tence.
u When visitors called TO see him-an
~ they were many-he would stand cor
m cealed under the front wall of his cell, be
as side the little grated window, as they al
~ preached it to look in, and would not eA
he hibit himself until hand was thru.
n through with two cents in it which h
e. would receive as his customary fee, au
,is then he would present his noble form j
he all its manly beauty and dignity. Sirol
a ing down his long white beard after salu
int ing his visitor he would begin TO rela
n the circumstances of his murder with a
ed the soberness and pious air Of an O
in Testament Patriarch; then he wou
on pray fervent prayer, and c'ose by sin
ed ing a well chosen religious hymn. In Il
as course of year he collected quite lars
to sums of money, which, with the pensi,
.eh he received for his Revolutionary Sc
ar vices, he sent to his family, that was his
of ly respectable, in Gardiner. They visit
ON, him often, and kept him supplied with ;
vas the necessaries and luxuries of life III
ap- the TAILOR was not authorized to provi'
,er, for him.
I