Clyde would find him a helpful and a strong support in
these, his dark and weary hours when she could no longer
be with him herself.
For while Mrs. Griffiths was first canvassing the churches
and ministers of this section for aid for her son, and getting
very little from any quarter, she had met the Rev. Duncan
McMillan in Syracuse, where he was conducting an
independent, non-sectarian church. He was a young, and
like herself or Asa, unordained minister or evangelist of,
however, far stronger and more effective temperament
religiously. At the time Mrs. Griffiths appeared on the scene,
he had already read much concerning Clyde and Roberta—
and was fairly well satisfied that, by the verdict arrived at,
justice had probably been done. However, because of her
great sorrow and troubled search for aid he was greatly
moved.
He, himself, was a devoted son. And possessing a highly
poetic and emotional though so far repressed or sublimated
sex nature, he was one who, out of many in this northern
region, had been touched and stirred by the crime of which
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Clyde was presumed to be guilty. Those highly emotional
and tortured letters of Roberta’s! Her seemingly sad life at
Lycurgus and Biltz! How often he had thought of those
before ever he had encountered Mrs. Griffiths. The simple
and worthy virtues which Roberta and her family had
seemingly represented in that romantic, pretty country world
from which they had derived. Unquestionably Clyde was
guilty. And yet here, suddenly, Mrs. Griffiths, very lorn and
miserable and maintaining her son’s innocence. At the
same time there was Clyde in his cell doomed to die. Was it
possible that by any strange freak or circumstance—a legal
mistake had been made and Clyde was not as guilty as he
appeared?
The temperament of McMillan was exceptional—tense,
exotic. A present hour St. Bernard, Savonarola, St. Simeon,
Peter the Hermit. Thinking of life, thought, all forms and
social structures as the word, the expression, the breath of
God. No less. Yet room for the Devil and his anger—the
expelled Lucifer—going to and fro in the earth. Yet, thinking
on the Beatitudes, on the Sermon on the Mount, on St.
John and his direct seeing and interpretation of Christ and
God. “He that is not with me is against me; and he that
gathereth not with me, scattereth.” A strange, strong, tense,
confused, merciful and too, after his fashion beautiful soul;
sorrowing with misery yearning toward an impossible justice.
Mrs. Griffiths in her talks with him had maintained that he
was to remember that Roberta was not wholly guiltless.
Had she not sinned with her son? And how was he to
exculpate her entirely? A great legal mistake. Her son was
being most unjustly executed—and by the pitiful but none-
the-less romantic and poetic letters of this girl which should
never have been poured forth upon a jury of men at all.
They were, as she now maintained, incapable of judging
justly or fairly where anything sad in connection with a
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romantic and pretty girl was concerned. She had found that
to be true in her mission work.
And this idea now appealed to the Rev. Duncan as
important and very likely true. And perhaps, as she now
contended, if only some powerful and righteous emissary of
God would visit Clyde and through the force of his faith and
God’s word make him see—which she was sure he did not
yet, and which she in her troubled state, and because she
was his mother, could not make him,—the blackness and
terror of his sin with Robertar as it related to his immortal
soul here and hereafter,—then in gratitude to, reverence
and faith in God, would be washed away, all his iniquity,
would it not? For irrespective of whether he had committed
the crime now charged against him or not—and she was
convinced that he had not—was he not, nevertheless, in
the shadow of the electric chair—in danger at any time
through death (even before a decision should be reached)
of being called before his maker—and with the deadly sin of
adultery, to say nothing of all his lies and false conduct, not
only in connection with Roberta but that other girl there in
Lycurgus, upon him? And by conversion and contrition
should he not be purged of this? If only his soul were saved
—she and he too would be at peace in this world.
And after a first and later a second pleading letter from Mrs.
Griffiths, in which, after she had arrived at Denver, she set
forth Clyde’s loneliness and need of counsel and aid, the
Rev. Duncan setting forth for Auburn. And once there—
having made it clear to the warden what his true purpose
was—the spiritual salvation of Clyde’s soul, for his own, as
well as his mother and God’s sake, he was at once
admitted to the death house and to Clyde’s presence—the
very door of his cell, where he paused and looked through,
observing Clyde lying most wretchedly on his cot trying to
read. And then McMillan outlining his tall, thin figure against
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the bars and without introduction of any kind, beginning, his
head bowed in prayer:
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-
kindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions.”
“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from
my sin.”
“For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever
before me.”
“Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil
in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when Thou
speakest and be clear when Thou judgest.”
“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother
conceive me.”
“Behold, Thou desireth truth in the inward parts; and in the
hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”
“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and
I shall be whiter than snow.”
“Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which
Thou hast broken may rejoice.”
“Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.”
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit
within me.”
“Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy
holy spirit away from me.”
“Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me
with Thy free spirit.”
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“Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners will
be converted unto Thee.”
“Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my
salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy
righteousness.”
“O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth
Thy praise.”
“For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou
delightest not in burnt offering.”
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”
He paused—but only after he had intoned, and in a most
sonorous and really beautiful voice the entire 51st Psalm.
And then looking up, because Clyde, much astonished, had
first sat up and then risen—and curiously enticed by the
clean and youthful and vigorous if pale figure had
approached nearer the cell door, he now added:
“I bring you, Clyde, the mercy and the salvation of your
God. He has called on me and I have come. He has sent
me that I may say unto you though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white—like snow. Though they be red, like
crimson, they shall be as wool. Come now, let us reason
together with the Lord.”
He paused and stared at Clyde tenderly. A warm, youthful,
half smile, half romantic, played about his lips. He liked the
youth and refinement of Clyde, who, on his part was plainly
taken by this exceptional figure. Another religionist, of
course. But the Protestant chaplain who was here was
nothing like this man—neither so arresting nor attractive.
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“Duncan McMillan is my name,” he said, “and I come from
the work of the Lord in Syracuse. He has sent me—just as
he sent your mother to me. She has told me all that she
believes. I have read all that you have said. And I know why
you are here. But it is to bring you spiritual joy and gladness
that I am here.”
And he suddenly quoted from Psalms 13:2, “‘How shall I
take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart, daily.’
That is from Psalms 13:2. And here is another thing that
now comes to me as something that I should say to you. It
is from the Bible, too—the Tenth Psalm: ‘He hath said in his
heart, I shall not he moved, for I shall never be in adversity.’
But you are in adversity, you see. We all are, who live in
sin. And here is another thing that comes to me, just now to