During the Terror, among those upon whom fell the suspicions of the Jacobins was General Marlière. He knew that a trial and quite probably a condemnation awaited him. A few days before the date fixed for his appearance before his judges, he met a colonel in the French army, who had served in the American Revolutionary War, and who was a firm believer in the truth of the visions seen in crystal balls. In the course of the conversation this subject was alluded to, and the general immediately declared that he was eager to put the matter to the test, and learn, if possible, what fate was in store for him. The colonel was at first very unwilling to undertake the experiment, probably he thought that General Marlière’s doom was sealed, and, believing as he did in the revelations of the crystal, he dreaded the results; however, the general insisted and the experiment took place. As usual, the medium was an “innocent child.” In the crystal appeared a man wearing a private’s uniform of the National Guard struggling with one wearing a general’s uniform. The child was much excited and terrified by the sight, exclaiming that the general’s assailant had thrown him down and was beheading him. That the vision portended the general’s execution was clear enough, but the peculiar dress of the executioner was a mystery to those present at the test, for the official garb bore no resemblance whatever to a soldier’s uniform. The prediction was, however, fulfilled to the letter. General Marlière was tried, found guilty, and guillotined. This in itself did not mean much in view of the innumerable executions in the time of the Terror; but, on the day of this execution, Samson, the official executioner, desiring to gratify his personal vanity and to attract the gaze of the spectators, dressed himself in the uniform of a national guardsman.[299] That this altogether unusual circumstance, which could scarcely have been known to any of those who assisted at the crystal-gazing, should have been revealed in the crystal, is certainly very mysterious. If we had positive assurance that the events narrated happened exactly in the way they are said to have happened, this would be one of the few instances in which the vision seen in the crystal reproduced something entirely unknown to the scryer.