MANUSCRIPT: AC. Pencil. One page or more in the middle is missing; it is impossible to know whether pages are missing at the beginning and end. The letter is not a rough draft but a fair copy. It is dated: Sunday (and half way through): Monday. It was written on 30 April and 1 May.

PUBLICATION: Revelation 85-87.

Judge Lord presided at a murder trial which opened at Springfield, 25 April; on April 29 Dwight Kidder was convicted of manslaughter in the death of his half-brother Charles, and setenced to prison for twenty years. The Republican reported the case in detail. In his own letter of 30 April, written from Salem, Lord evidently mentioned a slight indisposition. On 1 May, the day ED concluded her letter, Lord was seriously stricken and lapsed into unconsciousness. On 3 May the Republican said that little hope was held for his recovery, but by 8 May he was reported past the crisis.

This letter was written two weeks after Lord had sojounred in Amherst for a few days in mid-April, before going to Springfield. Charles Wadsworth died 1 April; Emerson 27 April.