Trial Of Mary Blandy Part 11

[The KING'S COUNSEL then interposed, and said that he had not intended to mention what had pa.s.sed in discourse between the prisoner and Dr.

Addington; but that now, as her own counsel had been pleased to call for part of it, he desired the whole might be laid before the Court.]

[Sidenote: Dr. Addington]

Dr. ADDINGTON--On Monday night, the 12th August, after Miss Blandy had been secured, and her papers, keys, &c., taken from her, she threw herself on the bed and groaned, then raised herself and wrung her hands, and said that it was impossible for any words to describe the horrors and agonies in her breast; that Mr. Cranstoun had ruined her; that she had ever, till now, believed him a man of the strictest honour; that she had mixed a powder with the gruel, which her father had drank on the foregoing Monday and Tuesday nights; that she was the cause of his death, and that she desired life for no end but to go through a painful penance for her sin. She protested at the same time that she had never mixed the powder with anything else that he had swallowed, and that she did not know it to be poison till she had seen its effects. She said that she had received the powder from Mr.

Cranstoun with a present of Scotch pebbles; that he had written on the paper that held it, "The powder to clean the pebbles with"; that he had a.s.sured her it was harmless; that he had often taken it himself; that if she would give her father some of it now and then, a little and a little at a time, in any liquid, it would make him kind to him and her; that accordingly, about six weeks before, at breakfast-time, her father being out of the room, she had put a little of it into his cup of tea, but that he never drank it; that, part of the powder swimming at top of the tea, and part sinking to the bottom, she had poured it out of the window and filled up the cup with fresh tea; that then she wrote to Mr. Cranstoun to let him know that she could not give it in tea without being discovered; and that in his answer he had advised her to give it in water gruel for the future, or in any other thickish fluid. I asked her whether she would endeavour to bring Mr.

Cranstoun to justice. After a short pause she answered that she was fully conscious of her own guilt, and was unwilling to add guilt to guilt, which she thought she should do if she took any step to the prejudice of Mr. Cranstoun, whom she considered as her husband though the ceremony had not pa.s.sed between them.

KING'S COUNSEL--Was anything more said by the prisoner or you?--I asked her whether she had been so weak as to believe the powder that she had put into her father's tea and gruel so harmless as Mr.

Cranstoun had represented it; why Mr. Cranstoun had called it a powder to clean pebbles if it was intended only to make Mr. Blandy kind; why she had not tried it on herself before she ventured to try it on her father; why she had flung it into the fire; why, if she had really thought it innocent, she had been fearful of a discovery when part of it swam on the top of the tea; why, when she had found it hurtful to her father, she had neglected so many days to call proper a.s.sistance to him; and why, when I was called at last, she had endeavoured to keep me in the dark and hide the true cause of his illness.

What answers did she make to these questions?--I cannot justly say, but very well remember that they were not such as gave me any satisfaction.

PRISONER'S COUNSEL--She said then that she was entirely ignorant of the effects of the powder.

She said that she did not know it to be poison till she had seen its effects.

Let me ask you, Dr. Addington, this single question, whether the horrors and agonies which Miss Blandy was in at this time were not, in your opinion, owing solely to a hearty concern for her father?--I beg, sir, that you will excuse my giving an answer to this question. It is not easy, you know, to form a true judgment of the heart, and I hope a witness need not deliver his opinion of it.

I do not speak of the heart; you are only desired to say whether those agitations of body and mind which Miss Blandy showed at this time did not seem to you to arise entirely from a tender concern for her father?--Since you oblige me, sir, to speak to this particular, I must say that all the agitation of body and mind which Miss Blandy showed at this time, or any other, when I was with her, seemed to me to arise more from the apprehension of unhappy consequences to herself than from a tender and hearty concern for her father.

Did you never, then, observe in her any evident tokens of grief for her father?--I never thought I did.

Did she never wish for his recovery?--Often.

Did not you think that those wishes implied a concern for him?--I did not, because I had before told her that if he died soon she would inevitably be ruined.

When did you tell her this?--On Sunday morning, the 11th August, just before I left Henley.

Did not she desire you that morning, before you quitted his room, to visit him again the next day?--Yes.

And was she not very solicitous that you should do him all the service in your power?--I cannot say that I discovered any solicitude in her on this score till Monday night, the 12th August, after she was confined, and her keys and other things had been taken from her.

KING'S COUNSEL--Did you, Dr. Addington, attend Susan Gunnell in her illness?--Yes, sir, but I took no minutes of her case.

Did her symptoms agree with Mr. Blandy's?--They differed from his in some respects, but the most material were manifestly of the same kind with his, though in a much less degree.

Did you think them owing to poison?--Yes.

Did you attend Ann Emmet?--Yes, sir.

To what cause did you ascribe her disorder?--To poison, for she told me that, on Wednesday morning, the 7th August, very soon after drinking some gruel at Mr. Blandy's, she had been seized with p.r.i.c.kings and burnings in her tongue, throat, and stomach, which had been followed by severe fits of vomiting and purging; and I observed that she had many other symptoms which agreed with Mr. Blandy's.

Did she say that she thought she had ever taken poison before?--On my telling her that I ascribed her complaints to poison, which she had taken in gruel at Mr. Blandy's on the 7th August, she said that, if she had been poisoned by drinking that gruel at Mr. Blandy's, she was sure that she had been poisoned there the haytime before by drinking something else.

[Sidenote: Alice Emmet]

ALICE EMMET, examined--My mother is now very ill, and cannot attend; she was charwoman at Mr. Blandy's in June last; she was taken very ill in the night with a vomiting and reaching, upwards and downwards. I went to Miss Blandy in the morning, by her desire, to see if she would send her something, as she wanted something to drink, saying she was very dry. Miss said she would send something, which she did in about two hours.

Did you tell her what your mother had ate or drank?--No, I did not, only said my mother was very ill and very dry, and desired something to drink.

[Sidenote: R. Littleton]

ROBERT LITTLETON, examined--I was clerk to Mr. Blandy almost two years. The latter end of July last I went to my father's, in Warwickshire, and returned again on the 9th August, and breakfasted with Mr. Blandy and his daughter the next morning, which was on a Sat.u.r.day. He was in great agony, and complained very much. He had a particular dish to drink his tea in. He tasted his tea, and did not drink it, saying it had a gritty, bad taste, and asked Miss whether she had not put too much of the black stuff in it, meaning Bohea tea.

She answered it was as usual. He tasted it again and said it had a bad taste. She seemed to be in some sort of a tremor. He looked particular at her, and she looked very much confused and hurried, and went out of the room. Soon after my master poured it out into the cat's basin, and set it to be filled again. After this, when he was not there, Miss asked me what he did with the tea. I said he had not drunk it, but put it into the cat's basin in the window; then she looked a good deal confused and flurried. The next day Mr. Blandy, of Kingston, came about half an hour after nine in the morning. They walked into the parlour, and left me to breakfast by myself in the kitchen. I went to church. When I returned, the prisoner desired me to walk with her cousin into the garden; she delivered a letter to me, and desired me to seal and direct it as usual, and put it into the post.

Had you ever directed any letter for her before?--I have, a great many. I used to direct her letters to Mr. Cranstoun. [He is shown a letter.] This is one.

Did you put it into the post?--I did not. I opened it, having just before heard Mr. Blandy was poisoned by his own daughter. I transcribed it, and took it to Mr. Norton, the apothecary at Henley, and after that I showed it and read it to Mr. Blandy.

What did he say?--He said very little. He smiled and said, "Poor, love-sick girl! What won't a girl do for a man she loves?" (or to that effect).

Have you ever seen her write?--I have, very often.

Look at this letter; is it her own handwriting?--I cannot tell. It is written worse than she used to write, but it is the same she gave me.

Do you remember Mr. Cranstoun coming there in August, 1750?--I do. It was either the latter end of July or the beginning of August.

Did you hear any talk about music about that time?--After he was gone I heard the prisoner say she heard music in the house; this I heard her say very often, and that it denoted a death in the family.

Sometimes she said she believed it would be herself; at other times it might be her father, by reason of his being so much broken. I heard her say once she thought she heard her mother.

Did she say when that death would happen?--She said that death would happen before October, meaning the death of her father, seeming to me.

Have you heard her curse her father?--I have heard her several times, for a rogue, a villain, a toothless old dog.

How long was this before her father's death?--I cannot justly tell that, but I have heard her a great many times within two months of his death, and a great while before. I used to tell her he was much broken latterly, and would not live long. She would say she thought so too, and that the music portended his death.

Cross-examined--When you breakfasted with them in the parlour who was there first?--She was.

Did you see the tea made?--No, sir.

Did you see it poured out?--No; but he desired me to taste the tea. I did mine, and said I fancied his mouth was out of taste.

Did not this hurry you say Miss Blandy was in arise from the displeasure of her father because the tea was not made to his mind?--I cannot say that, or what it was from.

What became of that he threw into the cat's basin?--He left it there.

[Sidenote: R. Harman]

ROBERT HARMAN, examined--I was servant to Mr. Blandy at the time of his death. That night he died the prisoner asked me where I should live next. I said I did not know. She asked me to go with her. I asked her where she was going? She said it would be 500 in my way, and no hurt to me if I would. I told her I did not choose to go.

Did she tell you to what place she was going?--She did not.

Did she want to go away at that time of night?--Then, immediately.