What I now speak of, was after Judgment was given against me in Scotland, and a Decree, confirming the Validity of my Marriage, had been pronounced.  This Decree, I assured Mr. Blandy, his Wife and Daughter, I should be able to vacate by an Appeal to the next Sessions.  After several pretended Delays in the Proceedings, finding Mr. Blandy’s temper very much soured against me, I thought it necessary to hasten my Project to a Conclusion.  To this end I had several private conferences with my Mistress; wherein I observed to her the visible decay of her Father’s Affections to me, and the Improbability of his ever giving his consent to our marriage, and therefore that other measures must be taken to accomplish our Happiness, which otherwise would be very precarious.  I told her I was possessed of a Drug, produced no where but in Scotland, of such rare Qualities, that by a proper Application, it would procure Love where there never was any, or restore it when absolutely lost and gone.  Of this Drug, or Powder, I would give some to her Father, and she would soon be convinced of its Efficacy by its benevolent Effects.  Accordingly I mixed some with his Tea several times, But in such small quantities as I knew would not immediately effect him; and I assured her, that tho’ it did not produce a visible Alteration at present, its Operations being slow and internal, yet in the end it would effectually do its Work.

I likewise pretended there was an absolute Necessity for my going into Scotland in order to bring on the Appeal, but in reality to carry on my Design against old Blandy with the greater secrecy and security.  But before I went, I took care to infuse such notions into her Head as tended to lessen the Guilt of destroying the Life of a Father, who obstructed the Happiness of his only Child; and strenuously argued, that the froward humours of old Age ought not to put a restraint on the Pleasures of Youth, and that when they did so, there was no sin in removing the Obstacle out of the way.

But to prevail with her to come more heartily into my Measures, I played another Stratagem upon her....  Having thus persuaded her into a Belief of an Event, which I had good Grounds to be assured would certainly happen, I found no great difficulty in bringing her to use the Means to accomplish it.  I told her I was then going to Scotland, for the Purposes she knew; that I would thence send her a Quantity of the Powder; and to prevent a Discovery, would send her a Parcel of Scots Pebbles, with Directions to use it in cleaning them, but really in the Manner as she had seen me use it, & as often as she had Opportunity.

Miss, I find, in the Narrative she has published of her Case, solemnly declares, she was perfectly ignorant of the noxious Quality of the Powder:  but had she suffered the Publick to have seen my Letters, the World would have known that she was privy to the Design, and equally concerned in the Plot, as I can convince you even to Demonstration by her Answers to my Letters, under her own Hand, which I will show you when we return to our Lodgings.  However, I do not blame her for denying it, because it was the only means she had left of persuading the World to believe her innocent.