The person charged with the duty of warding Mary in her chamber was Edward Herne, parish clerk of Henley, who some twelve years before had been employed in Mr. Blandy’s office, and had since remained on intimate terms with the family.  It would appear, from an allusion in a contemporary tract, that Herne was that “Mr. H——­” whose pretensions to the hand of the attorney’s daughter had once been politely rejected.  If so, probably he still preserved sufficient of his former feeling to sympathise with her position and wink at her escape.  Be the fact as it may, at ten o’clock next morning, Thursday, 15th August, Ned Herne, as Mary names him, leaving his fair charge unguarded, went off to dig a grave for his old master.  So soon as the coast was clear, Mary, with “nothing on but a half-sack and petticoat without a hoop,” ran out of the house into the street and over Henley bridge, in a last wild attempt to cheat her fate.  Her distraught air and strange array attracted instant notice.  She was quickly recognised and surrounded by an angry crowd—­for the circumstances of Mr. Blandy’s death were now common knowledge, and the Coroner’s jury was to sit that day.  Alarmed by her hostile reception, she sought refuge at the sign of the Angel, on the other side of the bridge, and Mrs. Davis, the landlady, shut the door upon the mob.  There chanced then to be in the alehouse one Mr. Lane, who, with his wife, were interested spectators of these unwonted proceedings.  Miss Blandy, having “called for a pint of wine and a toast,” thus addressed the stranger—­“Sir, you look like a gentleman; what do you think they will do to me?” Mr. Lane told her that she would be committed to the county gaol for trial at the Assizes, when, if her innocence appeared, she would be acquitted; if not, she would suffer accordingly.  On receiving this cold comfort Mary “stamped her foot upon the ground,” and cried, “Oh, that damned villain!  But why should I blame him?  I am more to blame than he, for I gave it him [her father] and knew the consequence.”  On cross-examination at a later stage, the witnesses were unable to swear whether the word she used was “knew” or “know.”  The distinction is obvious; but looking to the other evidence on the point, it is not of much importance.  Mr. Alderman Fisher, a friend of Mr. Blandy and one of the jury summoned upon the inquest, came to the Angel and persuaded the fugitive to return.  Though the distance was inconsiderable, Mr. Fisher had to convey her in a “close” post-chaise “to preserve her from the resentment of the populace.”  Welcomed home by the sergeant and mace-bearer sent by the Corporation of Henley to take her in charge, Mary asked Mr. Fisher how it would go with her.  He told her, “very hard,” unless she could support her story by the production of Cranstoun’s letters.  “Dear Mr. Fisher,” said she, “I am afraid I have burnt some that would have brought him to justice.  My honour to him will prove my ruin.”  If the letters afforded sufficient proof of Cranstoun’s criminous intent, it hardly appears how the fact rhymes to Mary’s innocence.