as appeared not only from her own confession, but from all the evidence adduced.  “Examine then, gentlemen,” said the learned counsel, “whether it is possible she could do it ignorantly.”  In view of the great affection with which it was proved the dying man behaved to her, the prisoner’s assertion that she gave him the powder “to make him love her” was incredible.  She knew what effects the poisoned gruel produced upon him on the Monday and Tuesday, yet she would have given him more of it on the Wednesday.  Having pointed out that, when she must have known the nature of the powder, she endeavoured to destroy it, instead of telling the physicians what she had given her father, which might have been the means of saving his life, counsel commented on the terms of the intercepted letter to Cranstoun as wholly inconsistent with her innocence.  Further, he remarked on the contradiction as to dates in the evidence of the witnesses who reported Betty Binfield’s forcible phrase, which, he contended, was in fact never uttered by her.  Finally, he endorsed the censure of the prisoner’s counsel upon the spreaders of the scandalous reports, which he asked the jury totally to disregard.  On the conclusion of Bathurst’s reply, the prisoner made the following statement:—­“It is said I gave it [the powder] my father to make him fond of me:  there was no occasion for that—­but to make him fond of Cranstoun.”

Mr. Baron Legge then proceeded to charge the jury.  The manner in which his lordship reviewed the evidence and his exposition of its import and effect, indeed his whole conduct of the trial, have been well described as affording a favourable impression of his ability, impartiality, and humanity.  He proceeded in the good old fashion, going carefully over the whole ground of the evidence, of which his notes appear to have been excellent; and after some general remarks upon the atrocity of the crime charged, and the nature and weight of circumstantial evidence—­“more convincing and satisfactory than any other kind of evidence, because facts cannot lie”—­observed that it was undeniable that Mr. Blandy died by poison administered to him by the prisoner at the bar:  “What you are to try is reduced to this single question, whether the prisoner, at the time she gave it to her father, knew that it was poison, and what effect it would have?” If they believed that she did know, they must find her guilty; if, in view of her general character, the evidence led for the defence, and what she herself had said, they were not satisfied that she knew, then they would acquit her.  The jury, without retiring, consulted for five minutes and returned a verdict of guilty.  Mr. Baron Legge, having in dignified and moving terms exhorted the unhappy woman to repentance, then pronounced the inevitable sentence of the law—­“That you are to be carried to the place of execution and there hanged by the neck until you are dead; and may God, of His infinite mercy, receive your soul.”