If this were not sufficient to convince us of the prisoner’s guilt, I think the last transaction of all will leave not the least room to doubt.  When in discourse with persons that came to her at the house where she had taken shelter, what but self-conviction could have drawn such expressions from her?  In her discourse with Mr. Fisher about Cranstoun you will find she declared she had letters and papers that would have hanged that villain; and, again, says, “My honour, Mr. Fisher, to that villain has brought me to destruction”; and, again, in her inquiry of Mr. Lane, what they would do with her, she bursts out into this bitter exclamation, “Oh, that damned villain!” Then after a short pause, “But why should I blame him?  I am more to blame than he is, for I gave it him.”  How could she be to blame for giving it if she knew not what it was?  And, as it is said, went yet farther, and declared, “That she knew the consequence.”  If she did know it, she must expect to suffer the consequence of it too.

Thus, gentlemen, have I endeavoured to lay before you some observations upon this transaction, and I hope you will think them not unworthy of your consideration.  I trust I have said nothing that relates to the fact that is not in my instructions; should it be otherwise, I assure you it was not with design.  And whatever is not supported by legal evidence you will totally disregard.

If any other interpretation than what I have offered can be put upon these several transactions, and the circumstances attending them, I doubt not but you will always incline on the merciful side where there is room for so doing.

We shall now proceed to call our evidence.

The other gentlemen, of counsel for the King, were Mr. Hayes, Mr.
Wares, and Mr. Ambler.

The counsel for the prisoner were Mr. Ford, Mr. Morton, and Mr.
Aston.[5]

Evidence for the Prosecution.

[Sidenote:  Dr. Addington]

Dr. ANTHONY ADDINGTON[6] examined—­I attended Mr. Blandy in his last illness.

When were you called to him the first time?—­On Saturday evening,
August the 10th.

In what condition did you find him?—­He was in bed, and told me that, after drinking some gruel on Monday night, August the 5th, he had perceived an extraordinary grittiness in his mouth, attended with a very painful burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels, and with sickness and gripings, which symptoms had been relieved by fits of vomiting and purging.

Were those fits owing to any physic he had taken or to the gruel?—­Not to any physic; they came on very soon after drinking the gruel.

Had he taken no physic that day?—­No.

Did he make any further complaints?—­He said that, after drinking more gruel on Tuesday night, August the 6th, he had felt the grittiness in his mouth again, and that the burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels had returned with double violence, and had been aggravated by a prodigious swelling of his belly, and exquisite pains and prickings in every external as well as internal part of his body, which prickings he compared to an infinite number of needles darting into him all at once.