the charwoman, and said to her, “Dame, you used
to be fond of water gruel; here’s a fine mess
for you which my master left last night”; and
thereupon warmed it, and gave it her; that the woman
sat down on a bench in the kitchen and drank some
of it, but not all, and said the house smelt of physic,
and everything tasted of physic, and she must go out
and reach before she could finish it; that she went
out to the wash-house, as she believes; that in about
half an hour she followed her, and then found her
in the necessary-house reaching, and, as she said,
purging; that the old woman stayed there an hour and
a half, during which time she went frequently to her,
and carried her surfeit water; she said she was no
better, and desired some fair water, upon which she
persuaded her to come into the house, but she said
she was not able without help; that then she led her
in and put her in a chair by the fire, where the coughing
and reaching continued; that she stayed in the house
half an hour, and grew worse, and she thought her
in a fit or seized with death; that about nine of the
clock that morning she went up to Miss Blandy and
acquainted her that her dame had been very ill and
complained that the smell of physic had made her sick,
and at the same time told her that she had eaten nothing
but a little of her master’s water gruel, which
could not hurt her, to which the prisoner said, “That
she was glad she was not below stairs, for she should
have been shocked to have seen her poor dame so ill.”
She tells you that sometimes the prisoner talked affectionately
of her father, and at other times but middling, and
called him an old villain for using an only child
so. Sometimes she wished for his long life, and
sometimes for his death, and would often say, “That
she was very awkward, and that if her father was dead
she would go to Scotland and live with Lady Cranstoun;
that by her father’s constitution he might live
twenty years, but sometimes would say she did not think
he looked so well.” She remembers Dr. Addington
being sent for on Saturday evening, and tells you
that the prisoner was not debarred going into her
father’s room till Sunday night, when Mr. Norton
brought her down with him, and told this witness not
to suffer any person to go into her master’s
room except herself, who looked after him. That
about ten of the clock on Monday morning the prisoner
came into the room after Mr. Norton; that she then
fell on her knees to her father, and said, “Sir,
banish me where you please; do with me what you please,
so you do, but forgive me; and as for Cranstoun, I
will never see him, speak to him, or write to him
more as long as I live if you will forgive me.”
To which the deceased made answer, “I forgive
thee, my dear, and I hope God will forgive thee; but
thee shouldst have considered better before thee attemptedst
anything against thy father; thee shouldst have considered
I was thy own father.” That the prisoner
then said, “Sir, as to your illness I am entirely