Beggars on Horseback

from a contem

Castle at Launceston, about eight o'clock in

r 21, with force and arms upon the body of Constantine Bendigo, Gent., her father, did make an assault, and in her malice aforethought, did kill and murder, by putting into some water-gruel a certain powder called arsenic, and afterwards giving to him, the said Constantine Bendigo,

r; Mr. Grice, Town Clerk of Launceston; Mr. Rose, Mr. Kirton, and the Hon.

education; that as she was the only, so she was the beloved child of her father, who had spared no pains in giving her a genteel, as well as a pious education; that her father, indeed, had used this pious fraud (if he might be allowed that expression) in saying that her fortune would be ￡10,000, to the end, he supposed, that his daughter might be married suitable to such a fortune. That in June of the preceding year one Capt. William Lucius Crandon came to Penwith map-making, and hearing that Miss Bendigo was a ￡10,000 fortune, and having a mind to marry this fortune, notwith

tea, deceased had thought it to taste odd and sent it downstairs; that Crandon, to hasten the work of destruction, sent a letter to the prisoner, making use of an allegorical expression, not to spare the powder, in order to keep the rust off the pebbles. That the tea being too thin to admit of a larger quantity at the time, you will find by the witnesses that shal

as a ball of fire in his guts, that he vomited much since taking some tea two days before and again after taking some gruel that evening, that he had a cold sweat, hiccups, prickings all over his body, which he compared to a number of needles. He desi

d he was, for that the symptoms, while living, were like those of a person who had taken

so make an examination of t

into another tartar, into the third spirit of sal ammoniac, into the fourth spirit of salt, and into the fifth spirit of wine. I tried it also with syrup of violets, and made t

s daughter had had a present of those damned pebbles that morning; that if he, this witness, would look in the gruel, he might find something, that when he, this w

To which Mr. Bendigo replied, I forgive thee, but thou shouldst have remembered that I am thy father, upon which Miss said, Oh, sir, your goodness strikes daggers to my soul; sir, I must down on my knees and pray that you will not curse me. He replied, No, child, I bless thee and pray that God may bless thee

was it sent for you whe

said it was at the command of Miss Bendigo, who said, to-

at has been her behaviour to her father? Has she not always done

far as ever I knew, and seemed to do everything in her p

t anything into her father's gruel and that she f

: She n

was present at the opening of Mr. Bendigo and whether the observations made by Mr. Harvey were true: he said he was present and made the sam

ry sick, but seemed easier next day, when Miss again made him some tea which he did not drink. That next evening he sent for the witness and asked for some water-gruel to be made; that Miss on hearing of it, said, I will make it, that there's n

he cook-maid, had been taken ill with drinking some

fterwards drank it in the scullery, where I found her crying out she was dyi

n that occasion, how d

o to her bed and sent her a large quan

ever see Miss Bendigo b

that this witness and Hester Keast were in the kitchen at the time; that they, observing something to burn blue, it was raked out and found to be a paper of powder that was not quite consumed; that there was this inscription on the paper; Powder to clea

were? Replied, many times; sometimes she damned him for an old rascal; and once when she was in the dairy and the pris

the kitchen after her master was taken ill, Lylie Ruffiniac brought a pan with some gruel in it to the table and said, Hester, did you ever see any oatmeal so white? that this witn

ac was next ca

ave some particular conversation with the prisoner? Recol

ll go with me, your fortune will be made; I asked her what she wanted me to do and she replied, Only to hire a post-chaise to go to London

ere, asking if she would not return home under his protection; she answered yes, that upon this he got a closed post-chaise and brought her home; that upon her coming home she asked him what she shou

soner had any intention to go off, from what appeared to you, a

d desired me to protect her from the mob, and

heir proof against the prisoner, and she

ce to my father, and he grew very angry with me over Captain Crandon. I am passionate, which I know is a fault, and when I have found my father distrustful over Captain Crandon, I may have let fall an angry expression, but never to wish him injury, I have always done all in my power to tend him, as

protest, as I shall answer it at the great tribunal, and God knows how soon, that I had no evil

ther in a dutiful and affectionate manner. And Anne Lear and Elizabeth Pollard, women occasionally employed at Troon, deposed that

, if true, served to show ill-will in Ruffiniac towards the prisoner, but that he thought the incident was too slight to deserve any manner of credit. That the other witnesses, produced by the prisoner, served only to prove that Mr. Bendigo was a very fond, affectionate and indulgent parent, there

nted, she said, The gentleman was mistaken in thinking the powders were given to her father to prod

artial manner to the Jury, and they, without going o

time as could be allowed her to prepare for her great and immortal state. The Court told her she should have a convenient time allowed her