ic, when he told her he
had had a pretty good night, and was better; but he had vomited in the
night, as she judges by the basin, which she had left clean, and was
then about half-full; that on Wednesday the prisoner came into the
kitchen and said to her that as her master had taken physic he might
want water gruel, therefore she might give him the same again, and not
leave her work to make fresh, as she was busy ironing; to which she
answered that it was stale, if there was enough of it; that it would
not take much time, and she would make fresh, and accordingly did so;
that she had the evening before taken up the pan, and disliked the
taste, and thought it stale, but was now willing to taste it again;
that she put the pan to her mouth and drank some of it, and then
observed some whiteness at the bottom, and told Betty Binfield that
she never saw any oatmeal settlement so white before, whereupon Betty
Binfield looked at it, and said "Oatmeal this! I think it looks as
white as flour"; she then took it out of doors, where there was more
light, and putting her finger to the bottom of the pan, found it
gritty, upon which she recollected that she had heard that poison was
white and gritty, which made her fear this might be poison; she
therefore locked it up in a closet, and on Thursday morning carried it
to Mrs. Mounteney's, where Mr. Norton saw it. She tells you that about
six weeks before Mr. Blandy's death she was not very well herself, and
Miss Blandy then asked her what was the matter with her, and what she
had eaten or drank; to which she answered that she knew not what ailed
her, but she had taken nothing more than the rest of the family; upon
which the prisoner said to her, "Susan, have you eaten any water
gruel? For I am told it hurts me, and may hurt you." To which she
answered, "Madam, it cannot affect me, for I have eaten none." She
then mentions a conversation that Betty Binfield told her she had with
the prisoner on the same subject, but that you will hear from Betty
Binfield herself. She then tells you that on the Wednesday morning,
after she had given her master his physic, she saw Ann Emmet, 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 o