parlour. Miss Blandy said, "Susan, what is the matter with you? You do
not look well." I said, "I do not know what is the matter; I am not
well, but I do not know what is the matter." She said, "What have you
ate or drank?" upon which I said, "Nothing more than the rest of the
family." She said, "Susan, have you eaten any water gruel? for I am
told water gruel hurts me, and it may hurt you." I said, "It cannot
affect me, madam, for I have not eaten any."

What was it Betty Binfield[11] said to you about water gruel?--Betty
Binfield said Miss Blandy asked if I had eaten any of her papa's water
gruel, saying, if I did, I might do for myself, a person of my age.

What time was this?--I cannot say whether it was just after or just
before the time she had spoken to me herself. On the Wednesday
morning, as I was coming downstairs from giving my master his physic,
I met Elizabeth Binfield with the water gruel in a basin which he had
left. I said to the charwoman, Ann Emmet, "Dame, you used to be fond
of water gruel; here is a very fine mess my master left last night,
and I believe it will do you good." The woman soon sat down on a bench
in the kitchen and ate some of it, I cannot say all.

[Illustration: Miss Mary Blandy
(_From an Engraving by B. Cole, after a Drawing for which she sat in
Oxford Castle_.)]

How was she afterwards?--She said the house smelt of physic, and
everything tasted of physic; she went out, I believe into the
wash-house, to reach, before she could finish it.

Did you follow her?--No, I did not; but about twenty minutes or half