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 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