Beggars on HorsebackJesse, F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson)
General
Beggars on Horseback
Jesse, F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson)
Fiction; Short stories, English
"Charles Le Petyt, Clerk in Holy Orders, was next called and sworn, and
said, That, meeting Miss Bendigo in St. Annan when the crowd was
insulting her, he took her into the inn, and spoke with her there,
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 should do, that he,
having heard her, said that they should fix the guilt upon Crandon if
she could produce anything to that end, but in some agony she replied
she had destroyed all evidences of his guilt.
"Prisoner's Counsel: Do you, Mr. Le Petyt, believe that the Prisoner had
any intention to go off, from what appeared to you, and if she was not
very ready to come back with you from the inn?
"Le Petyt: She was very ready to come back, and desired me to protect
her from the mob, and she had, I am sure, no design to make an escape.
"Here the Counsel for the Crown rested their proof against the prisoner,
and she was thereupon called to make her defence.
"Prisoner: My Lord, in my unhappy plight, if I should use any terms that
may be thought unfitting, I hope I shall be forgiven, for it will not be
with any desire to offend. My Lord, some time before my father's death,
I unhappily became acquainted with Captain Crandon. This, after a time,
gave offence 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 the witnesses against me have not denied. When my
father was dead, being ill and unable to bear confinement in the house,
I took a walk over to St. Annan, but I was insulted, and a mob raised
about me, so that when Mr. Le Petyt came to me I desired his protection
and to go home with him, which I did.
"I will not deny, my Lord, that I did put some powder into my father's
gruel; but I here solemnly protest, as I shall answer it at the great
tribunal, and God knows how soon, that I had no evil intention in
putting the powder in his gruel: It was put in to procure his love and
not his death.
"Then she desired that several witnesses might be called in her defence,
who all allowed that Miss Bendigo always behaved to her father in a
dutiful and affectionate manner. And Anne Lear and Elizabeth Pollard,
women occasionally employed at Troon, deposed that they had heard Lylie
Ruffiniac say, Damn the black bitch (meaning the prisoner), I hope I
shall see her walk up a ladder and swing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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