Well, we have learned all that history and tradition has to tell us about Mary Blandy; but what do we really know of that sombre soul that sinned and suffered and passed to its appointed place so long ago? A few "facts," some "circumstances"--which, if we may believe the dictum of Mr. Baron Legge, cannot lie; and yet she remains for us dark and inscrutable as in her portrait, where she sits calmly in her cell, preparing her false _Account_ for the misleading of future generations. Like her French "parallel," Marie-Madeleine de Brinvilliers, like that other Madeleine of Scottish fame, she leaves us but a catalogue of ambiguous acts; her secret is still her own. If only she had been the creature of some great novelist's fancy, how intimately should we then have known all that is hidden from us now; imagine her made visible for us through the exquisite medium of Mr. Henry James's incomparable art--the subtle individual threads all cunningly combined, the pattern wondrously wrought, the colours delicately and exactly shaded, until, in the rich texture of the finished tapestry, the figure of the woman as she lived stood perfectly revealed. Leading Dates In the Blandy Case. 1744. 22 May--Marriage of Cranstoun and Anne Murray. 1745. 19 February--Birth of their daughter. 1746. August--Cranstoun meets Mary Blandy at Lord Mark Kerr's. October--Mrs. Cranstoun takes proceedings in Commissary Court. 1747. August--Second meeting of Cranstoun and Mary. Cranstoun visits the Blandys and stays six months. 1748. January--Cranstoun returns to London. 1 March--Cranstoun's marriage upheld by the Commissary Court. May--Mrs. Blandy's illness at Turville Court. Cranstoun pays a second six-months' visit to the Blandys. December--Cranstoun's regiment "broke" at Southampton. He returns to London. 1749. March--Mrs. Blandy and Mary visit Mr. Sergeant Stevens in Doctors' Commons. 28 September--Mrs. Blandy taken ill after her return home. 30 September--Death of Mrs. Blandy. 1750. August--Cranstoun returns to Henley. Puts powder in Mr. Blandy's tea. October--Cranstoun professes to hear nocturnal music, &c. November--Cranstoun leaves Henley for the last time. 1751. April--Cranstoun writes from Scotland to Mary that he has seen Mrs. Morgan and will send powder with pebbles. June--Powder and pebbles received by Mary, with directions to put the powder in tea. Mr. Blandy becomes unwell. Gunnell and Emmet ill after drinking his tea. 18 July--Cranstoun writes to Mary suggesting she should put the powder in gruel. 4 August--Gunnell makes gruel in pan by Mary's orders. 5 August--Mary seen stirring gruel in pantry. Mr. Blandy taken seriously ill in the night. 6 August--Mr. Norton, the apothecary, called in. Gruel warmed for Mr. Blandy's supper.