190 CHARGE AOATKST FRANCES 



is like the Egyptian darkness,, a gross and palpable 

 darkness, that may be felt. 



Secondly, I shall shew you the exhibiting and 

 sorting of this same number or volley of poisons : 

 white arsenic was fit for salt, because it is of like 

 body and colour. The poison of great spiders, and 

 of the venomous fly cantharides, was fit for pigs 

 sauce or partridge sauce, because it resembled pep 

 per. As for mercury-water, and other poisons, they 

 might be fit for tarts, which is a kind of hotch-pot, 

 wherein no one colour is so proper : and some of 

 these were delivered by the hands of this lady, and 

 some by her direction. 



Thirdly, I shall prove and observe unto you the 

 cautions of these poisons ; that they might not be 

 too swift, lest the world should startle at it by the 

 suddenness of the dispatch : but they must abide 

 long in the body, and work by degrees : and for this 

 purpose there must be essays of them upon poor 

 beasts, &c. 



And lastly, I shall shew you the rewards of this 

 impoisonment, first demanded by Weston, and de 

 nied, because the deed was not done ; but after the 

 deed done and perpetrated, that Overbury was dead, 

 then performed and paid to the value of 1801. 



And so without farther aggravation of that, which 

 in itself bears its own tragedy, I will conclude with 

 the confessions of this lady herself, which is the 

 strongest support of justice ; and yet is the footstool 

 of mercy. For, as the Scripture says, &quot; Mercy and 



