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girl of fifteen, called Minetta : she acknowledged 

 the having infused corrosive sublimate in some 

 brandy and water; but asserted that she had taken 

 it from the medicine chest without knowing it to 

 be poison, and had given it to her master at her 

 grandmother's desire. This account was evidently 

 a fabrication : there was no doubt of the grand- 

 mother's innocence, although some suspicion at- 

 tached to the mother's influence; but as to the 

 girl herself, nothing could be more hardened than 

 her conduct through the whole transaction. She 

 stood by the bed to see her master drink the poison ; 

 witnessed his agonies without one expression of 

 surprise or pity ; and when she was ordered to leave 

 the room, she pretended to be fast asleep, and not 

 to hear what was said to her. Even since her im- 

 prisonment, she could never be prevailed upon to 

 say that she was sorry for her master's having been 

 poisoned ; and she told the people in the gaol, that 

 " they could do nothing to her, for she had turned 

 king's evidence against her grandmother." She 

 was condemned to die on Thursday next, the day 

 after to-morrow : she heard the sentence pro- 

 nounced without the least emotion ; and I am told, 

 that when she went down the steps of the court- 

 house, she was seen to laugh. 



The trial appeared to be conducted with all pos- 

 sible justice and propriety ; the jury consisted of 

 nine respectable persons ; the bench of three ma- 

 gistrates, and a senior one to preside. There were 



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