The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (13.1897)

226

A Pair of Parricides

scruple a lie.” Others said she had hopes of pardon “from the
Honour she had formerly had of dancing for several nights with

the late P-e of W-s, and being personally known to the

most sweet-tempered P—ess in the world.” The press swarmed
with pamphlets. The Cranstoun correspondence, alleged not
destroyed, was published—a very palpable Grub Street forgery !
—and a tragedy, The Fair Parricide, dismal in every sense, was
inflicted on the world. The last scene of all was on April 6,
1752. “Miss Blandy suffered in a black bombazine short sack
and petticoat with a clean white handkerchief drawn over her
face. Her hands were tied together with a strong black ribband,
and her feet at her own request almost touched the ground.”
(“ Gentlemen, don’t hang me high, for the sake of decency,” an
illustration of British prudery which has escaped the notice of
French critics.) She mounted the ladder with some hesitation.
“I am afraid I shall fall.” For the last time she declared her
innocence, and soon all was over. “ The number of people
attending her execution was computed at about 5000, many of
whom, and particularly several gentlemen of the university, were
observed to shed tears ” (tender-hearted “ gentlemen of the
university ! ”). “In about half an hour the body was cut down
and carried through the crowd upon the shoulders of a man with
her legs exposed very indecently.” Late the same night she was
laid beside her father and mother in Henley Church.

Cranstoun fled from justice and was outlawed. In December
that same year he died in Flanders.