Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold

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Bleackley Horace. Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold

THE LOVE PHILTRE. THE CASE OF MARY BLANDY, 1751-2

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BLANDY CASE

Notes

THE UNFORTUNATE BROTHERS. THE CASE OF ROBERT AND DANIEL PERREAU AND MRS MARGARET CAROLINE RUDD, 1775-6

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PERREAU CASE

THE SONG “ROBIN ADAIR”

THE KING’S ENGRAVER. THE CASE OF WILLIAM WYNNE RYLAND, 1783

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE RYLAND CASE

Notes

A LIST OF WILLIAM WYNNE RYLAND’S ENGRAVINGS (By Ruth Bleackley.)

BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS

A SOP TO CERBERUSTHE CASE OF GOVERNOR WALL, 1782-1802

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WALL CASE

NOTES

THE KESWICK IMPOSTOR. THE CASE OF JOHN HADFIELD, 1802-3

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HADFIELD CASE

Notes

A FAMOUS FORGERY. THE CASE OF HENRY FAUNTLEROY, 1824

Part I. – The Criminal and his Crime

Part II. – Some Details of the Forgeries

FAUNTLEROY AND THE NEWSPAPERS

NOTES ON THE FAUNTLEROY CASE

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During the reign of George II. – when the gallant Young Pretender was leading Jenny Cameron toward Derby, and flabby, gin-besotted England, dismayed by a rabble of half-famished Highlanders, was ready to take its thrashing lying-down – a prosperous attorney, named Francis Blandy, was living at Henley-upon-Thames. For nine years he had held the post of town clerk, and was reckoned a person of skill in his profession. A dour, needle-witted man of law, whose social position was more considerable than his means or his lineage, old Mr Blandy, like others wiser than himself, had a foible. His pride was just great enough to make him a tuft-hunter. In those times, a solicitor in a country town had many chances of meeting his betters on equal terms, and when the attorney of Henley pretended that he had saved the large sum of ten thousand pounds, county society esteemed him at his supposed value. There lived with him – in an old-world home surrounded by gardens and close to the bridge on the London road – his wife and daughter, an only child, who at this period was twenty-five years of age.

Mrs Blandy, as consequential an old dame as ever flaunted sacque or nodded her little bugle over a dish of tea, seems to have spent a weary existence in wringing from her tight-fisted lord the funds to support the small frivolities which her social ambition deemed essential to their prestige. A feminine mind seldom appreciates the reputation without the utility of wealth, and the lawyer’s wife had strong opinions with regard to the propriety of living up to their ten-thousand-pound celebrity. While he was content with the barren honour that came to him by reason of the reputed dot which his daughter one day must enjoy – pluming himself, no doubt, that his Molly had as good a chance of winning a coronet as the penniless daughter of an Irish squireen – his lady, with more worldly wisdom, knew the value of an occasional jaunt to town, and was fully alive to the chances of rout or assembly hard-by at Reading. Thus in the pretty little home near the beautiful reach of river, domestic storms – sad object-lesson to an only child – raged frequently over the parental truck and barter at the booths of Vanity Fair.

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A strange apology – amazing in its effrontery!

Gentle Heneage Legge speaks long and tenderly, while the listeners shudder with horror as they hear the dismal history unfolded in all entirety for the first time. No innocent heart could have penned that last brief warning to her lover – none but an accomplice would have received his cryptic message. Every word in the testimony of the stern doctor seems to hail her parricide – every action of her stealthy career has been noted by the watchful eyes of her servants. And, as if in damning confirmation of her guilt, there is the black record of her flight from the scene of crime. Eight o’clock has sounded when the judge has finished. For a few moments the jury converse in hurried whispers. It is ominous that they make no attempt to leave the court, but merely draw closer together. Then, after the space of five minutes they turn, and the harsh tones of the clerk of arraigns sound through the chamber.

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