carried by the exploring party to the scene and cast dead-drunk at the foot of the gallows, there to sleep off his intoxication, whilst the nurse was still pestered by the Nonconforming ministers to repent and confess.
But the last words she uttered before being swung into the air were: "Judge and revenge my cause, O God." "A sure proof," concluded Quicke, "that she went into the lake of brimstone and fire, there to be tormented for ever and ever."
We are inclined to judge otherwise, and that she was guiltless of intent to poison the Weeks family. This was done by the child, in a fit of temper and resentment. Only after this had been done, did Cary find it out, and, frightened for the consequences, simulated sickness and cramps, lest she should be accused of the poisoning. As to Quicke's statement that on the ride into Plymouth she used obscene and ribald jests, we do not believe a word of it. He was furious against her because she would not confess; and he was not with her on the ride to hear what her words were. He invented this, and put it into his narrative to prejudice the reader against her who was not amenable to his exhortations, and who accordingly galled his self-conceit.
The authorities for this tragic story are three:—
"Horrid News of a Barbarous Murder committed at Plimouth … 1676."
"Hell Open'd, or the Infernal Sin of Murther Punished. Being a True Relation of the Poysoning of a whole Family in Plymouth … by J. Q. (John Quicke), Minister of the Gospel. London, 1676."
"The Poysoners Rewarded, or the Most Barbarous of Murthers detected and Punished … London, 1687."
Mr. Whitfeld has summed them up in his book, Plymouth and Devonport, in War and Peace. Plymouth, 1900.
