Witness--In the Parliament Close.[21]
The Lord Advocate—How do you know that Mr. Brodie slept all night in your mistress’s house?
Witness—He was in bed when I arose in the morning, and I gave him water to wash his hands before he went out.
The Lord Advocate—Did you see Brodie in your mistress’s house at any other time during that week?
Witness—He came back in the forenoon and again in the afternoon of the same day, that is of Thursday,[22] and likewise on the Saturday night following. Mr. Brodie was in use to sleep frequently at my mistress’s house.
Helen Alison
4. Helen Alison or Wallace, spouse to William Wallace, mason, in Libberton’s Wynd, called in and sworn.
Witness—I reside in Libberton’s Wynd, and I know the prisoner, Mr. Brodie. I heard of his leaving Edinburgh in March last, and I remember to have seen him come down Jean Watt’s stair a little before nine o’clock on the morning of the Thursday before he went off—the 6th of March. I was then standing at my own door at the foot of the stair; and I had Francis Brodie, the prisoner’s son, a boy of about seven years of age, by the hand. As his father, Mr. Brodie, passed he put a halfpenny into the child’s hand, and clapped him on the head. I said to the boy, “Poor thing, thou hast been too soon out, or you would have seen your daddie at home”; he said, “No, I have not been too soon out, for my daddie has been in the house all night.” After my husband got his breakfast, I went upstairs to Mrs. Watt, and I said to her in a joking way, “You will be in good humour to-day, as the good man has been with you all night.” She answered, “He has; but, poor man, he has not been well of a sore throat.” On the Monday following, I heard that there were messengers upstairs in Mrs. Watt’s, searching her house for Mr. Brodie; and when I went up and was told what was the matter, I said to one Murray, a sheriff-officer, then present, “Dear sirs, who would have thought this would have happened, when I saw Mr. Brodie come downstairs and give a bawbee to his own son on Thursday last?” To which the man answered, “Indeed, few would have thought it.”
Cross-examined by the Lord Advocate—How do you recollect that it was upon the Thursday you saw Mr. Brodie come down stairs? Can you give any reason for doing so?
Witness—Indeed, I can give a reason, but to be sure it is a very mean one to mention to your Lordships.