The chaplet on Fatal Passion tells of an enormous amount ot wickedness lying where wickedness is not supposed to find such deep root—in the hearts of “ gentle ” folk. Here is one of the stories :—Radcliffe to this day possesses the tradition of a terrible tragedy, of which there ate several versions. It appears that ouo Fir William de Rudchffc had jj. very beautiful daughter, whose mother died in giving her birth. Aftef a time he married again, and the stepmother, actuated by a feeling of jealousy, conceived a violent hatred to the girl, which ere long prompted her to he guilty of the moat insane cruelty. One day (tuns 'he story) when fair William was out hunting, she sent the unsuspecting girl into the kilcheu with a mes sage to the cook that he was to dress the white doe. But the cook, professing ignorance of ;i>e particular white doc he was to dress, asserted, to the yonug lady’s intense 1 error, lhat lie had received orders to kill her, which there and then he did, alter making her into a pie On Sir Willi;.in’s return from hunting he made inquiiiei tor his daughter, hot his wife informed him that she lr.d taken the opportun ity in his absence of going into a nunnery. Suspicious, hovrotfi r, of the truth of htr story for her jealous hutiad of his daughter had not escaped his notice—he flew into a pas-ion and demanded in the most peremptory mama r when; his daughter was, whereupon the sculli-n hoy denounced the stepmother and warned Sn William against caring the pie. The whole tmth was soon revealed, and the diabolical wickedness of Lady William did not pass unpunished, for she was burned, and the cook was condemned to stand in boiling lead. A ballad in the Pepys collection, entitled “The Lady Isabella's Tragedy ; or, the St* p mother’s Cruelty,” records this horrible bar barity ; and, in a Lancashire ballad, o*lh d “ Fair Ellen of Radcliffe,” it is graphically lold.
