As predicted here, Anthony Marshall, the ailing 85-year-old only child of Brooke Astor, recently convicted of swindling his mother on her death-bed, isn’t going to prison so soon. An appeals court judge has ruled that the former Metropolitan Museum trustee, ambassador and war hero (and his co-defendent Francis X. Morrisey) can each stay free on a $5,000 bond pending appeals of their convictions, which could take years. The courts have thus shown Marshall — whose lawyers presented no defense at his trial (one was fired as a result) — more mercy than his mother and several fathers, his children, New York society or our local media ever did. Needless to say, the stories reporting this development were short and buried deep in the newspapers I (still) read every morning. But somewhere, Andrea Peyser is screaming.