s
innocent of the fact laid to his charge, threw out most opprobious
language against the Court that condemned him, and when he was advised
to lay aside such heats of passionate expressions, he said he was sorry
he did not more fully expose British justice upon the spot at the Old
Bailey, and that now since they had tied up his hands from acting, he
would at least have satisfaction in saying what he pleased.

When this Houssart was first apprehended he appeared to be very much
affected with his condition, was continually reading good books, praying
and meditating, and showing the utmost signs of a heart full of concern,
and under the greatest emotions, but after he had once been convicted,
it made a thorough change in his temper. He quite laid aside all the
former gravity of his temper and gave way, in the contrary, to a very
extraordinary spirit of obstinacy and unbelief. He puzzled himself
continually, and if Mr. Deval, who was then under sentence, would have
given leave, attempted to puzzle him too, as to the doctrines of a
future state, and an identical resurrection of the body. He said he
could not be persuaded of the truth thereof in a literal sense; that
when the individual frame of flesh which he bore about him was once
dead, and from being flesh became again clay, he did not either conceive
or believe that it, after lying in the earth, or disposed of otherwise
perhaps for the space of a thousand years, should at the last day be
reanimated by the soul which possessed it now, and become answerable
even to eternal punishment for crimes committed so long ago. It was, he
said, also little agreeable to the notions he entertained of the
infinite mercy of God, and therefore he chose rather to look upon such
doctrines as errors received from education, than torment and afflict
himself with the terrors which must arise from such a belief. But after
he had once answered as well as he could these objections, Mr. Deval
refused to harken a second time to any such discourses and was obliged
to have recourse to harsh language to oblige him to desist.

In the meanwhile his brother came over from Holland, on the news of this
dreadful misfortune, and went to make him a visit in the place of his
confinement while under condemnation, going to condole with him on the
heavy weight of his misfortunes. Upon which, instead of receiving the
kindness of his brother in the manner it deserved, Houssart began to
make light of the affair, an