d treated the death of his wife and his own
confinement in such a manner that his brother leaving him abruptly, went
back to Holland more shocked at the brutality of his behaviour than
grieved for the misfortune which had befallen him.

It being a considerable space of time that Houssart lay in confinement
in Newgate and even in the condemned hold, he had there, of course,
abundance of companions. But of them all he affected none so much as
John Shepherd, with whom he had abundance of merry and even loose
discourse. Once particularly, when the sparks flew very quickly out of
the charcoal fire, he said to Shepherd, _See, see! I wish these were so
many bullets that might beat the prison down about our ears, and then I
might die like Sampson._

It was near a month before he was called up to receive sentence, after
which he made no scruple of saying that since they had found him guilty
of throat-cutting, they should not lie, he would verify their judgment
by cutting his own throat. Upon which, when some who were in the same
sad state with himself, pointed out to him how great a crime self-murder
was, he immediately made answer that he was satisfied it was no crime at
all; and upon this he fell to arguing in favour of the mortality of the
soul, as if certain that it died with the body, endeavouring to cover
his opinions with false glosses on that text in Genesis where it is
said, that God breathed into man a living soul. From hence he would have
inferred that when a man ceased to live, he totally lost that soul, and
when it was asked of him where then it went, he said, he did not know,
nor did it concern him much.

The standers-by, who notwithstanding their profligate course of life had
a natural abhorrence of this theoretical impiety, reproved him in very
sharp terms for making use of such expression, upon which he replied,
_Ay! would you have me believe all the strange notions that are taught
by the parsons? That the devil is a real thing? That our good God
punishes souls for ever and ever? That Hell is full of flames from
material fire, and that this body of mine shall feel it? Well, you may
believe it if you please, but it is so with me that I cannot._

Sometimes, however, he would lay aside these sceptical opinions for a
time, talk in another strain, and appear mightily concerned at the
misfortunes he had drawn upon his second wife and child. He would then
speak of Providence, and the decrees of God with much seeming