Thistlewood’s interview with his wife and son was truly affecting; and the scenes exhibited in the other cells were of the most agonizing description. The unfortunate children, capable of understanding the situation of their unhappy parents, were convulsed with sorrow. The strongest feelings of commiseration were excited in the minds of those whose painful duty it was to be present.
Brunt formed a solitary exception to this remark. His composure on taking leave of his wife was of the most extraordinary description: he expressed himself in the most unmoved manner, and declared that the day of his execution would be to him the happiest of his life.
The solemn service of the condemned sermon, usually preached in the chapel at Newgate, to repentant criminals, who are about to expiate their crimes with their blood, was on this occasion, reluctantly dispensed with. The miserable malefactors had so decidedly pronounced themselves Deists, and (with the exception of Davidson, and even he, until Sunday, had fully concurred with them) had evinced in all parts of their conduct so awful a disregard of the precepts of Christianity and disbelief in its divine origin, as to excite an apprehension that their blasphemous principles would manifest themselves in some dreadful act of infidelity during divine service; it was therefore thought more prudent to omit the ceremony altogether, than to subject the administration of our holy religion to public insult by avowed and hardened infidels; and this determination was perfectly agreeable to the miserable beings themselves, who had boasted of being impenetrable to repentance, and determined to end the brief remnant of their days in the same horrid anti-christian principles which they had throughout professed.
In the course of Sunday, Alderman Wood called twice upon Mr. Brown, and requested to be introduced to the prisoners. Mr. Brown said he would willingly have complied with the worthy Alderman’s request, but his instructions were, not to permit any person to have intercourse with the unhappy men, save their families, unless under the sanction of an order from the Privy Council.
Mr. Alderman Wood then begged that he would carry to the prisoners three written questions, and obtain the answers; but this also Mr. Brown refused, upon the principle of the strict performance of his duty.
During nearly the whole of Sunday night, the deluded malefactors, who were attended by the city constables, slept soundly, and were only awakened by the unbarring of their cell doors, to admit the Reverend Ordinary. He found them in their separate cells, and went to each, urging every pious argument to reclaim them to the paths of Christianity.
On Thistlewood, Tidd, Ings, and Brunt, however, his arguments were unavailing; but on Davidson his endeavours were crowned with success, and in the most fervent manner this unfortunate man joined in prayer with Mr. Cotton for mercy at the hands of his Redeemer.
The cells in which these delinquents were confined, though separated by strong walls of stone, were not sufficiently detached to prevent them from speaking to each other, and Ings, speaking, during the night, of the approaching awful exhibition they were to make, remarked to one of his companions, with savage disappointment, “that there would be plenty of persons present; but d—n the ——, they had no pluck.” Indeed, it seemed impossible to divert the mind of this wretched man from the original object by which he had been actuated; he often made declarations of the most terrific nature, and, amongst others, “he wished that his body might be conveyed to the King, and that his Majesty, or his cooks, might make turtle-soup of it!”
At five o’clock on Monday morning, Mr. Cotton went again to the gaol, and proceeded to the condemned cells with the hallowed elements of the sacrament, which was administered to and received by Davidson with the utmost devotion.