Clerk. Where have you heard him say these words?
Know. In Flesh Lane, right opposite to the church.
Then said the Clerk, ‘Come, Mr. Tell-True, give in your evidence concerning the prisoner at the bar, about that for which he stands here, as you see, indicted by this honourable Court.’
Tell. My lord, I have heard him often say he had rather think of the vilest thing than of what is contained in the Holy Scriptures.
Clerk. Where did you hear him say such grievous words?
Tell. Where?—in a great many places, particularly in Nauseous Street, in the house of one Shameless, and in Filth Lane, at the sign of the Reprobate, next door to the Descent into the Pit.
Court. Gentlemen, you have heard the indictment, his plea, and the testimony of the witnesses. Gaoler, set Mr. Hard-Heart to the bar.
He is set to the bar.
Clerk. Mr. Hard-Heart, thou art here indicted by the name of Hard-Heart, (an intruder upon the town of Mansoul,) for that thou didst most desperately and wickedly possess the town of Mansoul with impenitency and obdurateness; and didst keep them from remorse and sorrow for their evils, all the time of their apostacy from and rebellion against the blessed King Shaddai. What sayest thou to this indictment? Art thou guilty, or not guilty?
Hard. My lord, I never knew what remorse or sorrow meant in all my life. I am impenetrable. I care for no man; nor can I be pierced with men’s griefs; their groans will not enter into my heart. Whomsoever I mischief, whomsoever I wrong, to me it is music, when to others mourning.