
Address to Grand Jury (1885)
Variant: I believed that I had a mission, I believe that I had a mission at this very moment.
The Queen Vs. Louis Riel : Accused and Convicted of the Crime of High Treason. Report of Trial at Regina (1886), p. 147 http://books.google.com/books?id=jLANAAAAQAAJ&output=text
Context: It is true, gentlemen, I believed for years I had a mission, and when I speak of a mission you will understand me not as trying to play the role of insane before the grand jury so as to have a verdict of acquittal upon that ground. I believe that I have a mission, I believe I had a mission at this very time. What encourages me to speak to you with more confidence in all the imperfections of my English way of speaking, it is that I have yet and still that mission, and with the help of God, who is in this box with me, and He is on the side of my lawyers, even with the honorable court, the Crown and the jury, to help me, and to prove by the extraordinary help that there is a Providence to-day in my trial, as there was a Providence in the battles of the Saskatchewan.