Valiant-for-Truth relates his Encounter with the three Men.

have left upon me, as you see, some of the marks of their valour, and have also carried away with them some of mine. They are but just now gone: I suppose they might, as the saying is, hear your horse dash, and so they betook themselves to flight.

GREAT. But here was great odds, three against one. VAL. It is true; but little or more are nothing to him that has the truth on his side; " Though an host shall encamp against me," said one, 66 my heart shall not fear; though war shall rise against me, in this will I be confident," &c. Besides, said he, I have read in some records, that one man has fought an army; and how many did Samson slay with the jaw-bone of an ass.

GREAT. Then said the guide, Why did you not cry out, that some might have come in for your succour? VAL. So I did to my King, who I knew could hear me, and afford invisible help; and that was enough for me.

GREAT. Then said Great-Heart to Mr. Valiantfor-Truth, Thou hast worthily behaved thyself; let me see thy sword: so he shewed it him.

When he had taken it into his hand, and looked thereon a while, he said, Ha! it is a right Jerusalem blade.

VAL. It is so. Let a man have one of these blades, with a hand to wield it, and skill to use it, and he may venture upon an angel with it. He need not fear its holding, if he can but tell how to lay on. Its edge will never blunt. It will cut flesh and bones, and soul and spirit and all.

GREAT. But you fought a great while; I wonder you was not weary.

VAL. I fought till my sword did cleave to my hand, and then they were joined together, as if a sword grew out of my arm; and when the blood ran through my fingers, then I fought with most courage.

GREAT. Thou hast done well: thou hast "resisted

Valiant-for-Truth's Reasons for going on Pilgrimage.

unto blood, striving against sin;" thou shalt abide by us, come in and go out with us, for we are thy companions.

Then they took him, and washed his wounds, and gave him of what they had to refresh him; and so they went together. Now as they went on, because Mr. Great-Heart was delighted in him, (for he loved one greatly that he found to be a man of his hands ;) and because there were in company, them that were feeble and weak, therefore he questioned with him about many things; as, first, what countryman he was. VAL. I am of Dark-Land, for there I was born, and there my father and mother are still.

Dark-Land! said the guide: doth not that lie on the same coast with the City of Destruction?

VAL. Yes, it doth. Now that which caused me to come on pilgrimage was this: we had Mr. TellTrue come into our parts, and he told it about what Christian had done, that went from the City of Destruction; namely, how he had forsaken his wife and children, and had betaken himself to a pilgrim's life. It was also confidently reported, how he had killed a serpent, that did come out to resist him in his journey; and how he got through to whither he intended. It was also told, what welcome he had to all his Lord's lodgings, especially when he came to the gates of the Celestial City; for there, said the man, he was received with sound of trumpet, by a company of shining ones. He told it also, how all the bells in the city did ring for joy at his reception, and what golden garments he was clothed with; with many other things that now I shall forbear to relate. In a word, that man so told the story of Christian and his travels, that my heart fell into a burning heat to be gone after him; nor could father or mother stay me. So I got from them, and am come thus far on my way.

GREAT. You came in at the gate, did you not?

Conversation of Valiant-for-Truth

VAL. Yes, yes; for the same man also told us, that all would be nothing, if we did not begin to enter this way at the gate.

GREAT. Look you, said the guide to Christiana ; the pilgrimage of your husband, and what he has gotten thereby, is spread abroad far and near.

VAL. Why, is this Christian's wife?

GREAT. Yes, that it is; and these are also her four sons.

VAL. What! and going on pilgrimage too? GREAT. Yes, verily, they are following after. VAL. It glads me at heart; good man, how joyful will he be, when he shall see them, that would not go with him, to enter before him in at the gates into the Celestial City!

GREAT. Without doubt it will be a comfort to him; for, next to the joy of seeing himself there, it will be a joy to meet there his wife and children.

VAL. But, now you are upon that, pray let me hear your opinion about it. Some make a question whether we shall know one another when we are there.

GREAT. Do they think they shall know themselves then, or that they shall rejoice to see themselves in that bliss? and if they think they shall know and do these, why not know others, and rejoice in their welfare also? Again, since relations are our second self, though that state will be dissolved, yet why may it not be rationally concluded, that we shall be more glad to see them there, than to see they are wanting?

VAL. Well, I perceive whereabouts you are as to this. Have you any more things to ask me about my beginning to come on pilgrimage?

GREAT. Yes: was your father and mother willing that you should become a pilgrim ?

VAL. Oh, no! they used all means imaginable to persuade me to stay at home.

GREAT. What could they say against it?

VAL. They said, tiwas na idle life; and, if I my

and Mr. Great-Heart.

self were not inclined to sloth and laziness, I would never countenance a pilgrim's condition.

GREAT. And what did they say else?

VAL. Why they told me that it was a dangerous way: yea, the most dangerous way in the world, say they, is that which the pilgrims go.

GREAT. Did they shew you wherein this way is dangerous?

VAL. Yes; and that in many particulars.
GREAT. Name some of them.

VAL. They told me of the Slough of Despond, where Christian was well nigh smothered. They told me, that there were archers standing ready in Beelzebub Castle, to shoot them who should knock at the Wicket-Gate for entrance. They told me also of the wood and dark mountains, of the hill Difficulty, of the lions; and also of the three giants, BloodyMan, Maul, and Slay-Good; they said, moreover, that there was a foul fiend haunted the valley of Humiliation; and that Christian was by him almost bereft of life. Besides, said they, you must go over the valley of the Shadow of Death, where the hobgoblins are, where the light is darkness, where the way is full of snares, pits, traps, and gins. They told me also of giant Despair, of Doubting Castle, and of the ruin that the pilgrims met with there. Further, they said I must go over the Enchanted Ground, which was dangerous. And that after all this I should find a river over which I should find no bridge; and that that river did lie betwixt me and the celestial country.

GREAT. And was this all?

་

VAL. No: they also told me, that this way was full of deceivers; and of persons that lay in wait there, to turn good men out of their path.

GREAT. But how did they make that out?

VAL. They told me, that Mr. Worldly Wiseman' did lie there in wait to deceive. They also said,

Conversation of Valiant-for-Truth and Mr. Great-Heart.

that there was Formality and Hypocrisy continually on the road. They said also, that By-Ends, Talkative, or Demas, would go near to gather me up: that the Flatterer would catch me in his net: or that, with green-headed Ignorance, I would presume to go on to the gate, from whence he was sent back to the hole that was on the side of the hill, and made to go the by-way to hell.

GREAT. I promise you this was enough to discourage thee. But did they make an end there?

VAL. No, stay. They told me also of many that tried that way of old, and that had gone a great way therein, to see if they could find something of the glory then, that so many had so much talked of from time to time; and how they came back again, and befooled themselves for setting a foot out of doors in that path, to the satisfaction of the country. And they named several that did so, as Obstinate, and Pliable, Mistrust, and Timorous, Turn-Away, and old Atheist, with several more; who, they said, had some of them gone far to see what they could find, but not one of them found so much advantage by going as. amounted to the weight of a feather.

GREAT. Said they any thing more to discourage

you?

VAL. Yes they told me of one Mr. Fearing, who was a pilgrim; and how he found his way so solitary, that he never had a comfortable hour therein; also, that Mr. Despondency had like to have been starved therein; yea, and also (which I had almost forgot) Christian himself, about whom there has been such a noise, after all his adventures for a celestial crown, was certainly drowned in the black river, and never went a foot further, however it was smothered up.

GREAT. And did none of those things discourage

you?

VAL. No; they seemed as so many nothings to me.