hands shake, by means of which
impediment they could not look steadily through the glass; yet they
thought they saw something like the gate, and also some of the glory of
the place. Thus they went away and sang:

Thus by the Shepherds secrets are reveal'd
Which from all other men are kept conceal'd:
Come to the Shepherds, then, if you would see
Things deep, things hid, and that mysterious be.

When they were about to depart, one of the Shepherds gave them a note of
the way. Another of them bid them beware of the Flatterer. The third bid
them take heed that they sleep not upon Enchanted Ground. And the fourth
bid them God speed.

They went then till they came at a place where they saw a way put itself
into their way, and seeming withal to lie as straight as the way which
they should go; and here they knew not which of the two to take, for
both seemed straight before them; therefore, here they stood still to
consider. And as they were thinking about the way, behold, a man black
of flesh, but covered with a very light robe, vame to them, and asked
them why they stood there. They answered, they were going to the
Celestial City, but knew not which of these ways to take. Follow me,
said the man; it is thither that I am going. So they followed him in the
way that but now came into the road, which by degrees turned, and turned
them so from the city that they desired to go to, that in a little time
their faces were turned from it; yet they followed him. But by and by,
before they were aware, he led them both within the compass of a net, in
which they were both so entangled that they knew not what to do; and
with that the white robe fell off the black man's back. Then they saw
where they were. Wherefore there they lay crying some time, for they
could not get themselves out.

Then said Christian to his fellow, Now do I see myself in an error. Did
not the Shepherds bid us beware of the Flatterer? As is the saying of
the wise man, so we have found it this day: "A man that flattereth his
neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet."

_Hope._ They also gave us a note of directions about the way, for our
more sure finding thereof; but therein we have also forgotten to read,
and not kept ourselves from the paths of the destroyer. Here David was
wiser than we, for, saith he, "Concerning the works of men, by the word
of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." Thus they
lay bewailing themselves in the net. At las