me stand and wonder.
Here they could sing without fear of being overheard; no informers
prowling round, and the world shut out.'

This was not all. A fresh and more severe Conventicle Act was passed
in 1670. Attempts were made to levy fines in the town of Bedford.
There was a riot there. The local officers refused to assist in
quelling it. The shops were shut. Bedford was occupied by soldiers.
Yet, at this very time, Bunyan was again allowed to go abroad through
general connivance. He spent his nights with his family. He even
preached now and then in the woods. Once when he had intended to be
out for the night, information was given to a clerical magistrate in
the neighbourhood, who disliked him, and a constable was sent to
ascertain if the prisoners were all within ward. Bunyan had received a
hint of what was coming. He was in his place when the constable came;
and the governor of the gaol is reported to have said to him, 'You may
go out when you please, for you know better when to return than I can
tell you.' Parliament might pass laws, but the execution of them
depended on the local authorities. Before the Declaration of
Indulgence, the Baptist church in Bedford was reopened. Bunyan, while
still nominally in confinement, attended its meetings. In 1671 he
became an Elder; in December of that year he was chosen Pastor. The
question was raised whether, as a prisoner, he was eligible. The
objection would not have been set aside had he been unable to
undertake the duties of the office. These facts prove conclusively
that, for a part at least of the twelve years, the imprisonment was
little more than formal. He could not have been in the Bridge Gaol
when he had sixty fellow-prisoners, and was able to preach to them in
private. It is unlikely that at any time he was made to suffer any
greater hardships than were absolutely inevitable.

But whether Bunyan's confinement was severe or easy, it was otherwise
of inestimable value to him. It gave him leisure to read and reflect.
Though he preached often, yet there must have been intervals, perhaps
long intervals, of compulsory silence. The excitement of perpetual
speech-making is fatal to the exercise of the higher qualities. The
periods of calm enabled him to discover powers in himself of which he
might otherwise have never known the existence. Of books he had but
few; for a time only the Bible and Foxe's 'Martyrs.' But the Bible
thoroughly known is a literature of itself--th