rs, &c.--figures now gone to
shadow; then the deadliest foes of every English Puritan soul. Mansoul
appealed passionately to the Chief Secretary; but the Chief Secretary
'had been grieved,' and would have nothing to say to it. The town
legions went out to meet the invaders with good words, Prayer, and
singing of Psalms. The Doubters replied with 'horrible objections,'
which were frightfully effective. Lord Reason was wounded in the head
and the Lord Mayor in the eye; Mr. Mind received a shot in the
stomach, and Conscience was hit near the heart; but the wounds were
not mortal. Mansoul had the best of it in the first engagement. Terror
was followed by boasting and self-confidence; a night sally was
attempted--night being the time when the Doubters were strongest. The
sally failed, and the men of Mansoul were turned to rout. Diabolus's
army attacked Eargate, stormed the walls, forced their way into the
town, and captured the whole of it except the castle. Then 'Mansoul
became a den of dragons, an emblem of Hell, a place of total
darkness.' 'Mr. Conscience's wounds so festered that he could have no
rest day or night.' 'Now a man might have walked for days together in
Mansoul, and scarce have seen one in the town that looked like a
religious man. Oh, the fearful state of Mansoul now!' 'Now every
corner swarmed with outlandish Doubters; Red Coats and Black Coats
walked the town by clusters, and filled the houses with hideous
noises, lying stories, and blasphemous language against Shaddai and
his Son.'

This is evidently meant for fashionable London in the time of Charles
II. Bunyan was loyal to the King. He was no believer in moral
regeneration through political revolution. But none the less he could
see what was under his eyes, and he knew what to think of it.

All was not lost, for the castle still held out. The only hope was in
Emmanuel, and the garrison proposed to petition again in spite of the
ill reception of their first messengers. Godly Fear reminded them that
no petition would be received which was not signed by the Lord
Secretary, and that the Lord Secretary would sign nothing which he had
not himself drawn up. The Lord Secretary, when appealed to in the
proper manner, no longer refused his assistance. Captain Credence flew
up to Shaddai's court with the simple words that Mansoul renounced all
trust in its own strength and relied upon its Saviour. This time its
prayer would be heard.

The devils meanwhile, tri