abolus of the
'Holy War.' He fights him for half-a-day, is sorely wounded in head,
hand, and foot, and has a near escape of being pressed to death.
Apollyon spreads his bat wings at last, and flies away; but there
remains the Valley of the Shadow of Death, the dark scene of lonely
horrors. Two men meet him on the borders of it. They tell him the
valley is full of spectres; and they warn him, if he values his life,
to go back. Well Bunyan knew these spectres, those dreary misgivings
that he was toiling after an illusion; that 'good' and 'evil' had no
meaning except on earth, and for man's convenience; and that he
himself was but a creature of a day, allowed a brief season of what is
called existence, and then to pass away and be as if he had never
been. It speaks well for Bunyan's honesty that this state of mind
which religious people generally call wicked is placed directly in his
Pilgrim's path, and he is compelled to pass through it. In the valley,
close at the road-side, there is a pit, which is one of the mouths of
hell. A wicked spirit whispers to him as he goes by. He imagines that
the thought had proceeded out of his own heart.

The sky clears when he is beyond the gorge. Outside it are the caves
where the two giants, Pope and Pagan, had lived in old times. Pagan
had been dead many a day. Pope was still living, 'but he had grown so
crazy and stiff in his joints that he could now do little more than
sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they went by, and
biting his nails because he could not come at them.'

Here he overtakes 'Faithful,' a true pilgrim like himself. Faithful
had met with trials; but his trials have not resembled Christian's.
Christian's difficulties, like Bunyan's own, had been all spiritual.
'The lusts of the flesh' seem to have had no attraction for him.
Faithful had been assailed by 'Wanton,' and had been obliged to fly
from her. He had not fallen into the slough; but he had been beguiled
by the Old Adam, who offered him one of his daughters for a wife. In
the Valley of the Shadow of Death he had found sunshine all the way.
Doubts about the truth of religion had never troubled the simpler
nature of the good Faithful.

Mr. Talkative is the next character introduced, and is one of the best
figures which Bunyan has drawn; Mr. Talkative, with Scripture at his
fingers' ends, and perfect master of all doctrinal subtleties, ready
'to talk of things heavenly or things earthly, things moral