and put them in a dark and foul cell in a strong
hold. Here they were kept for three days, and they had no light nor food
nor a drop to drink all that time, and no one to ask them how they did.
Now Giant Despair had a wife, whose name was Diffidence, and he told her
what he had done. Then said he, What will be the best way to treat them?
Beat them well, said Diffidence. So when he rose he took a stout stick
from a crab tree, and went down to the cell where poor Christian and
Hopeful lay, and beat them as if they had been dogs, so that they could
not turn on the floor; and they spent all that day in sighs and tears.

The next day he came once more, and found them sore from the stripes,
and said that since there was no chance for them to be let out of the
cell, their best way would be to put an end to their own lives: For why
should you wish to live, said he, with all this woe? But they told him
they did hope he would let them go. With that he sprang up with a fierce
look, and no doubt would have made an end of them, but that he fell in a
fit for a time, and lost the use of his hand; so he drew back, and left
them to think of what he had said.

Christian.--Friend, what shall we do? The life that we now lead is worse
than death. For my part I know not which is best, to live thus, or to
die at our own hand, as I feel that the grave would be less sad to me
than this cell. Shall we let Giant Despair rule us?

Hopeful.--In good truth our case is a sad one, and to die would be more
sweet to me than to live here; yet let us bear in mind that the Lord of
that land to which we go hath said: 'Thou shalt not kill.' And by this
act we kill our souls as well. My friend Christian, you talk of ease in
the grave, but can a man go to bliss who takes his own life? All the law
is not in the hands of Giant Despair. Who knows but that God, who made
the world, may cause him to die, or lose the use of his limbs as he did
at first. I have made up my mind to pluck up the heart of a man, and to
try to get out of this strait. Fool that I was not to do so when first
he came to the cell. But let us not put an end to our own lives, for a
good time may come yet.

By these words did Hopeful change the tone of Christian's mind.

Well, at night the Giant went down to the cell to see if life was still
in them, and in good truth that life was in them was all that could be
said, for from their wounds and want of food they did no more than just
breathe. W