MERCY. I am come for that unto which I was never invited, as my friend Christiana was. Hers was from the King, and mine was but from her. Wherefore I fear I presume.

KEEP. Did she desire thee to come with her to this place? MERCY. Yes; and, as my Lord sees, I am come. or forgiveness of sins to spare, I beseech that I, thy partaker thereof.

And, if there is any grace poor handmaid, may be

Then he took her again by the hand, and led her gently in, and said, I pray for all them that believe on me, by what means soever they come unto me. Then said he to those that stood by, Fetch something, and give it to Mercy to smell on, thereby to stay her fainting. So they fetched her a bundle of myrrh; and a while after, she was revived.

And now was Christiana and her boys, and Mercy, received of the Lord at the head of the way, and spoke kindly unto by him. Then said they yet further unto him, We are sorry for our sins, and beg of our Lord his pardon, and further information what we must do.

I grant pardon, said he, by word and deed; by word, in the promise of forgiveness; by deed, in the way I obtained it. Take the first from my lips with a kiss, Ca. i. 2; and the other as it shall be revealed. John xx. 20.

Now, I saw in my dream that he spake many good words unto them, whereby they were greatly gladdened. He also had them up to the top of the gate, and showed them by what deed they were saved; and told them withal, That that sight they would have again, as they went along in the way, to their comfort.

So he left them a while in a summer parlour below, where they entered into talk by themselves; and thus Christiana began: O Lord! how glad am I that we are got in hither.

MERCY. So you well may; but I of all have cause to leap for joy.

CHRIS. I thought one time, as I stood at the gate (because I had knocked, and none did answer) that all our labour had been lost, especially when that ugly cur made such a heavy barking against us.

MERCY. But my worse fear was after I saw that you was taken into his favour, and that I was left behind. Now, thought I, it is fulfilled which is

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written, "Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left," Matt. xxiv. 41. I had much ado to forbear crying out, Undone undone!

And afraid I was to knock any more; but when I looked up to what was written over the gate, I took courage. I also thought that I must either knock again, or die; so I knocked, but I cannot tell how, for my spirit now struggled betwixt life and death.

CHRIS. Can you not tell how you knocked? I am sure your knocks were so earnest, that the very sound of them made me start; I thought I never heard such knocking in all my life; I thought you would have come in by violent hands, or have taken the kingdom by storm. Matt. xi. 12.

MERCY. Alas! to be in my case, who that so was could but have done so? You saw that the door was shut upon me, and that there was a most cruel dog thereabout. Who, I say, that was so faint-hearted as I, that would not have knocked with all their might? But, pray, what said my Lord to my rudeness?

Was he not angry with me?
CHRIS. When he heard your lumbering noise, he gave a wonderful, inno-
cent smile; I believe what you did pleased him well enough, for he showed no
sign to the contrary. But I marvel in my heart why he keeps such a dog;
had I known that before, I fear I should not have had heart enough to have
ventured myself in this manner. But now we are in, we are in; and I am

glad with all my heart.

MERCY. I will ask, if you please, next time he comes down, why he keeps such a filthy cur in his yard; I hope he will not take it amiss.

Aye, do, said the children, and persuade him to hang him; for we are afraid he will bite us when we go hence.

So at last he came down to them again, and Mercy fell to the ground on her face before him, and worshipped, and said, Let my Lord accept of the sacrifice of praise which I now offer unto him with the calves of my lips.

So he said unto her, "Peace be to thee; stand up." But she continued upon her face, and said, "Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: ot let me talk with thee of thy judgments," Jer. xii. 1. Wherefore dost thou

keep so cruel a dog in thy yard, at the sight of which such women and children as we are ready to fly from thy gate for fear.

He answered and said, That dog has another owner; he also is kept close in another man's ground, only my pilgrims hear his barking; he belongs to the castle which you see there at a distance, but can come up to the walls of this place. He has frighted many an honest pilgrim from worse to better, by the great voice of his roaring. Indeed, he that owneth him doth not keep him of any goodwill to me or mine, but with intent to keep the pilgrims from coming to me, and that they may be afraid to knock at this gate for entrance. Sometimes also he has broken out, and has worried some that I loved; but I take all at present patiently. I also give my pilgrims timely help, so they are not delivered up to his power, to do to them what his doggish nature would prompt him to. But what! my purchased one, I trow, hadst thou known never so much beforehand, thou wouldst not have been afraid of a dog.

The beggars that go from door to door will, rather than they will lose a supposed alms, run the hazard of the bawling, barking, and biting too, of a dog; and shall a dog-a dog in another man's yard, a dog whose barking I turn to the profit of pilgrims-keep any from coming to me? I deliver them from the lions, their darling from the power of the dog.

MERCY. Then said Mercy, I confess my ignorance; I spake what I understood not; I acknowledge that thou dost all things well.

CHRIS. Then Christiana began to talk of their journey, and to inquire after the way. So he fed them, and washed their feet, and set them in the way of his steps, according as he had dealt with her husband before. So I saw in my dream that they walked on in their way, and had the weather very comfortable to them.

Then Christiana began to sing, saying,

Bless'd be the day that I began

A pilgrim for to be;

And blessed also be the man

That thereto moved me.

'Tis true, 'twas long ere I began
To seek to live for ever:

But now I run fast as I can;

'Tis better late than never.

Our tears to joy, our fears to faith,
Are turned, as we see,
That our beginning, as one saith,
Shows what our end will be.

Now there was on the other side of the wall that fenced in the way up which Christiana and ber eupatites were to go a garden and that garden besaged to Kim whose was that barking dog of whom mention was made before. And some of the fruit-tress that grew in that garden shot their branches over the wall; and being mellow, they that find them did gather them up, and oft eat of them to their har So Christiana's boys, as boys are apt to do, being pleased with the trees, and with the fruit that did hang thereon, did pluck them, and began to eat. Their mother did also chide them for so doing, but still the boys went on

Well, said she, my sons, you transgress, for that fruit is none of ours; but she did not know that they did belong to the enemy: I will warrant you, if she had, she would have been realy to die for fear. But that passed, and they went on their way. Now, by that they were gone about two bowshots from the place that let them into the way, they espied two very illfavoured ones coming down apace to meet them. With that, Christiana, and Mercy, her friend, covered themselves with their veils, and so kept on their journey; the children also went on before, so that at last they met together. Then they that came down to meet them, came just up to the women, as if they would embrace them; but Christiana said, Stand back, or go peaceably by, as you should. Yet these two, as men that are deaf, regarded not Christiana's words, but began to lay hands upon them. At that Christiana, waxing very wroth, spurned at them with her feet. Mercy also, as well as she could, did what she could to shift them. Christiana again said to them, Stand back, and be gone; for we have no money to lose, being pilgrims, as you see, and such, too, as live upon the charity of our friends.

ILL-FAVOURED. Then said one of the two of the men, We make no assault upon you for money, but are come out to tell you, that if you will but grant one small request which we shall ask, we will make women of you

for ever.

CH, Now Christiana, imagining what they should mean, made answer ngain, We will neither hear, nor regard, nor yield to what you shall ask. We are in haste, cannot stay; our business is a business of life and death. So,