The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3, John Bunyan [ebook reader color screen TXT] 📗

But when the captains had heard this weak and feeble offer of the town of Mansoul, and their high and bold demands, they made to them again, by their noble captain, the Captain Boanerges, this speech following:—

‘O ye inhabitants of the town of Mansoul, when I heard your trumpet sound for a parley with us, I can truly say I was glad; but when you said you were willing to submit yourselves to our King and Lord, then I was yet more glad. But when, by your silly provisoes and foolish cavils, you laid the stumbling-block of your iniquity before your own faces, then my gladness turned into sorrows, and my hopeful beginnings of your return into languishing, fainting fears.

‘I count that old Ill-pause, the ancient enemy of Mansoul, did draw up those proposals that now you present us with as terms of an agreement, but they deserve not to be admitted to sound in the ear of any man that pretends to have service for Shaddai. We do, therefore, jointly, and that with the highest disdain, refuse and reject such things as the greatest of iniquities (2 Tim 2:19).[123]

‘But, O Mansoul! If you will give yourselves into our hands, or rather into the hands of our King; and will trust him to make such terms with, and for you, as shall seem good in his eyes—and I dare say they shall be such as you shall find to be most profitable to you—then we will receive you, and be at peace with you. But if you like not to trust yourselves in the arms of Shaddai our King, then things are but where they were before, and we know also what we have to do.’

Then cried out old Incredulity, the Lord Mayor, and said, ‘And who, being out of the hands of their enemies, as ye see we are now, will be so foolish as to put the staff out of their own hands, into the hands of they know not who? I, for my part, will never yield to so unlimited a proposition. Do we know the manner and temper of their King? It is said by some, that he will be angry with his subjects if but the breadth of an hair they chance to step out of the way; and of others, that he requireth of them much more than they can perform. Wherefore it seems, O Mansoul, to be thy wisdom, to take good heed what thou dost in this matter; for if you once yield, you give up yourselves to another, and so you are no more your own! Wherefore to give up yourselves to an unlimited power, is the greatest folly in the world. For now you indeed may repent; but can never justly complain. But do you indeed know, when you are his, which of you he will kill, and which of you he will save alive; or whether he will not cut off every one of us, and send out of his own country, another new people, and cause them to inhabit this town?’[124]

This speech of the Lord Mayor undid all, and threw flat to the ground their hopes of an accord. Wherefore the captains returned to their trenches, to their tents, and to their men, as they were; and the Mayor to the castle, and to his King.

Now Diabolus had waited for his return, for he had heard that they had been at their points. So when he was come into the chamber of state, Diabolus saluted him with ‘Welcome, my Lord, how went matters betwixt you to-day?’ So the Lord Incredulity, with a low conge,[125] told him the whole of the matter, saying, Thus and thus said the captains of Shaddai, and thus and thus said I. The which when it was told to Diabolus, he was very glad to hear it, and said, ‘My Lord Mayor, my faithful Incredulity, I have proved thy fidelity above ten times already, but never yet found thee false. I do promise thee, if we rub over this brunt, to prefer thee to a place of honour, a place far better than to be Lord Mayor of Mansoul. I will make thee my Universal Deputy, and thou shalt, next to me, have all nations under thy hand; yea, and thou shalt lay bands upon them that they may not resist thee, nor shall any of our vassals walk more at liberty, but those that shall be content to walk in thy fetters.’

Now came the Lord Mayor out from Diabolus, as if he had obtained a favour indeed; wherefore to his habitation he goes in great state, and thinks to feed himself well enough with hopes, until the time came that his greatness should be enlarged.

But now, though the Lord Mayor and Diabolus did thus well agree, yet this repulse to the brave captains put Mansoul into a mutiny.

For while old Incredulity went into the castle to congratulate his Lord with what had passed, the old Lord Mayor that was so before Diabolus came to the town, to wit, my Lord Understanding, and the old Recorder, Mr. Conscience, getting intelligence of what had passed at Ear-gate, for you must know that they might not be suffered to be at that debate, lest they should then have mutinied for the captains. But, I say, they got intelligence what had passed there, and were much concerned therewith, wherefore, they, getting some of the town together, began to possess them with the reasonableness of the noble captains’ demands, and with the bad consequences that would follow upon the speech of old Incredulity, the Lord Mayor—to wit, how little reverence he showed therein, either to the captains, or to their King; also, how he implicitly charged them with unfaithfulness, and treachery: for what less, quoth they, could be made of his words, when he said he would not yield to their proposition, and added, moreover, a supposition that he would destroy us when before he had sent us word that he would show us mercy.[126] The multitude being now possessed with the conviction of the evil that old Incredulity had done, began to run together by companies in all places, and in every corner of the streets of Mansoul; and first they began to mutter, then to talk openly, and after that they run to and fro, and cried as they run, ‘O the brave captains of Shaddai! Would we were under the government of the captains, and of Shaddai their King.’[127] When the Lord Mayor had intelligence that Mansoul was in an uproar, down he comes to appease the people, and thought to have quashed their heat with the bigness and the show of his countenance. But when they saw him, they came running upon him, and had doubtless done him a mischief, had he not betaken himself to house. However, they strongly assaulted the house where he was, to have pulled it down about his ears; but the place was too strong, so they failed of that. So he taking some courage addressed himself, out at a window, to the people in this manner:—

‘Gentlemen, what is the reason that there is here such an uproar to-day?’

UND. Then answered my Lord Understanding: ‘It is even because that thou and thy master have carried it not rightly, and as you should, to the captains of Shaddai; for in three things you are faulty:—First, In that you would not let Mr. Conscience and myself be at the hearing of your discourse. Secondly, In that you propounded such terms of peace, to the captains, that by no means could be granted, unless they had intended that their Shaddai should have been only a titular prince, and that Mansoul should still have had power by law, to have lived in all lewdness and vanity before him, and so by consequence Diabolus should still here be king in power, and the other only king in name. Thirdly, For that thou didst thyself, after the captains had showed us upon what conditions they would have received us to mercy, even undo all again with thy unsavoury, and unseasonable, and ungodly speech.’

INCRED. When old Incredulity had heard this speech, he cried out, ‘Treason, treason: To your arms, to your arms, O ye, the trusty friends of Diabolus in Mansoul.’[128]

UND. ‘Sir, you may put upon my words what meaning you please, but I am sure that the captains of such an high Lord as theirs is, deserves a better treatment at your hands.’

INCRED. Then said old Incredulity, ‘This is but little better.

But, Sir,’ quoth he, ‘what I spake, I spake for my prince, for his government, and the quieting of the people, whom by your unlawful actions you have this day set to mutiny against us.’

CONS. Then replied the old Recorder, whose name was Mr. Conscience, and said, ‘Sir, you ought not thus to retort upon what my Lord Understanding hath said. It is evident enough that he hath spoken the truth, and that you are an enemy to Mansoul; be convinced, then, of the evil of your saucy and malapert language, and of the grief that you have put the captains to; yea, and of the damages that you have done to Mansoul thereby. Had you accepted of the conditions, the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war had now ceased about the town of Mansoul; but that dreadful sound abides, and your want of wisdom in your speech has been the cause of it.’

INCRED. Then said old Incredulity: ‘Sir, If I live I will do your errand to Diabolus, and there you shall have an answer to your words. Meanwhile we will seek the good of the town, and not ask counsel of you.’

UND. ‘Sir, your prince and you are both foreigners to Mansoul, and not the natives thereof. And who can tell but that when you have brought us into greater straits, when you also shall see that yourselves can be safe by no other means than by flight, you may leave us and shift for yourselves, or set us on fire, and go away in the smoke, or by the light of our burning, and so leave us in our ruins.’

INCRED. ‘Sir, you forget that you are under a governor, and that you ought to demean yourself like a subject,[129] and know ye, when my Lord the king shall hear of this day’s work, he will give you but little thanks for your labour.’

Now while these gentlemen were thus in their chiding words, down come, from the walls and gates of the town, the Lord Will-be-will, Mr. Prejudice, old Ill-pause, and several of the new-made aldermen and burgesses, and they asked the reason of the hubbub and tumult.

And with that every man began to tell his own tale, so that nothing could be heard distinctly. Then was a silence commanded, and the old fox Incredulity began to speak. ‘My Lord,’ quoth he, ‘here are a couple of peevish gentlemen, that have, as a fruit of their bad dispositions, and, as I fear, through the advice of one Mr.

Discontent, tumultuously gathered this company against me this day; and also attempted to run the town into acts of rebellion against our prince.’

Then stood up all the Diabolonians that were present, and affirmed these things to be true.

Now when they that took part with my Lord Understanding, and with Mr. Conscience, perceived that they were like to come to the worst, for that force and power was on the other side, they came in for their help and relief. So a great company was on both sides.[130]

Then they on Incredulity’s side would have had the two old gentlemen presently away to prison; but they on the other side said they should not. Then they began to cry up parties again; the Diabolonians cried up