第50章 Part 5(4)

CLERK. You, the gentlemen of the jury, being empannelled for our Lord the King, to serve here in a matter of life and death, have heard the trials of each of these men, the prisoners at the bar: what say you? are they guilty of that, and those crimes for which they stand here indicted, or are they not guilty?

FOREMAN. Guilty, my lord.

CLERK. Look to your prisoners, gaoler.

This was done in the morning, and in the afternoon they received the sentence of death according to the law.

The gaoler, therefore, having received such a charge, put them all in the inward prison, to preserve them there till the day of execution, which was to be the next day in the morning.

But now to see how it happened, one of the prisoners, Incredulity by name, in the interim betwixt the sentence and the time of execution, brake prison and made his escape, and gets him away quite out of the town of Mansoul, and lay lurking in such places and holes as he might, until he should again have opportunity to do the town of Mansoul a mischief for their thus handling of him as they did.

Now when Mr. Trueman, the gaoler, perceived that he had lost his prisoner, he was in a heavy taking, because that prisoner was, to speak on, the very worst of all the gang: wherefore first he goes and acquaints my Lord Mayor, Mr. Recorder, and my Lord Willbewill, with the matter, and to get of them an order to make search for him throughout the town of Mansoul.

So an order he got, and search was made, but no such man could now be found in all the town of Mansoul.

All that could be gathered was, that he had lurked a while about the outside of the town, and that here and there one or other had a glimpse of him as he did make his escape out of Mansoul; one or two also did affirm that they saw him without the town, going apace quite over the plain. Now when he was quite gone, it was affirmed by one Mr. Did-see, that he ranged all over dry places, till he met with Diabolus, his friend, and where should they meet one another but just upon Hell-gate hill.

But oh! what a lamentable story did the old gentleman tell to Diabolus concerning what sad alteration Emmanuel had made in Mansoul!

As, first, how Mansoul had, after some delays, received a general pardon at the hands of Emmanuel, and that they had invited him into the town, and that they had given him the castle for his possession. He said, moreover, that they had called his soldiers into the town, coveted who should quarter the most of them; they also entertained him with the timbrel, song, and dance. 'But that,' said Incredulity, 'which is the sorest vexation to me is, that he hath pulled down, O father, thy image, and set up his own; pulled down thy officers and set up his own. Yea, and Willbewill, that rebel, who, one would have thought, should never have turned from us, he is now in as great favour with Emmanuel as ever he was with thee. But, besides all this, this Willbewill has received a special commission from his master to search for, to apprehend, and to put to death all, and all manner of Diabolonians that he shall find in Mansoul: yea, and this Willbewill has taken and committed to prison already eight of my Lord's most trusty friends in Mansoul. Nay, further, my Lord, with grief I speak it, they have been all arraigned, condemned, and, I doubt, before this executed in Mansoul. Itold my Lord of eight, and myself was the ninth, who should assuredly have drunk of the same cup, but that through craft, I, as thou seest, have made mine escape from them.'

When Diabolus had heard this lamentable story, he yelled and snuffed up the wind like a dragon, and made the sky to look dark with his roaring; he also sware that he would try to be revenged on Mansoul for this. So they, both he and his old friend Incredulity, concluded to enter into great consultation, how they might get the town of Mansoul again.

Now, before this time, the day was come in which the prisoners in Mansoul were to be executed. So they were brought to the cross, and that by Mansoul, in most solemn manner; for the Prince said that this should be done by the hand of the town of Mansoul, 'that I may see,' said he, 'the forwardness of my now redeemed Mansoul to keep my word, and to do my commandments; and that I may bless Mansoul in doing this deed. Proof of sincerity pleases me well; let Mansoul therefore first lay their hands upon these Diabolonians to destroy them.'

So the town of Mansoul slew them, according to the word of their Prince; but when the prisoners were brought to the cross to die, you can hardly believe what troublesome work Mansoul had of it to put the Diabolonians to death; for the men, knowing that they must die, and every of them having implacable enmity in their hearts to Mansoul, what did they but took courage at the cross, and there resisted the men of the town of Mansoul? Wherefore the men of Mansoul were forced to cry out for help to the captains and men of war.

Now the great Shaddai had a secretary in the town, and he was a great lover of the men of Mansoul, and he was at the place of execution also; so he, hearing the men of Mansoul cry out against the strugglings and unruliness of the prisoners, rose up from his place, and came and put his hands upon the hands of the men of Mansoul. So they crucified the Diabolonians that had been a plague, a grief, and an offence to the town of Mansoul.

Now, when this good work was done, the Prince came down to see, to visit, and to speak comfortably to the men of Mansoul, and to strengthen their hands in such work. And he said to them that, by this act of theirs he had proved them, and found them to be lovers of his person, observers of his laws, and such as had also respect to his honour. He said, moreover, (to show them that they by this should not be losers, nor their town weakened by the loss of them,) that he would make them another captain, and that of one of themselves. And that this captain should be the ruler of a thousand, for the good and benefit of the now flourishing town of Mansoul.