point it out to him.  But stiff old Loth-to-stoop has taken his line and has passed his word.  His honour, as he holds it, is committed to this announced line of action; and, if the Crown itself should perish before his policy, he will not stoop to change it.  How often you see that in great affairs as well as in small.  How seldom you see a public man openly confessing that he has hitherto all along been wrong, and that he has at last and by others been set right.  Not once in a generation.  But even that once redeems public life; it ennobles public life; and it saves the nation and the sovereign who possess such a true patriot.  Consistency and courage, independence and dignity, are high-sounding words; but openness of mind, teachableness, diffidence, and humility always go with true nobility as well as with ultimate success and lasting honour.

CHAPTER XII—­THAT VARLET ILL-PAUSE, THE DEVIL’S ORATOR

   ’I made haste and delayed not.’—­David.

John Bunyan shall himself introduce, describe, and characterise this varlet, this devil’s ally and accomplice, this ancient enemy of Mansoul, whose name is Ill-pause.  Well, this same Ill-pause, says our author, was the orator of Diabolus on all difficult occasions, nor took Diabolus any other one with him on difficult occasions, but just Ill-pause alone.  And always when Diabolus had any special plot a-foot against Mansoul, and when the thing went as Diabolus would have it go, then would Ill-pause stand up, for he was Diabolus his orator.  When Mansoul was under siege of Emmanuel his four noble captains sent a message to the men of the town that if they would only throw Ill-pause over the wall to them, that they might reward him according to his works, then they would hold a parley with the city; but if this varlet was to be let live in the city, then, why, the city must see to the consequences.  At which Diabolus, who was there present, was loth to lose his orator, because, had the four captains once laid their fingers on Ill-pause, be sure his master had lost his orator.  And, then, in the last assault, we read that Ill-pause, the orator that came along with Diabolus, he also received a grievous wound in the head, some say that his brain-pan was cracked.  This, at any rate, I have taken notice of, that never after this was he able to do that mischief to Mansoul as he had done in times past.  And then there was also at Eye-gate that Ill-pause of whom you have heard before.  The same was he that was orator to Diabolus.  He did much mischief to the town of Mansoul, till at last he fell by the hand of the Captain Good-hope.