his Son, that the Lord Mayor of the town of Mansoul stood without at the gate of the King’s court, desiring to be admitted into the presence of the Prince, the King’s Son.  He also told what was the Lord Mayor’s errand, both to the King and his Son Emmanuel.  But the Prince would not come down, nor admit that the gate should be opened to him, but sent him an answer to this effect:  ’They have turned their back unto me, and not their face; but now in the time of their trouble they say to me, Arise, and save us.  But can they not now go to Mr. Carnal-Security, to whom they went when they turned from me, and make him their leader, their lord, and their protection now in their trouble; why now in their trouble do they visit me, since in their prosperity they went astray?’

The answer made my Lord Mayor look black in the face; it troubled, it perplexed, it rent him sore.  And now he began again to see what it was to be familiar with Diabolonians, such as Mr. Carnal-Security was.  When he saw that at court, as yet, there was little help to be expected, either for himself or friends in Mansoul, he smote upon his breast, and returned weeping, and all the way bewailing the lamentable state of Mansoul.

Well, when he was come within sight of the town, the elders and chief of the people of Mansoul went out at the gate to meet him, and to salute him, and to know how he sped at court.  But he told them his tale in so doleful a manner, that they all cried out, and mourned, and wept.  Wherefore they threw ashes and dust upon their heads, and put sackcloth upon their loins, and went crying out through the town of Mansoul; the which, when the rest of the townsfolk saw, they all mourned and wept.  This, therefore, was a day of rebuke and trouble, and of anguish to the town of Mansoul, and also of great distress.

After some time, when they had somewhat refrained themselves, they came together to consult again what by them was yet to be done; and they asked advice, as they did before, of that reverend Mr. Godly-Fear, who told them that there was no way better than to do as they had done, nor would he that they should be discouraged at all with that they had met with at court; yea, though several of their petitions should be answered with nought but silence or rebuke:  ‘For,’ said he, ’it is the way of the wise Shaddai to make men wait and to exercise patience, and it should be the way of them in want, to be willing to stay his leisure.

Then they took courage, and sent again and again, and again, and again; for there was not now one day, nor an hour that went over Mansoul’s head, wherein a man might not have met upon the road one or other riding post, sounding the horn from Mansoul to the court of the King Shaddai; and all with letters petitionary in behalf of, and for the Prince’s return to Mansoul.  The road, I say, was now full of messengers, going and returning, and meeting one another; some from the court, and some from Mansoul; and this was the work of the miserable town of Mansoul, all that long, that sharp, that cold and tedious winter.