together with the roaring of Diabolus’s drum.  And now did the clouds hang black over Mansoul, nor to reason did anything but ruin seem to attend it.  Diabolus also quartered his soldiers in the houses of the inhabitants of the town of Mansoul.  Yea, the subordinate preacher’s house was as full of these outlandish doubters as ever it could hold, and so was my Lord Mayor’s, and my Lord Willbewill’s also.  Yea, where was there a corner, a cottage, a barn, or a hogstye, that now was not full of these vermin?  Yea, they turned the men of the town out of their houses, and would lie in their beds, and sit at their tables themselves.  Ah, poor Mansoul! now thou feelest the fruits of sin, yea, what venom was in the flattering words of Mr. Carnal-Security!  They made great havoc of whatever they laid their hands on; yea, they fired the town in several places; many young children also were by them dashed in pieces; and those that were yet unborn they destroyed in their mothers’ wombs:  for you must needs think that it could not now be otherwise; for what conscience, what pity, what bowels of compassion can any expect at the hands of outlandish doubters?  Many in Mansoul that were women, both young and old, they forced, ravished, and beastlike abused, so that they swooned, miscarried, and many of them died, and so lay at the top of every street, and in all by-places of the town.

And now did Mansoul seem to be nothing but a den of dragons, an emblem of hell, and a place of total darkness.  Now did Mansoul lie almost like the barren wilderness; nothing but nettles, briars, thorns, weeds, and stinking things seemed now to cover the face of Mansoul.  I told you before, how that these Diabolonian doubters turned the men of Mansoul out of their beds, and now I will add, they wounded them, they mauled them, yea, and almost brained many of them.  Many did I say, yea most, if not all of them.  Mr. Conscience they so wounded, yea, and his wounds so festered, that he could have no ease day nor night, but lay as if continually upon a rack; but that Shaddai rules all, certainly they had slain him outright.  Mr. Lord Mayor they so abused that they almost put out his eyes; and had not my Lord Willbewill got into the castle, they intended to have chopped him all to pieces; for they did look upon him, as his heart now stood, to be one of the very worst that was in Mansoul against Diabolus and his crew.  And indeed he hath shown himself a man, and more of his exploits you will hear of afterwards.

Now, a man might have walked for days together in Mansoul, and scarcely have seen one in the town that looked like a religious man.  Oh, the fearful state of Mansoul now! now every corner swarmed with outlandish doubters; red-coats and black-coats walked the town by clusters, and filled up all the houses with hideous noises, vain songs, lying stories, and blasphemous language against Shaddai and his Son.  Now also those Diabolonians that lurked in the walls and dens and holes that were in the town of Mansoul, came forth and showed themselves; yea, walked with open face in company with the doubters that were in Mansoul.  Yea, they had more boldness now to walk the streets, to haunt the houses, and to show themselves abroad, than had any of the honest inhabitants of the now woful town of Mansoul.