brave captains mentioned before.  Now, the Recorder’s house was a place of much convenience for Emmanuel, not only because it was near to the castle and strong, but also because it was large, and fronted the castle, the den where now Diabolus was, for he was now afraid to come out of his hold.  As for Mr. Recorder, the captains carried it very reservedly to him; as yet he knew nothing of the great designs of Emmanuel, so that he did not know what judgment to make, nor what would be the end of such thundering beginnings.  It was also presently noised in the town how the Recorder’s house was possessed, his rooms taken up, and his palace made the seat of the war; and no sooner was it noised abroad, but they took the alarm as warmly, and gave it out to others of his friends, and you know, as a snowball loses nothing by rolling, so in little time the whole town was possessed that they must expect nothing from the Prince but destruction; and the ground of the business was this, the Recorder was afraid, the Recorder trembled, and the captains carried it strangely to the Recorder.  So many came to see, but when they with their own eyes did behold the captains in the palace, and their battering-rams ever playing at the castle gates to beat them down, they were riveted in their fears, and it made them all in amaze.  And, as I said, the man of the house would increase all this; for whoever came to him, or discoursed with him, nothing would he talk of, tell them, or hear, but that death and destruction now attended Mansoul.

‘For,’ quoth the old gentleman, ’you are all of you sensible that we all have been traitors to that once despised, but now famously victorious and glorious Prince Emmanuel; for he now, as you see, doth not only lie in close siege about us, but hath forced his entrance in at our gates.  Moreover, Diabolus flees before him; and he hath, as you behold, made of my house a garrison against the castle where he is.  I, for my part, have transgressed greatly, and he that is clean, it is well for him.  But I say I have transgressed greatly in keeping silence when I should have spoken, and in perverting justice when I should have executed the same.  True, I have suffered something at the hand of Diabolus for taking part with the laws of King Shaddai; but that, alas! what will that do?  Will that make compensation for the rebellions and treasons that I have done, and have suffered without gainsaying to be committed in the town of Mansoul?  Oh!  I tremble to think what will be the end of this so dreadful and so ireful a beginning!’

Now, while these brave captains were thus busy in the house of the old Recorder, Captain Execution was as busy in other parts of the town, in securing the back streets and the walls.  He also hunted the Lord Willbewill sorely; he suffered him not to rest in any corner; he pursued him so hard that he drove his men from him, and made him glad to thrust his head into a hole.  Also this mighty warrior did