So the petitioner went, as was said, with his petition to the Prince; and the Prince took it at his hand, but sent him away with silence.  This still afflicted the town of Mansoul; but yet, considering that now they must either petition or die, for now they could not do anything else, therefore they consulted again, and sent another petition; and this petition was much after the form and method of the former.

But when the petition was drawn up, By whom should they send it? was the next question; for they would not send this by him by whom they sent the first, for they thought that the Prince had taken some offence at the manner of his deportment before him:  so they attempted to make Captain Conviction their messenger with it; but he said that he neither durst nor would petition Emmanuel for traitors, nor be to the Prince an advocate for rebels.  ’Yet withal,’ said he, ’our Prince is good, and you may adventure to send it by the hand of one of your town, provided he went with a rope about his head, and pleaded nothing but mercy.’

Well, they made, through fear, their delays as long as they could, and longer than delays were good; but fearing at last the dangerousness of them, they thought, but with many a fainting in their minds, to send their petition by Mr. Desires-awake; so they sent for Mr. Desires-awake.  Now he dwelt in a very mean cottage in Mansoul, and he came at his neighbour’s request.  So they told him what they had done, and what they would do, concerning petitioning, and that they did desire of him that he would go therewith to the Prince.

Then said Mr. Desires-awake, ’Why should not I do the best I can to save so famous a town as Mansoul from deserved destruction?’ They therefore delivered the petition to him, and told him how he must address himself to the Prince, and wished him ten thousand good speeds.  So he comes to the Prince’s pavilion, as the first, and asked to speak with his Majesty.  So word was carried to Emmanuel, and the Prince came out to the man.  When Mr. Desires-awake saw the Prince, he fell flat with his face to the ground, and cried out, ‘Oh that Mansoul might live before thee!’ and with that he presented the petition; the which when the Prince had read, he turned away for a while and wept; but refraining himself, he turned again to the man, who all this while lay crying at his feet, as at the first, and said to him, ’Go thy way to thy place, and I will consider of thy requests.’

Now, you may think that they of Mansoul that had sent him, what with guilt, and what with fear lest their petition should be rejected, could not but look with many a long look, and that, too, with strange workings of heart, to see what would become of their petition.  At last they saw their messenger coming back.  So, when he was come, they asked him how he fared, what Emmanuel said, and what was become of the petition.  But he told them that he would be silent till he came to the prison to my Lord Mayor, my Lord Willbewill,