and Mr. Recorder.  So he went forwards towards the prison-house, where the men of Mansoul lay bound.  But, oh! what a multitude flocked after, to hear what the messenger said.  So, when he was come, and had shown himself at the gate of the prison, my Lord Mayor himself looked as white as a clout; the Recorder also did quake.  But they asked and said, ’Come, good sir, what did the great Prince say to you?’ Then said Mr. Desires-awake, ’When I came to my Lord’s pavilion, I called, and he came forth.  So I fell prostrate at his feet, and delivered to him my petition; for the greatness of his person, and the glory of his countenance, would not suffer me to stand upon my legs.  Now, as he received the petition, I cried, “Oh that Mansoul might live before thee!” So, when for a while he had looked thereon, he turned him about, and said to his servant, “Go thy way to thy place again, and I will consider of thy requests."’ The messenger added, moreover, and said, ’The Prince to whom you sent me is such a one for beauty and glory, that whoso sees him must both love and fear him.  I, for my part, can do no less; but I know not what will be the end of these things.’

At this answer they were all at a stand, both they in prison, and they that followed the messenger thither to hear the news; nor knew they what, or what manner of interpretation to put upon what the Prince had said.  Now, when the prison was cleared of the throng, the prisoners among themselves began to comment upon Emmanuel’s words.  My Lord Mayor said, that the answer did not look with a rugged face; but Willbewill said that it betokened evil; and the Recorder, that it was a messenger of death.  Now, they that were left, and that stood behind, and so could not so well hear what the prisoners said, some of them catched hold of one piece of a sentence, and some on a bit of another; some took hold of what the messenger said, and some of the prisoners’ judgment thereon; so none had the right understanding of things.  But you cannot imagine what work these people made, and what a confusion there was in Mansoul now.

For presently they that had heard what was said flew about the town, one crying one thing, and another the quite contrary; and both were sure enough they told true; for they did hear, they said, with their ears what was said, and therefore could not be deceived.  One would say, ‘We must all be killed;’ another would say, ’We must all be saved;’ and a third would say that the Prince would not be concerned with Mansoul; and a fourth, that the prisoners must be suddenly put to death.  And, as I said, every one stood to it that he told his tale the rightest, and that all others but he were out.  Wherefore Mansoul had now molestation upon molestation, nor could any man know on what to rest the sole of his foot; for one would go by now, and as he went, if he heard his neighbour tell his tale, to be sure he would tell the quite contrary, and both would stand in it that he told the truth.  Nay, some of them had got this story by the end, that the Prince did intend to put Mansoul to the sword.  And now it began to be dark, wherefore poor Mansoul was in sad perplexity all that night until the morning.