Now, as Christian went on his way, he came to a little ascent,
which was cast up on purpose that pilgrims might see before
them. Up there, therefore, Christian went, and looking forward,
he saw Faithful before him, upon his journey. Then said
Christian aloud, "Ho! ho! So-ho! stay, and I will be your
companion!" At that, Faithful looked behind him; to whom
Christian cried again, "Stay, stay, till I come up to you!"
But Faithful answered, "No, I am upon my life, and the avenger
of blood is behind me."

At this, Christian was somewhat moved, and putting to all his
strength, he quickly got up with Faithful, and did also overrun
him; so the last was first. Then did Christian vain-gloriously
smile, because he had gotten the start of his brother; but not
taking good heed to his feet, he suddenly stumbled and fell,
and could not rise again until Faithful came up to help him.


Then I saw in my dream they went very lovingly on together,
and had sweet discourse of all things that had happened to
them in their pilgrimage; and thus Christian began: 

CHR. My honoured and well-beloved brother, Faithful, I am glad
that I have overtaken you; and that God has so tempered our
spirits, that we can walk as companions in this so pleasant a
path.

FAITH. I had thought, dear friend, to have had your company
quite from our town; but you did get the start of me, wherefore
I was forced to come thus much of the way alone.

CHR. How long did you stay in the City of Destruction before you
set out after me on your pilgrimage?

FAITH. Till I could stay no longer; for there was great talk
presently after you were gone out that our city would, in short
time, with fire from heaven, be burned down to the ground.

CHR. What! did your neighbours talk so?

FAITH. Yes, it was for a while in everybody's mouth.

CHR. What! and did no more of them but you come out to escape
the danger?

FAITH. Though there was, as I said, a great talk thereabout, yet
I do not think they did firmly believe it. For in the heat of
the discourse, I heard some of them deridingly speak of you and
of your desperate journey, (for so they called this your
pilgrimage) but I did believe, and do still, that the end of
our city will be with fire and brimstone from above; and
therefore I have made my escape.

CHR. Did you hear no talk of neighbour Pliable?

FAITH. Yes, Christian, I heard that he followed you till he came
at the Slough of Despond, where, as some said, he fell in; but he 
would not be known to have so done; but I am sure he was
soundly bedabbled with that kind of dirt.

CHR. And what said the neighbours to him?

FAITH. He hath, since his going back, been had greatly in
derision, and that among all sorts of people; some do mock and
despise him; and scarce will any set him on work. He is now
seven times worse than if he had never gone out of the city.

CHR. But why should they be so set against him, since they also
despise the way that he forsook?

FAITH. Oh, they say, hang him, he is a turncoat! he was not true
to his profession. I think God has stirred up even his enemies
to hiss at him, and make him a proverb, because he hath forsaken
the way.

CHR. Had you no talk with him before you came out?

FAITH. I met him once in the streets, but he leered away on the
other side, as one ashamed of what he had done; so I spake not
to him.

CHR. Well, at my first setting out, I had hopes of that man; but
now I fear he will perish in the overthrow of the city; for it
is happened to him according to the true proverb, The dog is
turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to
her wallowing in the mire.

FAITH. These are my fears of him too; but who can hinder that
which will be?

CHR. Well, neighbour Faithful, said Christian, let us leave him,
and talk of things that more immediately concern ourselves. Tell
me now, what you have met with in the way as you came; for I
know you have met with some things, or else it may be writ for
a wonder.

FAITH. I escaped the Slough that I perceived you fell into, and
got up to the gate without that danger; only I met with one
whose name was Wanton, who had like to have done me a mischief.

CHR. It was well you escaped her net; Joseph was hard put to it
by her, and he escaped her as you did; but it had like to have
cost him his life. But what did she do to you?

FAITH. You cannot think, but that you know something, what a
flattering tongue she had; she lay at me hard to turn aside with
her, promising me all manner of content.

CHR. Nay, she did not promise you the content of a good
conscience.

FAITH. You know what I mean; all carnal and fleshly content.

CHR. Thank God you have escaped her: The abhorred of the Lord
shall fall into her ditch.

FAITH. Nay, I know not whether I did wholly escape her or no.

CHR. Why, I trow, you did not consent to her desires?

FAITH. No, not to defile myself; for I remembered an old writing
that I had seen, which said, "Her steps take hold on hell." So I
shut mine eyes, because I would not be bewitched with her looks.
Then she railed on me, and I went my way.

CHR. Did you meet with no other assault as you came?

FAITH. When I came to the foot of the hill called Difficulty, I
met with a very aged man, who asked me what I was, and whither
bound. I told him that I am a pilgrim, going to the Celestial
City. Then said the old man, "Thou lookest like an honest fellow;
wilt thou be content to dwell with me for the wages that I shall
give thee?" Then I asked him his name, and where he dwelt. He
said his name was Adam the First, and that he dwelt in the town
of Deceit. I asked him then what was his work, and what the
wages he would give. He told me that his work was many delights;
and his wages that I should be his heir at last. I further asked
him what house he kept, and what other servants he had. So he
told me that his house was maintained with all the dainties in
the world; and that his servants were those of his own begetting.
Then I asked if he had any children. He said that he had but
three daughters: The Lust of the Flesh, The Lust of the Eyes,
and The Pride of Life, and that I should marry them all if I
would. Then I asked how long time he would have me live with him?
And he told me, As long as he lived himself.

CHR. Well, and what conclusion came the old man and you to at
last?

FAITH. Why, at first, I found myself somewhat inclinable to go
with the man, for I thought he spake very fair; but looking in 
his forehead, as I talked with him, I saw there written, "Put 
off the old man with his deeds."

CHR. And how then?

FAITH. Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said,
and however he flattered, when he got me home to his house, he
would sell me for a slave. So I bid him forbear to talk, for I
would not come near the door of his house. Then he reviled me,
and told me that he would send such a one after me, that should
make my way bitter to my soul. So I turned to go away from him;
but just as I turned myself to go thence, I felt him take hold
of my flesh, and give me such a deadly twitch back, that I
thought he had pulled part of me after himself. This made me
cry, "O wretched man!" So I went on my way up the hill.

Now when I had got about half-way up, I looked behind, and saw
one coming after me, swift as the wind; so he overtook me just
about the place where the settle stands.

CHR. Just there, said Christian, did I sit down to rest me; but
being overcome with sleep, I there lost this roll out of my
bosom.

FAITH. But, good brother, hear me out. So soon as the man
overtook me, he was but a word and a blow, for down he knocked
me, and laid me for dead. But when I was a little come to myself
again, I asked him wherefore he served me so. He said, because
of my secret inclining to Adam the First; and with that he
struck me another deadly blow on the breast, and beat me down
backward; so I lay at his foot as dead as before. So, when I
came to myself again, I cried him mercy; but he said, I know not
how to shew mercy; and with that he knocked me down again. He
had doubtless made an end of me, but that one came by, and bid
him forbear.

CHR. Who was that that bid him forbear?

FAITH. I did not know him at first, but as he went by, I
perceived the holes in his hands and in his side; then I
concluded that He was our Lord. So I went up the hill.

CHR. That man that overtook you was Moses¹. He spareth none,
neither knoweth he how to shew mercy to those that transgress
his law. [¹Not the man himself; a symbol for the Law of the Old 
Covenant which no human can obey perfectly.]

FAITH. I know it very well; it was not the first time that he
has met with me. It was he that came to me when I dwelt securely
at home, and that told me he would burn my house over my head if
I stayed there.

CHR. But did you not see the house that stood there on the top
of the hill, on the side of which Moses met you?

FAITH. Yes, and the lions too, before I came at it: but for the
lions, I think they were asleep, for it was about noon; and
because I had so much of the day before me, I passed by the
porter, and came down the hill.

CHR. He told me, indeed, that he saw you go by, but I wish you
had called at the house, for they would have shewed you so many
rarities, that you would scarce have forgot them to the day of
your death. But pray tell me, Did you meet nobody in the Valley
of Humility?

FAITH. Yes, I met with one Discontent, who would willingly have
persuaded me to go back again with him; his reason was, for that
the valley was altogether without honour. He told me, moreover,
that there to go was the way to disobey all my friends, as
Pride, Arrogancy, Selfconceit, Worldly-glory, with others, who
he knew, as he said, would be very much offended, if I made such
a fool of myself as to wade through this valley.

CHR. Well, and how did you answer him?

FAITH. I told him, that although all these that he named might
claim kindred of me, and that rightly, for indeed they were my
relations according to the flesh; yet since I became a pilgrim,
they have disowned me, as I also have rejected them; and
therefore they were to me now no more than if they had never
been of my lineage. I told him, moreover, that as to this
valley, he had quite misrepresented the thing; for before
honour is humility, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Therefore, said I, "I had rather go through this valley to the
honour that was so accounted by the wisest," than choose that
which he esteemed most worthy our affections.

CHR. Met you with nothing else in that valley?

FAITH. Yes, I met with Shame; but of all the men that I met with
in my pilgrimage, he, I think, bears the wrong name. The others
would be said nay, after a little argumentation, and somewhat
else; but this bold-faced Shame would never have done.

CHR. Why, what did he say to you?

FAITH. What! why, he objected against religion itself; he said
it was a pitiful, low, sneaking business for a man to mind
religion; he said that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing;
and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, so as to
tie up himself from that hectoring liberty that the brave
spirits of the times accustom themselves unto, would make him
the ridicule of the times. He objected also, that but few of the
mighty, rich, or wise, were ever of my opinion; nor any of them
neither, before they were persuaded to be fools, and to be of a
voluntary fondness, to venture the loss of all, for nobody knows
what. He, moreover, objected the base and low estate and
condition of those that were chiefly the pilgrims of the times
in which they lived: also their ignorance and want of
understanding in all natural science. Yea, he did hold me to it
at that rate also, about a great many more things than here I
relate; as, that it was a shame to sit whining and mourning
under a sermon, and a shame to come sighing and groaning home:
that it was a shame to ask my neighbour forgiveness for petty
faults, or to make restitution where I have taken from any. He
said, also, that religion made a man grow strange to the great,
because of a few vices, which he called by finer names; and made
him own and respect the base, because of the same religious
fraternity. And is not this, said he, a shame?

CHR. And what did you say to him?

FAITH. Say! I could not tell what to say at the first. Yea, he
put me so to it, that my blood came up in my face; even this
Shame fetched it up, and had almost beat me quite off. But at
last I began to consider, that that which is highly esteemed
among men, is had in abomination with God. And I thought again,
this Shame tells me what men are; but it tells me nothing what
God or the Word of God is. And I thought, moreover, that at the
day of doom, we shall not be doomed to death or life according
to the hectoring spirits of the world, but according to the
wisdom and law of the Highest. Therefore, thought I, what God
says is best, indeed is best, though all the men in the world
are against it. Seeing, then, that God prefers his religion;
seeing God prefers a tender conscience; seeing they that make
themselves fools for the kingdom of heaven are wisest; and that
the poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the greatest man
in the world that hates him; Shame, depart, thou art an enemy to
my salvation! Shall I entertain thee against my sovereign Lord?
How then shall I look him in the face at his coming? Should I
now be ashamed of his ways and servants, how can I expect the
blessing? But, indeed, this Shame was a bold villain; I could
scarce shake him out of my company; yea, he would be haunting of
me, and continually whispering me in the ear, with some one or
other of the infirmities that attend religion; but at last I
told him it was but in vain to attempt further in this business;
for those things that he disdained, in those did I see most
glory; and so at last I got past this importunate one. And when
I had shaken him off, then I began to sing: 

      The trials that those men do meet withal,
      That are obedient to the heavenly call,
      Are manifold, and suited to the flesh,
      And come, and come, and come again afresh;
      That now, or sometime else, we by them may
      Be taken, overcome, and cast away.
      Oh, let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims, then
      Be vigilant, and quit themselves like men.


CHR. I am glad, my brother, that thou didst withstand this
villain so bravely; for of all, as thou sayest, I think he has
the wrong name; for he is so bold as to follow us in the
streets, and to attempt to put us to shame before all men: that 
is, to make us ashamed of that which is good; but if he was not
himself audacious, he would never attempt to do as he does. But
let us still resist him; for notwithstanding all his bravadoes,
he promoteth the fool and none else. The wise shall inherit
glory, said Solomon, but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

FAITH. I think we must cry to Him for help against Shame, who
would have us to be valiant for the truth upon the earth.

CHR. You say true; but did you meet nobody else in that valley?

FAITH. No, not I; for I had sunshine all the rest of the way
through that, and also through the Valley of the Shadow of
Death.

CHR. It was well for you. I am sure it fared far otherwise with
me; I had for a long season, as soon almost as I entered into
that valley, a dreadful combat with that foul fiend Apollyon;
yea, I thought verily he would have killed me, especially when
he got me down and crushed me under him, as if he would have
crushed me to pieces; for as he threw me, my sword flew out of
my hand; nay, he told me he was sure of me: but I cried to God,
and he heard me, and delivered me out of all my troubles. Then
I entered into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and had no
light for almost half the way through it. I thought I should
have been killed there, over and over; but at last day broke,
and the sun rose, and I went through that which was behind with
far more ease and quiet.

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