They re

solve to pe

tition again.

The petition.

Praver attended with difficulty.

volved in the one but they that were most in the other, to wit, the chief of the town of Mansoul?

To be brief: when the fame of the fright was out of the town, and the prisoners had a little recovered themselves, they take to themselves some heart, and think to petition the Prince for life again. So they did draw up a third petition, the contents whereof were these:

"Prince Emmanuel the Great, Lord of all worlds, and Master of mercy, we, thy poor, wretched, miserable, dying town of Mansoul, do confess unto thy great and glorious Majesty that we have sinned. against thy Father and thee, and are no

worthy to be called thy Mansoul, but rather to be cast into the pit. If thou wilt slay us, we have deserved it. If thou wilt condemn us to the deep; we cannot but say thou art righteous. We cannot complain whatever thou dost, or however thou carriest it towards us. But, oh! let mercy reign, and let it be extended to us! Oh! let mercy take hold upon us, and free us from our transgressions, and we will sing of thy mercy and of thy judgment. Amen."

This petition, when drawn up, was designed to be sent to the Prince as the first; but who should carry it? that was the question. Some said, "Let him do it that went with the first ;" but others thought not good to do that, and that because he sped no better. Now, there was an old man in the town, and his name was Mr Good-Deed; a man that bare only the name, but had nothing of the Now, some were for sending

nature of the thing.

him; but the Recorder was by no means for that ;

66

for," said he, we now stand in need of, and are pleading for mercy: wherefore, to send our petition by a man of his name, will seem to cross the petition itself. Should we make Mr Good-Deed our messenger, when our petition cries for mercy? "Besides," quoth the old gentleman, "should the Prince now, as he receives the petition, ask him and say, 'What is thy name?'-as nobody knows but he will, and he should say, 'Old Good-Deed, what, think you, would Emmanuel say but this? 'Ay! is old Good-Deed yet alive in Mansoul? then let old Good-Deed save you from your distresses :' And if he says so, I am sure we are lost; nor can a thousand of old Good-Deeds save Mansoul."

After the Recorder had given in his reasons why old Good-Deed should not go with this petition to Emmanuel, the rest of the prisoners and chief of Mansoul opposed it also, and so old Good-Deed was laid aside, and they agreed to send Mr Desiresawake again. So they sent for him, and desired him that he would a second time go with their petition to the Prince, and he readily told them he would. But they bid him that in anywise he would take heed that in no word or carriage he gave offence to the Prince; "for by doing so, for ought we can tell, you may bring Mansoul into utter destruction," said they.

Now

Now, Mr Desires-awake, when he saw that he must go on this errand, besought that they would grant that Mr Wet-Eyes might go with him. this Wet-Eyes was a near neighbour of Mr sires, a poor man, a man of a broken spirit, yet one that could speak well to a petition; so they

De- with him.

Their apology for their coming again.

granted that he should go with him. Wherefore, they address themselves to their business: Mr Desires put a rope upon his head, and Mr WetEyes went with his hands wringing together. Thus they went to the Prince's pavilion.

Now, when they went to petition this third time, they were not without thoughts that, by often coming, they might be a burden to the Prince. Wherefore, when they were come to the door of his pavilion, they first made their apology for themselves, and for their coming to trouble Emmanuel so often; and they said, that they came not hither to-day for that they delighted in being troublesome, or for that they delighted to hear themselves talk, but for that necessity caused them to come to his Majesty. They could, they said, have no rest day nor night because of their transgressions against Shaddai and against Emmanuel, his Son. They also thought that some misbehaviour of Mr Desiresawake the last time might give distaste to his Highness, and so cause that he returned from so merciful a Prince empty, and without countenance. So, when they had made this apology, Mr Desiresawake cast himself prostrate upon the ground, as at the first, at the feet of the mighty Prince, saying, "Oh that Mansoul might live before thee !" and so he delivered his petition. The prince then, having read the petition, turned aside awhile as before, and coming again to the place where the The Prince petitioner lay on the ground, he demanded what his name was, and of what esteem in the account of Mansoul, for that he, above all the multitude in Mansoul, should be sent to him upon such an

talketh with them.