THE FAITHFUL HELPMATE. him that it becoming known to some of the perse- cuting prelates that he was often at large, " they sent down an officer to talk with the jailor on the subject; and, in order to findhim out, he was to arrive there in the middle of the night." Bunyan was at home with his family, but grew so restless that he was unable to sleep. He told his wife thàt he must return immediately ; and on arriving at the gate of the prison, his friend the jailor blamed him for coming in at so unseasonable an hour. Early in the morning the messenger came, and inquired, " Are all the prisoners safe ?" " Yes." " Is John Bunyan safe ?" " Yes." " Let me see him !" He was called, and the official, satisfied . with his in- spection, departed; when the jailor remarked to Bunyan, " Well, you 'may go out again when you think proper; for you know when to return better than I can tell you !" He did go out again; and on one occasion hazarded a visit to London, but this rather daring act was discovered, and his incarceration became, for the next seven years, very rigorous, while his honest jailor was threatened with condign punishment. " They charged me," says Bunyan, " that I went thither to plot and raise divisions, and make insur- rections, which, God knows, was a slander ; where- upon my liberty was more straitened than it was before, so that I must not look out of the door." It must have been a very irksome time to an active, stirring man like Bunyan ; but the remembrance of 3:1
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