tremities Mr. Wiseman said; as he had known in another
instance:--

'There was a man dwelt about twelve miles off from us,' he said, 'that
had so trained up himself in his Atheistical notions, that at last he
attempted to write a book against Jesus Christ and the Divine
authority of the Scriptures. I think it was not printed. Well, after
many days God struck him with sickness whereof he died. So being sick,
and musing of his former doings, the book that he had written tore his
conscience as a lion would tear a kid. Some of my friends went to see
him, and as they were in his chamber one day he hastily called for pen
and ink and paper, which, when it was given to him, he took it and
writ to this purpose. "I such an one in such a town must go to hell
fire for writing a book against Jesus Christ." He would have leaped
out of the window to have killed himself, but was by them prevented of
that, so he died in his bed by such a death as it was.'

Badman seemed equally miserable. But deathbed repentances, as Bunyan
sensibly said, were seldom of more value than 'the howling of a dog.'
The broken leg was set again. The pain of body went, and with it the
pain of mind. He was assisted out of his uneasiness, says Bunyan, with
a characteristic hit at the scientific views then coming into fashion,
'by his doctor,' who told him that his alarms had come 'from an
affection of the brain, caused by want of sleep;' 'they were nothing
but vapours and the effects of his distemper.' He gathered his spirits
together, and became the old man once more. His poor wife, who had
believed him penitent, broke her heart, and died of the
disappointment. The husband gave himself up to loose connections with
abandoned women, one of whom persuaded him one day, when he was drunk,
to make her a promise of marriage, and she held him to his word. Then
retribution came upon him, with the coarse, commonplace, yet rigid
justice which fact really deals out. The second bad wife avenged the
wrongs of the first innocent wife. He was mated with a companion 'who
could fit him with cursing and swearing, give him oath for oath, and
curse for curse. They would fight and fly at each other like cat and
dog.' In this condition--for Bunyan, before sending his hero to his
account, gave him a protracted spell of earthly discomforts--they
lived sixteen years together. Fortune, who had so long favoured his
speculations, turned her back upon him. Between them they 'sinned all
his