A
POINT OF _CUTTING HER DEAD_!"]

* * * * *

A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

(_Fragments of a Discourse, delivered under the similitude of a Dream,
but of symbolic and purely secular significance._)

* * * * *

Now, at the end of this Valley of Obstruction was another, called
the Valley of the Shadow of Disunion; and the Pilgrim must needs go
through it, because the way to the Plain of Progress and the Pinnacle
of Passage lay through the midst of it.

Now this Valley is a very perilous place,--a place where none care to
dwell, and which few attain to pass through. And here the Pilgrim was
worse put to it than in his previous encounter with the Apollyon of
Obstruction.

I saw then in my dream that when the Pilgrim was got to the borders
of the Shadow of Disunion, there met him certain men, aforetime his
fellow-travellers, making haste to go back; to whom the Pilgrim spake
as follows:---

_Pilgrim._ Whither are you going?

_Men._ Back again! And we would have you do so too, if either life,
peace, or honour is prized by you.

_Pilgrim._ Why, what's the matter?

_Men._ Matter? We were going that way as you are going, and went as
far as we durst; and indeed we were almost past coming back.

_Pilgrim._ But what have you met with?

_Men._ Why, we were almost in the Valley of the Shadow of Disunion,
where abide Disruption, Dishonour, and Disaster, but that, by good
hap, keeping a BRIGHT look-out, we looked before us, and saw the
danger ere we came to it.

_Pilgrim._ But what have you seen?

_Men._ Seen? Why the Valley itself, which is as dark as pitch; we
also saw there the hobgoblins, bogies, and dragons of the pit; we also
heard in that Valley a continual howling and yelling, as of a people
under unutterable misery, who there sat bound in affliction and
chains; and over that Valley hang the discouraging clouds of
Confusion; Discord, also, doth always spread its wings over it. In a
word, it is every whit dreadful, being utterly without Law and Order.

_Pilgrim._ Nevertheless I perceive not yet, by what you have said, but
that this is my way to the desired haven.

_Men._ Be it thy way--we will not choose it for ours!

So they parted, and the Pilgrim went on his way, but still with his
sword drawn in his hand, for fear lest he should be assaulted.

* * * * *

I saw then in my dream, as far as this Valley reached, there