t-rate swordsman, such as both Valiant and his
Jerusalem blade were. Ha! yes. This is a right wonderful blade we have
now in our hand. For this sword was forged in no earthly fire; and it
was whetted to its unapproachable sharpness on no earthly whetstone. But,
best of all for us, when a good soldier of Jesus Christ has this sword
girt on his thigh he is able then to go forth against himself with it;
against his own only and worst enemy--that is, against himself. As here,
against his own wildness of head and pride of heart. Against his own
want of consideration also. "My people do not consider." As also
against himself as a lawless invader of other men's freedom of judgment,
following of truth, public honour, and good name. As the Arabian
warriors see themselves and dress themselves in their swords as in a
glass, so did Valiant-for-truth see the thoughts and intents, the joints
and the marrow of his own disordered soul in his Jerusalem blade. In the
sheen of it he could see himself even when the darkness covered him; and
with its two edges all his after-life he slew both all real error in
other men and all real evil in himself. "Thou hast done well," said
Greatheart the guide. "Thou hast resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. Thou shalt abide by us, come in and go out with us, for we are thy
companions."

7. "Sir," said the widow indeed to Valiant-for-truth, "sir, you have in
all places shown yourself true-hearted." The first time she ever saw
this man that she is now seeing for the last time on this side the river,
his own mother would not have known him, he was so hacked to pieces with
the swords of his three assailants. But as she washed the blood off the
mangled man's head and face and hands, she soon saw beneath all his
bloody wounds a true, a brave, and a generous-hearted soldier of the
Cross. The heart is always the man. And this woman had lived long
enough with men to have discovered that. And with all his sears she saw
that it was at bottom the truth of his heart that had cast him into so
many bloody encounters. There were men in that company, and men near the
river too, with far fewer marks of battle, and even of defeat, upon them,
who did not get this noble certificate and its accompanying charge and
trust from this clear-eyed widow. And, then, she had never forgot--how
could she?--his exclamation, and almost embrace of her as of his own
mother, when he burst out with his eyes full of