read, he wept and trembled. His fear was so great that he brake out
with a mournful cry, saying, "What shall I do?"

In this plight therefore he went home, and did all he could to hide
his distress from his wife and children. But he could not be silent
long, because his trouble increased. Wherefore at length he began to
talk to his wife and children thus: "O my dear wife," said he, "and
you my children, I am in despair by reason of a burden that lieth
heavy on me. Moreover I am for certain told that this our city will be
burned with fire from heaven, when both myself, with thee, my wife,
and you, my sweet babes, shall be ruined, except some way of escape
can be found." At this his wife and children were sore amazed, not
because they believed that what he had said to them was true, but
because they thought he must be ill to talk in so strange a way.
Therefore, as it was evening, and they hoped sleep might soothe him,
with all haste they got him to bed. But the night was as troublesome
to him as the day, wherefore instead of sleeping he spent it in sighs
and tears.

So when the morning was come, they asked him how he did. He told them,
"Worse and worse," and began to talk to them again in the same strange
manner, but they began to be careless of his words. They also thought
to drive away his fancies by harsh and rough behavior to him.
Sometimes they would mock, sometimes they would scold, and sometimes
they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began to stay in his room
to pray for and pity them, and also to comfort his own misery. He
would also walk alone in the fields, sometimes reading and sometimes
praying, and thus for some days he spent his time.

Now I saw in my dream that when he was walking in the fields, he was
reading his book and greatly distressed in mind. And as he read, he
burst out crying, "What shall I do to be saved?" I saw also that he
looked this way and that way, as if he would run. Yet he stood still,
because, as I saw, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then,
and saw a man, named Evangelist, coming to him, who asked, "Wherefore
dost thou cry?"

He answered, "Sir, I see by the book in my hand that I am condemned to
die, and after that to be judged. And I find I am not willing to die,
nor able to be judged."

Then said Evangelist, "Why not willing to die, since in this life you
are so unhappy?"

The man answered, "Because I fear this burden will sink me lower than
the grave, and the