For presently they that had heard what was said flew about the town, one crying one thing, and another the quite contrary; and both were sure enough they told true; for they did hear, they said, with their ears what was said, and therefore could not be deceived. One would say, ‘We must all be killed;’ another would say, ‘We must all be saved;’ and a third would say that the Prince would not be concerned with Mansoul; and a fourth, that the prisoners must be suddenly put to death. And, as I said, every one stood to it that he told his tale the rightest, and that all others but he were out. Wherefore Mansoul had now molestation upon molestation, nor could any man know on what to rest the sole of his foot; for one would go by now, and as he went, if he heard his neighbour tell his tale, to be sure he would tell the quite contrary, and both would stand in it that he told the truth. Nay, some of them had got this story by the end, that the Prince did intend to put Mansoul to the sword. And now it began to be dark, wherefore poor Mansoul was in sad perplexity all that night until the morning.
But, so far as I could gather by the best information that I could get, all this hubbub came through the words that the Recorder said when he told them that, in his judgment, the Prince’s answer was a messenger of death. It was this that fired the town, and that began the fright in Mansoul; for Mansoul in former times did use to count that Mr. Recorder was a seer, and that his sentence was equal to the best of orators; and thus was Mansoul a terror to itself.
And now did they begin to feel what were the effects of stubborn rebellion, and unlawful resistance against their Prince. I say, they now began to feel the effects thereof by guilt and fear, that now had swallowed them up; and who more involved in the one but they that were most in the other, to wit, the chief of the town of Mansoul?
To be brief: when the fame of the fright was out of the town, and the prisoners had a little recovered themselves, they take to themselves some heart, and think to petition the Prince for life again. So they did draw up a third petition, the contents whereof were these:—
‘Prince Emmanuel the Great, Lord of all worlds, and Master of mercy, we, thy poor, wretched, miserable, dying town of Mansoul, do confess unto thy great and glorious Majesty that we have sinned against thy Father and thee, and are no more worthy to be called thy Mansoul, but rather to be cast into the pit. If thou wilt slay us, we have deserved it. If thou wilt condemn us to the deep, we cannot but say thou art righteous. We cannot complain whatever thou dost, or however thou carriest it towards us. But, oh! let mercy reign, and let it be extended to us! Oh! let mercy take hold upon us, and free us from our transgressions, and we will sing of thy mercy and of thy judgment. Amen.’
This petition, when drawn up, was designed to be sent to the Prince as the first. But who should carry it?—that was the question. Some said, ‘Let him do it that went with the first,’ but others thought not good to do that, and that because he sped no better. Now, there was an old man in the town, and his name was Mr. Good-Deed; a man that bare only the name, but had nothing of the nature of the thing. Now, some were for sending him; but the Recorder was by no means for that. ‘For,’ said he, ‘we now stand in need of, and are pleading for mercy: wherefore, to send our petition by a man of this name, will seem to cross the petition itself. Should we make Mr. Good-Deed our messenger, when our petition cries for mercy?
‘Besides,’ quoth the old gentleman, ‘should the Prince now, as he receives the petition, ask him, and say, “What is thy name?” as nobody knows but he will, and he should say, “Old Good-Deed,” what, think you, would Emmanuel say but this? “Ay! is old Good-Deed yet alive in Mansoul? then let old Good-Deed save you from your distresses.” And if he says so, I am sure we are lost; nor can a thousand of old Good-Deeds save Mansoul.’
After the Recorder had given in his reasons why old Good-Deed should not go with this petition to Emmanuel, the rest of the prisoners and chief of Mansoul opposed it also, and so old Good-Deed was laid aside, and they agreed to send Mr. Desires-awake again. So they sent for him, and desired him that he would a second time go with their petition to the Prince, and he readily told them he would. But they bid him that in anywise he should take heed that in no word or carriage he gave offence to the Prince; ‘For by doing so, for ought we can tell, you may bring Mansoul into utter destruction,’ said they.