prisoner, in his "canting pedlar's French," as Keeling called it, had the
better of his judges in knowledge of the Bible, in Christian charity, as
well as in dignity and in common sense, and that they showed their wisdom
in silencing him in court--"Let him speak no further," said one of them,
"he will do harm,"--since they could not answer him more convincingly:
but his legal offence was clear. He confessed to the indictment, if not
in express terms, yet virtually. He and his friends had held "many
meetings together, both to pray to God and to exhort one another. I
confessed myself guilty no otherwise." Such meetings were forbidden by
the law, which it was the duty of the justices to administer, and they
had no choice whether they would convict or no. Perhaps they were not
sorry they had no such choice. Bunyan was a most "impracticable"
prisoner, and as Mr. Froude says, the "magistrates being but unregenerate
mortals may be pardoned if they found him provoking." The sentence
necessarily followed. It was pronounced, not, we are sure reluctantly,
by Keeling, in the terms of the Act. "He was to go back to prison for
three months. If at three months' end he still refused to go to church
to hear Divine service and leave his preaching, he was to be banished the
realm,"--in modern language "transported," and if "he came back again
without special royal license," he must "stretch by the neck for it."

"This," said Keeling, "I tell you plainly." Bunyan's reply that "as to
that matter he was at a point with the judge," for "that he would repeat
the offence the first time he could," provoked a rejoinder from one of
the bench, and the unseemly wrangling might have been still further
prolonged, had it not been stopped by the gaoler, who "pulling him away
to be gone," had him back to prison, where he says, and "blesses the Lord
Jesus Christ for it," his heart was as "sweetly refreshed" in returning
to it as it had "been during his examination. So that I find Christ's
words more than bare trifles, where He saith, He will give a mouth and