Bunyan's prison life when the first bitterness of it was past, and habit
had done away with its strangeness, was a quiet and it would seem, not an
unhappy one. A manly self-respect bore him up and forbade his dwelling
on the darker features of his position, or thinking or speaking harshly
of the authors of his durance. "He was," writes one who saw him at this
time, "mild and affable in conversation; not given to loquacity or to
much discourse unless some urgent occasion required. It was observed he
never spoke of himself or his parents, but seemed low in his own eyes. He
was never heard to reproach or revile, whatever injury he received, but
rather rebuked those who did so. He managed all things with such
exactness as if he had made it his study not to give offence."

According to his earliest biographer, Charles Doe, in 1666, the year of
the Fire of London, after Bunyan had lain six years in Bedford gaol, "by
the intercession of some interest or power that took pity on his
sufferings," he enjoyed a short interval of liberty. Who these friends
and sympathisers were is not mentioned, and it would be vain to
conjecture. This period of freedom, however, was very short. He at once
resumed his old work of preaching, against which the laws had become even
more stringent during his imprisonment, and was apprehended at a meeting
just as he was about to preach a sermon. He had given out his text,
"Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" (John ix. 35), and was standing
with his open Bible in his hand, when the constable came in to take him.
Bunyan fixed his eyes on the man, who turned pale, let go his hold, and
drew back, while Bunyan exclaimed, "See how this man trembles at the word
of God!" This is all we know of his second arrest, and even this little
is somewhat doubtful. The time, the place, the circumstances, are as
provokingly vague as much else of Bunyan's life. The fact, however, is
certain. Bunyan returned to Bedford gaol, where he spent another six