rector of the school of Laud would have held such a young man up
to the whole parish as a model. But Bunyan's notions of good and
evil had been learned in a very different school; and he was made
miserable by the conflict between his tastes and his scruples.

When he was about seventeen, the ordinary course of his life was
interrupted by an event which gave a lasting colour to his
thoughts. He enlisted in the parliamentary army, and served
during the decisive campaign of 1645. All that we know of his
military career is that, at the siege of Leicester, one of his
comrades, who had taken his post, was killed by a shot from the
town. Bunyan ever after considered himself as having been saved
from death by the special interference of Providence. It may be
observed that his imagination was strongly impressed by the
glimpse which he had caught of the pomp of war. To the last he
loved to draw his illustrations of sacred things from camps and
fortresses, from guns, drums, trumpets, flags of truce, and
regiments arrayed, each under its own banner. His Greatheart,
his Captain Boanerges, and his Captain Credence, are evidently
portraits, of which the originals were among those martial saints
who fought and expounded in Fairfax's army.

In a few months Bunyan returned home and married. His wife had
some pious relations, and brought him as her only portion some
pious books. And now his mind, excitable by nature, very
imperfectly disciplined by education, and exposed, without any
protection, to the infectious virulence of the enthusiasm which
was then epidemic in England, began to be fearfully disordered.
In outward things he soon became a strict Pharisee. He was
constant in attendance at prayers and sermons. His favourite