the consolation of seeing his relatives and friends, who ministered
to his comforts.

When the time arrived for the execution of the bitterest part of
his sentence, God, in his providence, interposed to save the life of
his servant. He had familiarized his mind with all the circumstances
of a premature and appalling death; the gibbet, the ladder, the
halter, had lost much of their terrors; he had even studied the
sermon he would then have preached to the concourse of spectators.
At this critical time the king's coronation took place, on April
23, 1661. To garnish this grand ceremony, the king had ordered the
release of numerous prisoners of certain classes, and within that
description of offences was that for which Bunyan was confined.
The proclamation allowed twelve months' time to sue out the pardon
under the great seal, but without this expensive process thousands
of vagabonds and thieves were set at liberty, while, alas, an
offence against the church was not to be pardoned upon such easy
terms. Bunyan and his friends were too simple, honest, and virtuous,
to understand why such a distinction should be made. The assizes
being held in August, he determined to seek his liberty by a petition
to the judges. The court sat at the Swan Inn, and as every incident
in the life of this extraordinary man excites our interest, we
are gratified to have it in our power to exhibit the state of this
celebrated inn at that time.

Having written his petition, and made some fair copies of it, his
modest, timid wife determined to present them to the judges. Her
heroic achievements--for such they deserve to be called--on behalf
of her husband, are admirably narrated by Bunyan, the whole of
which is reprinted in our first volume,[243] and deserves a most