CHRISTIAN GIVES THANKS. 79

with that, Apollyon spread forth his dragon’s wings, and sped him away, that Christian
for a season saw him no more.™

In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard, as f did, what
yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight: he spake like a
dragon ; and, on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian’s heart. I
never saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he
had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword ; then, indeed, he did smile and look
upward; but it was the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw.

Curis. So, when the battle was over, Christian said, “I will here give thanks to
Him that hath delivered me out of the mouth of the lion; to Him that did help me
against Apollyon.” And so he did, saying,

 

‘*Great Beelzebub, the captain of this fiend,
Designed my ruin: therefore to this end
He sent him harnessed out ; and he with rage
That hellish was, did fiercely me engage:
But blessed Michael helpéd me ; and T,
By dint of sword, did quickly make him fly:
Therefore to Him* let me give lasting praise,
And thank and bless His holy name always.”

Then there came to him a hand with some
of the leaves of the tree of life; the which
Christian took, and applied to the wounds that
he had received in the battle, and was healed
immediately. He also sat down in that place
to eat bread, and to drink of the bottle that
was given to him a little before: so, being

 

refreshed, he addressed himself to his jour-

 

ney, with his sword drawn in his hand; “For,”

 

he said, “T know not but some other enemy may
beat hand.” But he met with no other affront — Giving thanks for his deliverance from A alt
from Apollyon quite through this valley.

Now, at the end of this valley was another, called the Valley of the Shadow of Death;
and Christian must needs go through it, because the way to the Celestial City lay
through the midst of it. Now this valley is a very solitary place; the prophet Jere-
miah thus describes it: “A wilderness, a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought,

» Videren, to Goa.— Ko,