THE WAY TO DOUBTING CASTLE. 129

adventured tc go back; but it was so dark, and the flood so high, that, in their going
back, they had like to have been drowned nine or ten times.

Neither could they, with all the skill they had, get again to the stile that night.
Wherefore, at last lighting under a little shelter, they sat down there until daybreak ;
but, being weary, they fell asleep. Now, there was, not far from the place where they
lay, a castle, called Doubting Castle, the owner whereof was Giant Despair, and it was
in his grounds they now were sleeping ; wherefore he, getting up in the morning early,
and walking up and down in his fields, caught Christian and Hopeful asleep in lis
grounds. Then, with a grim and surly voice, he bid them awake, and asked them
whence they were, and what they did in his grounds. They told him they were
pilgrims, and that they had lost their way. Then said the giant, “ You have this night
trespassed on me by trampling in and lying on my grounds, and therefore you must
go along with me.” So they were forced to go, because he was stronger than they.
They had also but little to say, for they knew themselves in fault. The giant, there-
fore, drove them before him, and put them into his castle, into a very dark dungeon,
nasty and stinking to the spirits of these two men. Here, then, they lay from
Wednesday morning till Saturday night, without one bit of bread or drop of drink,
or light, or any to ask how they did; they were, therefore, here in evil case, and were
far from friends and acquaintance."“* Now, in this place Christian had double sorrow,
because it was through his unadvised haste that they were brought into this distress.

Now, Giant Despair had a wife, and her name was Diffidence. So, when he was
gone to bed, he told his wife what he had done; to wit, that he had taken a couple
of prisoners and cast them into his dungeon for trespassing on his grounds. Then he
asked her also what he had best to do further to them. So she asked him what they
were, whence they came, and whither they were bound; and he told her. Then she
counselled him, that when he arose in the morning, he should beat them without any
mercy. So, when he arose, he getteth him a grievous crab-tree cudgel, and goes down
into the dungeon to them, and there first fell to rating of them as if they were dogs,
although they never gave him a word of distaste. Then he falls upon them, and
beats them fearfully, in such sort that they were not able to help themselves, or to
turn them upon the floor. This done, he withdraws and leaves them there to condole
their misery and to mourn under their distress. So all that day they spent their time
in nothing but sighs and bitter lamentations. The next night she, talking with her
husband about them further, and understanding that they were yet alive, did advise
him to counsel them to make away with themselves. So, when morning was come, he

goes to them in a surly manner, as before, and, perceiving them to be very sore with
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