At length they came in sight of the lodge, to which they soon went up, but made the more haste to get there as it grew dusk. So when they were come to the gate the guide gave a knock, and the man at the lodge said in a loud voice, Who is there?
Great-heart:—It is I
Mr. Watchful:—How now, Mr. Great-heart? What has brought you here at so late an hour? Then Great-heart told him that he had come with some friends on their way to Zion.
Mr. Watchful:—Will you go in and stay till the day dawns?
Great-heart:—No, I will go back to my Lord to night.
Christiana:—Ah, Sir, I know not how we can part with you, for it is to your stout heart that we owe our lives. You have fought for us, you have taught us what is right, and your faith and your love have known no bounds.
Mercy:—O that we could have you for our guide all the rest of the way! For how can such weak folk as we are hold out in a path fraught with toils and snares, if we have no friends to take us?
James:—Pray, Sir, keep with us and help us, when the way we go is so hard to find.
Great-heart:—As my Lord wills, so must I do; if He send me to join you once more, I shall be glad to wait on you. But it was here that you were in fault at first, for when He bade me come thus far with you, if you had said, We beg of you to let him go quite through with us, He would have let me do so. But now I must go back; and so good Christiana, Mercy and my dear boys, fare ye all well.
Then did Watchful, who kept the lodge, ask Christiana whence she had come and who her friends were.