Then I saw in my dream, that the Shepherds had them to one more place, in a steep, where was a door in the side of a hill; and they flung wide the door and bid them look in. They did look in, hence, and saw that it was dark and full of smoke; they thought, too, that they heard a hoarse noise, as of fire, and a cry of some in pain. Then said Christian, "What means this?" The Shepherds told them, "This is a nigh way to Hell; a way that such as seem to be what they are not go in at: to wit, such as sell the right they had at birth, with Esau; such as sell their Lord, with Judas; such as speak ill of God's Word, with Alexander; and that lie and shift, with Ananias, and Sapphira his wife."
Then said Hopeful to the Shepherds, "I see that these had on them, each one, a show of the road, as we have now, had they not?"
Shep.—"Yes, and held it a long time too."
Hope.—"How far might they go on in the way, in their days, since they, in spite of this, were thus cast off?"
Shep.—"Some yon, and some not so far as these mounts."
By this time Christian and Hopeful had a wish to go forth, and the Shepherds meant that they should: so they sped side by side till they got nigh the end of the mounts. Then said the Shepherds, each to his friend, "Let us here show these wights the gates of the Celestial City, if they have skill to look through our kind of glass." The men then did like the hint: so they had them to the top of a high hill, the name of which was Clear, and gave them the glass to look.
Then did they try to look, but the thought of that last thing that the Shepherds had shown them made their hands shake; by means of which let they could not look well through the glass; yet they thought they saw a thing like the gate, and, in like way, some of the sheen of the place.
Just ere they set out, one of the Shepherds gave them a note of the way; the next bid them take heed of such as fawn; the third bid them take heed that they slept not on ground that had a spell; and the fourth bid them God speed. So I did wake from my dream.