Jemimah's Progress

Jemimah's narration from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress:

What happened to Pilgrim at the Palace Beautiful?

Christian hears about two very fierce lions and people that are all very discouraged, and he gets very nervous, but he doesn’t turn back – after double thinking, and he keeps on going.

Then he sees the lions, but they are invisibly chained, but he can’t see this, and he is just about to turn and run away, and then a king man comes up to him and says, “No, no, do not go – they are chained, can’t you see?” Christian turned his head and then the man showed him. Now he could see that they were chained. “Oh! So they are,” Christian said. “May I come into your Palace?” “I don’t know, I shall ask the women who own it,” said the guard. And so he said, “Stay here,” and he went in and got two women.

They questioned him and he faithfully answered, “Yes, Yes, No.”

“Where do you come from?”

“The City of Destruction.”

“What is your name?”

“Christian,” he replied.

“Why did you not take your wife?”

“I asked them to come, but they did not believe me. They just mourned for me to come back.”

“Did you try and tell them what danger they were in if they stayed?”

“Yes, yes, I told them all of that,” Christian replied, a little impatiently.

Finally after all of those questions, Christian was allowed in.

He came in with a “Phew!” kind of sound. They offered him wine and many other rich tasting things. ‘Yum,” thought Christian, “These are nice couples.” They gave him meat, salad, wine and many other things, and they also gave them a place to stay.

The ladies were very kind, and in the morning they decided to show him the armour prepared for anyone who comes. It was for any case of emergency like…when the very unkind king came and tried to kill them. He was just about to leave when they begged him to stay just one more night, then they begged him to stay just another night.

One day they said to Christian, “Dear Christian, Darling, please stay just a few more nights, and if you stay till tomorrow, we can show you the lovely valleys of the hill.” Now this got Christian excited. “Okay, then,” he said, “but just three more nights.” They thanked him and then they went to bed “Ah, though Christian, “I shall see the beautiful valley. Ah, what a relief.” And he fell into a deep sleep.

Next morning he was woken up very early by two of the very fidgety women who said, “Come on, hurry up, please come on - don’t you want to see the lovely valley?”

“Oh, yes, yes I do.”

“Well then, please don’t stay in bed. Get up, get a crack on.”

And he got up and got dressed. Then they showed him the lovely valley.

“Wow,” said Christian. “That is pretty.”

“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” said the women.

So that night Christian went to bed dreaming of the lovely valley. The next morning Christian was about to leave when they begged him to stay for just about half an hour.

They insisted on him coming to see the armour just once more, and as he looked they picked some armour and gave him some of that beautiful shining armour. “Oh oh,” said Christian, “thank you.”

Finally the hour was gone and they said goodbye to Christian and Christian thanked them for all of their kindness. They said that that was okay and then he left.