Then said Hopeful to the Shepherds, I perceive that these had on them, even every one, a show of pilgrimage, as we have now; had they not?

Shep. Yes, and held it a long time too.

Hope. How far might they go on in pilgrimage in their day, since they, notwithstanding, were thus miserably cast away?

Shep. Some further, and some not so far as these mountains.

Then said the pilgrims one to another, We have need to cry to the Strong for strength.

Shep. Ay, and you will have need to use it, when you have it too.

By this time the pilgrims had a desire to go forward, and the Shepherds a desire they should; so they walked together toward the end of the mountains.  Then said the Shepherds one to another, Let us here show the pilgrims the gate of the Celestial City, if they have skill to look through our perspective-glass.  The pilgrims then lovingly accepted the motion; so they had them to the top of a high hill, called Clear, and gave them the glass to look.

Then they tried to look; but the remembrance of that last thing that the Shepherds had shown them made their hands shake, by means of which impediment they could not look steadily through the glass; yet they thought they saw something like the gate, and also some of the glory of the place.  Thus they went away and sang: 

  Thus by the Shepherds secrets are reveal’d
  Which from all other men are kept conceal’d: 
  Come to the Shepherds, then, if you would see
  Things deep, things hid, and that mysterious be.

When they were about to depart, one of the Shepherds gave them a note of the way.  Another of them bid them beware of the Flatterer.  The third bid them take heed that they sleep not upon Enchanted Ground.  And the fourth bid them God speed.

They went then till they came at a place where they saw a way put itself into their way, and seeming withal to lie as straight as the way which they should go; and here they knew not which of the two to take, for both seemed straight before them; therefore, here they stood still to consider.  And as they were thinking about the way, behold, a man black of flesh, but covered with a very light robe, vame to them, and asked them why they stood there.  They answered, they were going to the Celestial City, but knew not which of these ways to take.  Follow me, said the man; it is thither that I am going.  So they followed him in the way that but now came into the road, which by degrees turned, and turned them so from the city that they desired to go to, that in a little time their faces were turned from it; yet they followed him.  But by and by, before they were aware, he led them both within the compass of a net, in which they were both so entangled that they knew not what to do; and with that the white robe fell off the black man’s back.  Then they saw where they were.  Wherefore there they lay crying some time, for they could not get themselves out.