{152} In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight —­ he spake like a dragon; and, on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian’s heart.  I never saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword; then, indeed, he did smile, and look upward; but it was the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw.

A more unequal match can hardly be, —­ Christian must fight an Angel; but you see,

The valiant man by handling Sword and Shield,
Doth make him, tho’ a Dragon, quit the field.

{153} So when the battle was over, Christian said, “I will here give thanks to him that delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, to him that did help me against Apollyon.”  And so he did, saying —­

Great Beelzebub, the captain of this fiend,
Design’d my ruin; therefore to this end
He sent him harness’d out:  and he with rage
That hellish was, did fiercely me engage. 
But blessed Michael helped me, and I,
By dint of sword, did quickly make him fly. 
Therefore to him let me give lasting praise,
And thank and bless his holy name always.

{154} Then there came to him a hand, with some of the leaves of the tree of life, the which Christian took, and applied to the wounds that he had received in the battle, and was healed immediately.  He also sat down in that place to eat bread, and to drink of the bottle that was given him a little before; so, being refreshed, he addressed himself to his journey, with his sword drawn in his hand; for he said, I know not but some other enemy may be at hand.  But he met with no other affront from Apollyon quite through this valley.

{155} Now, at the end of this valley was another, called the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and Christian must needs go through it, because the way to the Celestial City lay through the midst of it.  Now, this valley is a very solitary place.  The prophet Jeremiah thus describes it:  “A wilderness, a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man” (but a Christian) “passed through, and where no man dwelt.” [Jer. 2:6]

Now here Christian was worse put to it than in his fight with Apollyon, as by the sequel you shall see.

{156} I saw then in my dream, that when Christian was got to the borders of the Shadow of Death, there met him two men, children of them that brought up an evil report of the good land [Num. 13], making haste to go back; to whom Christian spake as follows:  —­

{157} Chr.  Whither are you going?

Men.  They said, Back! back! and we would have you to do so too, if either life or peace is prized by you.

Chr.  Why, what’s the matter? said Christian.

Men.  Matter! said they; we were going that way as you are going, and went as far as we durst; and indeed we were almost past coming back; for had we gone a little further, we had not been here to bring the news to thee.