Now, these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well,
so they did; but behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the people in
the fair were moved; and the town itself, as it were, in a hubbub about them,
and that for several reasons: for,
First, The
Pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment
of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair made a
great gazing upon them: some said they were fools; some, they were bedlams; and some,
they were outlandish men.
Secondly, And as
they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few
could understand what they said. They naturally spoke the language of Canaan;
but they that kept the fair were the men of this world: so that from one end of
the fair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.
Thirdly, But that
which did not a little amuse the merchandisers was, that these pilgrims set
very light by all their wares. They cared not so much as to look upon them; and
if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears,
and cry, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,” and look upward, signifying that
their trade and traffic was in heaven.
One chanced,
mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, “What will ye
buy?” But they, looking gravely upon him, said, “We buy the truth.” At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more; some mocking,
some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling upon others to
smite them. At last, things came to an hubbub and great stir in the fair,
insomuch that all order was confounded. Now was word presently brought to the
great one of the fair, who quickly came down, and deputed some of his most
trusty friends to take those men into examination about whom the fair was almost
overturned. So the men were brought to examination; and they that sat upon them
asked them whence they came, whither they went, and what they did there in such
an unusual garb. The men told them they were pilgrims and strangers in the
world, and that they were going to their own country, which was the heavenly
Jerusalem, and that they had given no
occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisrs, thus to abuse
them, and to let them in their journey, except it was for that, when one asked
them what they would buy, they said they would buy the truth. But they that
were appointed to examine them did not believe them to be any other than
bedlams and mad, or else such as came to put all things into a confusion in the
fair. Therefore they took them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and
then put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all the men
of the fair. There, therefore, they lay for some time, and were made the
objects of any man’s sport, or malice, or revenge; the great one of the fair
laughing still at all that befell them.
