To pass away the gloomy hours in prison Bunyan took a rail out of the stool belonging to his cell, and with his knife fashioned it into a flute. The keeper, hearing music, followed the sound to Bunyan's cell; but while he was unlocking the door the ingenious prisoner placed the rail in the stool, so that the searchers were unable to solve the mystery; nor, during the remainder of Bunyan's residence in the jail, did they ever discover how the music had been produced. In an old account at Bedford, there is an equally good anecdote, to the effect that a Quaker called upon Bunyan in jail one day with what he professed to be a message from the Lord. "After searching for thee," said he, "in half the jails in England, I am glad to have found thee at last." "If the Lord sent thee," said Bunyan, sarcastically, "you would not have needed to take so much trouble to find me out; for He knows I have been in Bedford jail these seven years past."
"For what contend the wise? for nothing less Than that pure faith dissolve the bonds of sense."
