Bunyan himself, "the wondrous babe," as Dr. Brown enthusiastically
styles him, was christened on November 30th, 1628. He was born in a
cottage, long fallen, and hard by was a marshy place, "a veritable
slough of despond." Bunyan may have had it in mind when he wrote of
the slough where Christian had so much trouble. He was not a
travelled man: all his knowledge of people and places he found at
his doors. He had some schooling, "according to the rate of other
poor men's children," and assuredly it was enough.

The great civil war broke out, and Bunyan was a soldier; he tells us
not on which side. Dr. Brown and Mr. Lewis Morris think he was on
that of the Parliament, but his old father, the tinker, stood for
the King. Mr. Froude is rather more inclined to hold that he was
among the "gay gallants who struck for the crown." He does not seem
to have been much under fire, but he got that knowledge of the
appearance of war which he used in his siege of the City of Mansoul.
One can hardly think that Bunyan liked war--certainly not from
cowardice, but from goodness of heart.

In 1646 the army was disbanded, and Bunyan went back to Elstow
village and his tinkering, his bell-ringing, his dancing with the
girls, his playing at "cat" on a Sunday after service.

He married very young and poor. He married a pious wife, and read
all her library--"The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven," and "The
Practice of Piety." He became very devout in the spirit of the
Church of England, and he gave up his amusements. Then he fell into
the Slough of Despond, then he went through the Valley of the
Shadow, and battled with Apollyon.