“Agnes Beaumont was gloating on her way to church. She had managed to find a ride against all odds, and what ride! She was sitting right behind John Bunyan, pastor of the church in Bedford. ‘My heart was puffed up with pride,’ she wrote, ‘and I was pleased that anybody did look after me as I rode along.’ Bunyan, on the contrary, might have been somewhat nervous. He had tried hard to get out of that uncomfortable predicament. His reputation had been tainted enough by substantiated rumors without adding a potential tale of involvement with a 24-year old woman. But Agnes and her brother had insisted…”